Writers and Readers discussion

Please welcome author Tara Lain to our Q and A discussions. Tara never met a beautiful boy she didn’t love – at least on paper. A writer of erotic romance, mostly ménage and male/male, Tara loves all her characters, but especially her handsome heroes. A lifelong writer of serious non-fiction, Tara only fell in love with EROM in 2009 and, through perseverance and lots of workshops, had the first novel she ever wrote accepted for publication in 2010. She’s now on book fourteen and counting.
After an exotic life of travel all over the world and work in television, education and advertising, Tara settled in Southern California with her soul-mate husband and opened her own small marketing business. She paints, collages, and started practicing yoga “way before it was fashionable”. Passionate about diversity, justice, inclusion and new ideas she says on her tombstone it will read, “Yes”.

Note: One person who leaves a question in the discussion will be picked at random to win a copy of one of Tara's books.

Tara's Goodreads Profile: Tara Lain

Hey, there! I have a question that may be hard to answer. What book, if any, is your favorite that you have written? And who is your favorite character you have written, if you have a favorite?

Oh boy, that is very hard. Like choosing your favorite child when you have a bunch of them.I'm always in love with the character i'm writing. I adored Sammy in my new book Brush with Catastrophe because of his humility and true amazement whenever he did anything good.Like a lot of people, Rodney in Fire Balls is a great favorite because of his huge personality in his small body. And, of course, the beautiful, wise Roan Black in the Genetic Series was my first love and he'll always be a favorite. I just finished writing a character that i adore. My next MM novel, Snow Balls, features JJ LaRousse. He's a big, handsome hunky guy who is really not at all an alpha male but he pretends to be one to attract a tough cop. I love JJ's struggles with being who he is--and accepting that. Sigh. So many men, so little time.

Tara wrote: "Oh boy, that is very hard. Like choosing your favorite child when you have a bunch of them.I'm always in love with the character i'm writing. I adored Sammy in my new book Brush with Catastrophe be..."

Haha! I thought this might be a tough one! I guess it makes snse getting attached to the fellas you're currently writing about. JJ sounds great and so do your other boys!

What was it that drew you to the erotic romance genre, as opposed to the more mainstream (for lack of a better word) romance genre?

Hi A.F.-- I make my daily living as a non-fiction writer in marketing and PR so i spend my days writing. People always said i should write a book, but the idea of writing at night and on weekends too just didn't sound fun. UNTIL i started reading erotic romance. I remember thinking, "now this is FUN!" And it has proved to be. I like the unfetterdness of erotic romance. And, of course, i write mostly MM and MMF which lets me live in the world of a man's mind and cast off gender roles. I did however recently write a more traditional MF romance. It comes out on Nov 12th and is called Be Bad, for Goodness Sake. But even this book has a Tara Lain twist--the main character is a man which is unusual in mainstream romance. And at first, the heroine thinks the hero is gay. That is VERY me. LOL : )

Hi Tara! What has been your biggest inspiration for a character in a book? What has been your favorite book situation?

AJ Kelton

Hmmm. I think i make my characters up out of pieces of people. Only Shay Shaleen in Genetic Celebrity is really based to some extent on one person (Andrej Pejic). I paint a bit and love the inspirational process in painting--different in many ways from writing--so i wanted to try to capture the power of that process in Brush with Catastophe.

My favorite situation? The book i'm editing now--Snow Balls-- has a number of scenes in which my hero, JJ, who is hunky but not at all an alpha male, is trying to pretend to be one. He goes to a football game and skiing. We get to see the torture and realizations of these events from his point of view. I loved those scenes. Thank you for asking! : )

ooh... >o< I'm not very good at these things... which is why I lurk. LOL... ;A; though I am sad I missed the chat yesterday. Time zones are a pain. I never get to anyone on time. Everyone runs on eastern time... totally a killer for me. LOL...

Anyways, my question is how many books do you see yourself writing for The Aloysius Tales series?

Hi Judianna-- I know about the time zone problem. I live in California so i sometimes add the wrong number of hours when converting the time of events!Actually, the chat yesterday was a challenge because of technical problems resulting from hurricane Sandy. We finally got it together about an hour late and a small group of folks were able to get in, but a bunch of people had to give up. Sooo, i'm hoping to do another chat in early December for the release of Snow Balls, my next book in the Balls to the Wall Series.

As for my Aloysius Tales, I know there will be one more book in this series. I expect that could be the end of it. It depends on how readers like this book and the third one. : )

Hi Tara,

How much time do you spend marketing your publilshed works compared to writing new ones?

Hmm. Good question. I do a little marketing all the time. I blog, am on FB and Twitter, and i usually do a Blog Tour for my new releases. I go to 2 or three conferences a year -- for education as well as marketing. BUT, i spend much more time writing. I write in all the cracks of my day job. I own my own company and work at home so at lunch and before work and such, i write books.And almost every weekend i write. I write 6 or 7 books a year of various lengths from novel to short novella. Plus this year i added a long short story. : )

That's an aggressive writing schedule! How do you choose the price points for your stories?

Hi Kevin-- I don't get to select the price of my books. The price is chosen by my publishers and is based on length. My full novels like Brush with Catastrophe are more expensive than novellas like my Balls series. To give you a feeling for it, my Balls books average about 34,000 words. This is because they get printed in a big three-book anthology so each story needs to be moderate in length. Brush with Catastrophe is close to 65,000 words which is classified as a novel so it costs more. It takes more time to write, edit, etc.

I am self-publishing a short novella next month --my first ever MF story--and i have to decide the price for it. It's only 15,000 words, so i will probably charge $1.99. Pricing is a tricky decision. Authors make relatively little on each book since part goes to the publisher and the reseller. But readers have a lot of books to choose from and you don't want them to pass up your book because it costs too much. It's a fine line! Do you have any thought on book prices. Is there a price you don't want to go above no matter how good the book? : )

Hmmm. Not sure which blurbs you mean. You can scroll up and click on my Goodreads Profile. : )

I am writing a novel. I'm stuck, my brain is drawing a blank at what to do next, even though I know where my story is going to go, how it will end. What do I do to wake up my stubborn characters? (Besides giving them a swift kick in the butt).

Hi Tara: Do you have any advice to give about doing a blog tour? My second book The Webs of Varok is launching Dec. 4, and I'm ramping up to talk about characters and plot and issues. Excerpts are coming out now here and on the series website ArchivesofVarok.com to kick off the discussion. How does the blog tour work?

LOL. Here is a good exercise that someone shared with me. Ask yourself "what is the WORST thing that could happen now?" and do it! If your characters don't like it, they will at least cough up an alternative.

I usually try to come up with a few high points before the conclusion--scenes i think would really be great and write toward those scenes and let them propel the story forward. My first novel, Genetic Attraction, was driven in my mind by the desire to have my hero tell the heroine that he doesn't live with his girlfriend as she thinks. He lives with his boyfriend. (It's a MMF menage) The energy from that scene generated almost a whole book. In my current WIP i had much the same problem you have. I had a basic premise, but not enough conflict to keep the story going. I talked it over with a friend who is one of my readers. She pointed out that i had already introduced a potential villain and all i had to do was use him. Make him the rat i had already established he was and have him blackmail my hero. Bingo. the whole plot fell into place. What BAD can happen? Does that help at all?

Hi Cary -- Funny. I'm doing a workshop on how to put together a blog tour this next weekend at my RWA chapter. If you email me at tara at taralain dot com, i'll send you a copy of the outline. It's a multi-step process but not hard. Send me an email and then ask any questions that the outline doesn't cover. : )

Thanks so much, Tara. Email is on its way.

Hi Tara,

I don't have a price I won't go above, but ebooks tend to be cheaper than regular books. I've seen other authors with established fan bases who charge $1.99 for novellas, so that's in the ballpark of what others charge. As a new author, I'll probably sell my novella (a WIP) for 0.99, but I'm trying to develop a fanbase and lower prices encourage people to try new things.

Hi Cary-- Hope the outline is useful. ; )

Hi Kevin-- I agree. I've thought about it. My problem is that this book is not in my usual genre, so it may not actually attract a lot of readers to my other books. I need to see if there is any interest in me writing this type of MF sensual romance versus putting out a book to get people to my page. : )

What attracted you to male/male erotic novels?

Hi Tara,

Pricing is tough. Another way to approach might be to figure out how much you need to make from the story to make it worthwhile. At that price point, I think the average cut for the author is about 30% so maybe some back of the envelope calculations would help.

Out of curiosity, are you releasing the book to encourage people to buy your other books?

Most definitely Tara. This is the first novel I have decided to complete; one of many I've started.
Thanks for the advice!

Hi Kevin-- Only indirectly since it's not my primary genre. I wrote this MF story kind of on a whim for a sub call from a traditional publisher and they didn't want it (hero MC and the heroine thinks the hero is gay!) but i ended up loving the story and decided to publish it myself. I could have given it to one of my regular publishers and i know they would have liked it, but it was also a chance to learn about self-publishing. I have no idea if anyone else will like it. Many of my regular readers read MF too so they may enjoy it but it's not even erotic, just sensual. So it's just kind of a lark. : )

Nancy wrote: "What attracted you to male/male erotic novels?" Hi Nancy-- I read my first MM novel by accident. I had read all the Dark Elves series by Jet Mykles (they are MF) and wanted another book by her so i ordered Heaven Sent! It has a PL Nunn cover so i didn't realize until it came that it was a gay romance. Two in fact. I read the books and LOVED them. I adore the lack of gender roles and the wonderful fluidity that can be created in the relationships. I love hanging out in a man's mind and heart and realizing that men can be very romantic and sentimental. I'm pretty hooked on my Beautiful Boys!
: )

Rush wrote: "Most definitely Tara. This is the first novel I have decided to complete; one of many I've started.
Thanks for the advice!"

Most welcome. Keep going! That's the secret. : )

Tara wrote: "Hi Cary-- Hope the outline is useful. ; )"

Very useful and thanks again. A couple questions: 1)I'm just a little puzzled about "Finding sites." I'm guessing I should ask other bloggers to post our launch url and/or excerpts, if I think they might be interested in that type of book or its issues. Is that correct? What do you mean by "Shoot for the moon?"
2)Under "Write your blogs" What do you mean by don't personalize yet? Then later "personalize your blogs?"
Thanks for your offer to "ask away."

Hi Cary -- To find blogs you want to appear on, check out big reviews sites you might want to be on and find other sites in your genre that get good traffic. When i say shoot for the noon, i mean ask them! Find out what their rules are and request a blog date. Also ask other authors you know. Everyone needs a good guest blogger.

Write your blogs-- I mean do the topics generally at first without saying "Thanks to Mary for inviting me today etc." You may not know which blog you want to send to which site. Later, personalize them. Say something about the specific blog in the post before you actually send it.

So gald it was useful! : )

Ooh great questions. I think my at least one character in my book will reflect a lot of my POV on the world. It is often neither the protagonist nor the contagonist (lover) at the beginning of the story. They both have to come to their "wisdom". LOL Often my POV will be represented by a secondary character who brings the lovers to themselves. For example, Sinders and Ash is a fairy tale romance with a Cinderella trope. There is a wonderful character named Carstairs Pennymaker who is the "fairy godmother" and carries the wisdom.

Hmm. I think people often have a natural inclination toward writing. Like many authors, i wrote my first book at 5 and have made my living as a non-fiction writer most of my life. I never had to learn it. BUT, i did have to hone it with classes and workshops and reading. So i think a person who has the drive to write can learn a lot about being a good writer. Respect the desire--but put in the work. Right now, there are so many small publishers looking for writers, that a new writer is in danger of getting snapped up without having to have their rough edges knocked off. That can be detrimental in the long run. : )

Tara wrote: "Hi Cary -- To find blogs you want to appear on, check out big reviews sites you might want to be on and find other sites in your genre that get good traffic. When i say shoot for the noon, i mean a..."
Got it. Thanks so much again ! Here's our except review op site-- http://archivesofvarok.com/articles/t...

Tara, do you outline a story first, outline as you go, or completely "pants" it? Also, do you use any specific software (like Scrivener, etc) or do you just write in a general word processing program like Word?
Do you have any awesome organizational tips for writers?

Hi Kate-- I call myself a plotser. A have a general story arc in mind--basic characters, general story line with a few high points and the conclusion. All of this is in my head. I plunge in and if i get the first few pages right i pants from then on. My characters talk and i listen. If they try to take me too far from the story arc i evaluate if it's appropriate and adjust accordingly. I have a couple friends with whom i discuss my stories and get ideas. Neither of them is a writer, which i think is good. I also use my publishers craft discussions if i get stuck and want to brainstorm.

I am a very organic writer -- nothing much gets written out of order. I may go back and add scenes based on things that happen later, but i seldom reorganize. It has to "feel" right. B has to follow A or the whole thing doesn't work.

I don't use Scrivener and have never even tested it. I might try it out, but honestly i write in the cracks of my other work and i can only use tools that have very little learning curve or i'm dead in the water. Of course, that's what i said when i first started using a computer! LOL : )

Thanks, Tara! I don't know to what extent your nonfiction writing is in length & parts, but I thought you might use something like Scrivener for that, so I was curious if you had some super cool way of organizing your novels with software/files/etc. (I love Scrivener and it is EASY to get started with!) Anyway, thank you again!

Thanks Kate. Inspiring. I'll give it a look. : )

Hi everyone-- Thank you so much for coming by and asking me questions! I had a great time chatting. Judianna was selected as a winner of one of my books! Judianna, please email me at tara at taralain dot com and i will get you your book! Congratulations and thanks to everyone again! : )

Thank you!