Interview and Contest with Erotic Romance Author Tara Nichols

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Awakening the Blood

Tara Nichols
Amira Press
Starting at: $4.50
ISBN: 978-1-935348-52-8
Genre: Vampire Erotic Romance
Cover Artist: Anastasia Rabiyah
Book Length: Novella
Heat Level: Hot
Word Count: 33,000

READ EXCERPT

Book Description:

Reeling from her recent break up, Meara ditches a Halloween party held in a cemetery at the edge of town, and seeks out the one reliable man in her life - who just happens to be a statue with large bat wings. The winged man had always intrigued her, but that just seems to go along with her other idiosyncrasies – her ability to read emotions and dream the future.

Even after years imprisoned in marble, D'iamonte can feel and see everything that goes on around him. Most of the time, his encounters have been unpleasant, but when his beautiful young mortal comes calling, late one Halloween, he is surprised and pleased that she feels bold enough to crawl in to his lap and have her way with him.

Neither of them expects him to wake up.

In depth interview with erotic romance author Tara Nichols.

CSM: Please help me welcome Erotic Romance Author, Tara Nichols to Erotic Romantic Crush Junkies. Tara, my readers and I are so psyched that one of my go-to authors has dropped by to spend time with us. Thanks so much!

Thank you, Christine, for hosting me and for such excellent questions. I had a blast answering them. It’s an honor to take part in your well thought out site.

CSM: If you have 2 hours free time tonight, what would you rather do? Why?

Write, and luckily, I DO!! Yay! (I hate to confess, but when my husband has to work late, I’m thrilled.) That means I have the computer all to myself and I can really get down to work on a plot that has been spilling secrets all day. ;)

CSM: What kind of books do you love to read? Why?

Oh dear, that is a long list. I’m sort of easy when it comes to books, but picky at the same time. I don’t follow a genre but I like an author who can get to the point in without too much detail, yet who executes a sentence with such finesse that I wish I were them. Example?, The Great Gatsby. Wow! But, to make a short story long, I love YA, Paranormal, Suspenseful, Western, Sci fi, and Contemporary, and Historical Romance (Barbara Pierce), as well as hot melt-your-socks-off erotica, (Portia da Costa), and of course great classic literature, humorous nonfiction (Bill Bryson), and everything else that falls under the category of words that form sentences.

CSM: What type of music do you relax to?

Um, Bjork, Goldfrap, Dandy Worhals, The Faint, MGMT, Fat Boy Slim, Loreena McKennit, Pink Floyd, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Massive Attack… It goes on.

CSM: Besides being a total book junkie I’m also a music junkie. When I’m writing I have a sound track playing either in my mind or in my cd player. What’s your sound track? What type of music is on it?

My favorites of all of the above. I especially like a few soundtracks, Tomb Raider One, Tank Girl, as well as Goldfrap’s “The Twist”, Snow Patrol’s “Run, Fisher Spooner, Leonard Cohen… Oh man there’s too many.

CSM: What is your favorite stress reliever?

Running. But I don’t get to do that as much as I used to. Now it seems to be coffee and the house to myself. (Doesn’t happen often, except for the coffee.)

CSM: What is your favorite food?

There’s nothing quite like a César salad and a good cup of coffee.

CSM: Describe yourself in one word?

Honest. Brutally honest. Independent, brutally independent. (I know, one word…) Ok! Rebellious!

CSM: What’s your biggest regret in life?

Not becoming a squatter on the West coast. “ Sigh. If only…”

CSM: What is the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?

Hopped a coal train drunk… no…. Caught a runaway horse and nearly lost a leg because of it…no…. Hitch hiked to the West coast….no… Stood up to my principal (falsely accused me of something)….no… Ran away from home…. No…. Got married and had a kid. Yup, that’s it.

CSM: How would readers find out more about you?

I suppose they could comment on my blog. I’m REALLY chatty as long as they make the first move, lol

That said, I can be found at http://tarasnichols.blogspot.com or tarasnichols.webs.com and I’ll have my author web page up and running again soon but because of strange inexplicable hacking activity it won’t be interactive, alas…

CSM: When did you write your first book?

Well, I wrote my first children’s picture book at three a.m. when I was nineish but I never submitted it, then for years after I wrote novel after novel in topics covering all thing teen and romance, sci fi and paranormal but never submitted them. My first submitted romance was to Cobblestone-press in 2007. Thank goodness Deanna told me what needed tweaking and then, voila!!

CSM: How long did it take you to write it?

Beats me.

The romance, maybe three months.

The children’s picture book, one evening. Lol.

CSM: Did you encounter any obstacles in writing?

Yeah. Pirates.

Those who see no problem posting the story I wrote on sites that don’t know the meaning of a copyright.

I have an analogy though:

Picture a book like a stacked pile of firewood. Someone went to the trouble of cutting, chopping and piling that nice smelling fuel that would keep a house warm and potentially feeling romantic, but if someone were to come along each day and take one log off the pile, the woodchopper would either freeze or get disgruntled. Yes, they could keep chopping firewood, but what’s the point if someone keeps taking it? Maybe that woodchopper isn’t important to everyone, but just imagine how it feels to do all that labor and then be victimized.

CSM: What do you think about editing?

I like it. I learn something new every time. The only thing that REALLY kicks me in the pants is the word “WAS”. But I have a friend who likes unraveling problem word. She’s my was-word-henchwoman.

CSM: Where and when do you write?

I used to hole up in a sunny corner with pen, paper, cup of coffee, and a feral snarl on my face in case anyone chatty might think I looked like a good listener, but now I hermit away on my farm in the woods and type on the computer late into the night. I usually write brief thoughts and large chunks of plots on scraps of paper, then transcribe them into the computer when I get a chance. (Like right now, my sweet kid is playing a video game while I answer these interview questions.)

CSM: What books would you recommend to aspiring writers to improve on style, character development, plot structuring, dialogue, etc?

Well! I was just given “The Bald Headed hermit and the Artichoke” as a gift and it’s sweet! Funny, useful, and eye catching. It’s a thesaurus, in disguise. I also like “The Writer’s Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters” but I don’t refer to them very much. Most of my writing comes from my brain ( Although I find the online thesaurus extremely handy.)

CSM: What is your must-have book for writing?

The baby name book, no matter who published it, what version you have, bloody hell, if you’re brain can’t think of a cool name, reach for one of those handy reference texts. Saves time. I also keep a list of names according to the books I’ve written, as well as a list of names I’d like to use.

CSM: What is your advice for aspiring writers?

Okay, don’t tease me, but the ohter day it dawned on me that it might be a good idea to keep a chart of what characteristic traits a character has. I know, I know, REALLY late in the game, but if you think filling out a cover art form for three books in one month is a challenge, then a characteristic chart is sorta, kinda, handy.

CSM: What genre(s) do you write?

Mostly contemporary erotica, but I have a few erotic paranormal titles now, and I’d like to say spanking and ménage are a reoccurring theme in my latest works.

CSM: Among that you’ve written which is your favorite book and why?

Ah, gees,

Are the other books listening? Black Leather, Crimson Cheeks. (It isn’t published yet, not even finished yet, and it is stuck in a dead computer, but I like the characters, I like the plot, and I hope others will too.

I also like the story I’m currently working on, it’s an anthology call for the Samhain Fairy Tales. This is a plot that I spliced in order to get to the fairy tale root but now I have two books, lol.

CSM: Where do you get your ideas? Do you jot them down in a notebook in case you forget?

I certainly do jot them down. At times I have a back pocket full of scribbled on notepaper. Where I get my ideas, now that’s a mystery. From life, my fantasy, from dreams even. One part of Awakening the Blood was from a dream. The idea for Claiming Cullen was brainstorming, same for Gamble’s Game, and the book following Claiming Cullen. Black Leather, Crimson Cheeks was a pop in the head plot. Secrets of Summer was a fantasy, as well as One night’s Desire and Island of Three (all nearly finished and still yet to come).

CSM: Which of your books feature your family/friends, etc? What characters are modeled after them? Why?

No book under the erotica genre feature friends or family. The closet would be Secrets of Summer which feature a location that I used to visit as a young girl. My teen novel writing features my own personal struggles more often than I’d like to admit.

CSM: Which of your heroes/heroines is most similar to you?

Sadie, from Oasis of My Heart.

CSM: Who is your strongest/sexiest/most lovable/hottest hero/heroine? Why?

Hm, it could be D’iamonte, my vampire from Awakening the Blood, or Julian from Black Leather, Crimson Cheeks, but I do think Tess is going to come across good and strong in my next book following Claiming Cullen. She struggles with many real life dilemmas of threesome relationships.

CSM: Have you ever wanted to write your book in one direction but your characters wanted to go in another direction. What did you do in such a situation?

That happened with my current project, the fairy tale. That story had been set aside because I got stuck. The plot didn’t make sense, and then I read the anthology call and everything suddenly fell together. I sliced, I spliced, I dissected, and as I stated, I now how two stories, both going off in two different directions.

CSM: Tell us more about your latest erotic romance release “Awakening the Blood”.

Well, this was my first paranormal erotic romance, and I didn’t really know much about the facts of vampire lore, but I did a fair amount of research and fit it into the story.

D’iamonte and Meara meet in the first book, are introduced to two nemeses, one being the vampire mistress, and the second being Giaccomo a rival vampire who wants Meara for reasons she cannot explain.

This was a story I had fun writing, mostly because I tapped into m husband’s creative imagination and together we sipped wine and hashed out what trouble my characters would get into next.

CSM: Any new projects, works in progress?

Heavens yes. I’m always working on five or more stories. Currently I’m working on a ménage titled Island of Three, the fairy tale anthology, a spanking anthology call, a co authored paranormal with Keta Diablo, the second book to Claiming Cullen, (tentatively titled Tess’ Trio), as well as at least three teen novels and a few tamer romances under another pen name.

CSM: I want to take this time to thank you Tara for stopping by and sharing with my readers and myself a little bit about you. This sure has been loads of fun. I hope you enjoyed being here as much as we enjoyed having you.