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Friendy Friday with Tara Lain and GIVEAWAY!


Greetings Rock 'n' Rollers! I hope today's post finds you feeling good and healthy. It's just about Thanksgiving break for me and the kids, which means no work but lots of "mom. mom. mom." It's also my birthday on Thanksgiving Day! I am so grateful I'll be with my family and that my mom is making me a birthday cake to have with my turkey. I'm furiously fingering the keys (that sounds weird haha) trying to meet my goal for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I'm on track to hit my 50,000-word goal! This means Summer of Hush 2 will be in your hands in 2020 and I'm stoked about that.



Today's guest is the lovely Tara Lain and she was kind enough to answer my interview questions. Tara is very generous and supportive and I'm thrilled to have her here today. My first read from Tara was Trex or Treat and I'm sure you can guess why I loved it... Halloween, a surprise with a neighbor... Yum. Highly recommend it. Her latest book, Love and Linguistics, sounds so good I'm pre-ordering it! Here's what she had to say:


1. Clue us into your "era" by sharing a few of your favorite songs.

Since I love a lot of classical music, especially guitar, that could make me seriously old! LOL. I also love The Beatles, Sting, and Lady Gaga. You will catch me rocking out to every song Abba ever wrote, but that's just because they're so hummable. See, I'm no help.


Love the eclectic list!


2. What’s one thing every reader should know about you?

Readers call my books sweet even though many are pretty hawt and I believe in happy ever after down to my bones.


And we love you for it!


3. Which of these describes your writing process: charts, calendars and colorful post-its hung on the wall of a brightly lit tidy office space? Or a desk piled high with notes written on napkins and receipts, notebooks half-filled with scribbles and partial outlines you never finished because you're a pantser? Explain and attach memes or pics if they apply.

I'm a plotser. I have a general arc and conflict in mind when I start a story but every scene is a surprise. I work in Word with few props and keep most everything in my head.


4. Describe your most awkward author moment ever. Then describe your most rewarding experience as an author.

Here's one of the best. At the very first GRL in New Orleans, I'd only been writing for less than a year. I had a couple of published books and one or two on the way. I walked into the lobby of the hotel just after arriving and a young man walked up and said, "Oh, you're Tara Lain. I'm honored." I almost fell over. But you never forget the first time someone recognizes you. Even by name. Now, 8 years later, it's still a thrill. Awkward moments? Hmmm. I remember learning the hard way that readers hate cheating when one of my first books got trashed by a reviewer who lambasted the fact that the characters all change partners. Believe me, I've since rewritten that book! LOL.



5. What is the best reader response you’ve ever received?

Every time I get an unsolicited email or message from a reader who says my books have made a difference, even if just a smile, it makes my year!


6. What is the most fascinating/creepy/disgusting thing you’ve discovered because of writing?

Did you know that in the spring in Yosemite the tarantulas crawl out of the caves and wander across the roads seeking companionship? That face I discovered by accident became an inciting cause in one of my books (Snow Balls.)


I'll definitely have to read that one! I'd love to see that in person. I love spiders...mostly from afar though haha.


7. Music or silence when you write? if music, what's on your current playlist?

No music for me. I can sit with the television on or next to a crowd of people and still write, but music interferes with my concentration. I think it's a right-brain problem!


8. Did a teacher in school ever encourage or discourage your desire to write? Care to share?

Writing was simply something I could always do. I never took a writing course or expressed a desire to do creative writing. Writing was a tool most of my career, until one day I sat up and said, "I should write a book." And so I did. LOL.


Right on! Same for me. So glad you did!


9. What's your favorite genre to write? And...what's a genre you haven't written but would LOVE to write?

I love contemporary but sometimes with a touch of magic. I've had an idea for a dystopian romance for a long time but have never written it.


I have a dystopian started but it's too depressing haha. I will get there someday!


10. Best and worst jobs you've ever had other than writing.

I've spend most of my adult life writing in some capacity or other. I enjoyed being a creative director and strategic planner in a marketing communications firm, which I still do. Worst job? Being dressed up as a robot for a trade show and having to be led around since I could barely see out.


Thank you so much Tara! And now, let's dig into this new romance! I'm excited for this one.


Love and Linguistics...

In his neighborhood, El Martin stands out, and that can be life-threatening. Against the odds, he’s managed to graduate high school and then master IT. Now he’s desperate to get a good job to free his drunken dad and himself from the control of gang leader M2 and the drugs he sells. But with his piercings and his slang-ridden speech, El looks and sounds like a Bronx gangbanger, and potential employers won’t give him a second look. So when El hears about Henry Fairhaven, Ph.D., linguistics researcher and wealthy New York socialite, El takes his life in his hands to escape from M2 and ends up sleeping in the stairwell at Henry’s building, hoping to learn how to speak.


To Henry, who wants to prove himself as a scholar and not merely a rich dilettante, El isn’t only the most beautiful man he’s ever seen—he’s also the key to getting a paper published on Henry’s ground-breaking linguistics methods before a competitor beats him to the punch. But Henry doesn’t tell El the truth, and El thinks Henry’s helping him because he cares.

El’s dreams collide with Henry’s ambitions at the elegant Met Gala, where El captivates a prince of Silicon Valley. But the real collision comes when M2 tracks El down and Henry has to choose between the validation he craves and a future with the man he’s come to love.



Here are some places you can find Tara:

Links —

My links — 

Website — https://taralain.com/  (receive a free gift)


Bio — 

Tara Lain believes in happy ever afters - and magic. Same thing. In fact, she says, she doesn't believe, she knows. Tara shares this passion in her stories that star her unique, charismatic heroes and adventurous heroines. Quarterbacks and cops, werewolves and witches, blue collar or billionaires, Tara's characters, readers say, love deeply, resolve seemingly insurmountable differences, and ultimately live their lives authentically. After many years living in southern California, Tara, her soulmate honey and her soulmate dog decided they wanted less cars and more trees, prompting a move to Ashland, Oregon where Tara's creating new stories and loving living in a small town with big culture. Likely a Gryffindor or maybe a Ravensclaw but possessed of Parseltongue, Tara loves animals of all kinds, diversity, open minds, coconut crunch ice cream from Zoeys, and her readers.


Thanks so much for being here Tara! And thank you all for joining us today. I hope you all have an excellent holiday next week full of thanks and remembrance for those who sacrificed for us to be able to break bread with our families. I am grateful for all of you.

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