Author Interview-Tarah Anders

So, this special blog post is a rarity for me, but I hope it becomes more common. I got the privilege of interviewing a fellow Indie author like myself who writes contemporary romance. Her name is Tarrah Anders. I thought it would be fitting and nice to feature this interview on my blog so you guys could see how awesome she is. Catch the interview, her bio and photo, and her purchase links below!

Iris: What authors are your favorite or have been your biggest influence?

Tarrah: The authors who have influenced me would be Maya Angelou from the past and from the present I’ve got a few from the same genre of romance. I’ve got author crushes on both BB Easton and Colleen Hoover. BB Easton, primarily because I see a lot of myself in her memoirs and her tone. With Colleen, I haven’t read a book of hers that I didn’t like. Even before knowing “of” her, I grabbed one of her books and then immediately one-clicked all her other titles. With one of her latest books, she goes into her own past and writes of the experiences and for that I am eternally grateful to have been a part of the reading community with provides such an outlet for people. Iris: What are you doing when you aren't writing? Tarrah: When I’m not writing, I am reading. When I’m not reading, I’m working with the homeless (Day Job) and when I’m not doing that, I’m building train tracks, Coloring, and making Lego houses with my 3 year old son. Sometimes, I pay attention to my husband too. Luckily my 10 year old SD is self-sufficient that she entertains herself most days. Iris: What have you done that's given you the most success as an author? Tarrah: I think the fact that I went through and finished my works and published them. I could have written and never shared them, kept them to myself. Instead, I was bold enough with the follow through and shared my stories with the world. For that I feel is a success. Iris: If you could say anything to your teenage self about where you are now, what would it be? Tarrah: You should have paid more attention when getting cooking lessons in the kitchen! Also, everything in school had a purpose, you actually will use math daily and rewriting and revising will be helpful to you later in life, pay attention to History and don’t be stupid on New Year’s Eve your Junior year!

Iris: What kind of preparation/outlining do you do for your books: Tarrah: I start out by writing the first few pages, and then I set it aside and go through an extensive outline where I describe the characters in detail, the location in detail, the plot line, etc. It’s usually a 30 page document by the time I’m finished with it. In between, I dabble in writing scenes on my phone notes and in Evernote prior to transferring them to Scrivener as ideas strike me. Each novel folder has several documents titled: “Add this to when…”

Iris: Do you currently have any projects open? Tarrah: I have 6 outlines open, I’m about 20k into 3 of them, and I am actively working on a spin-off of Frozen Over, which originally was a standalone with no intentions of making a spin-off Iris: What is the hardest scene that you’ve written? Tarrah: In my latest, Frozen Over – there was a fight scene between the two main characters where I could feel the fight in my bones. I felt each word spoken and as I was writing and re-writing – I kept making the scene worse. It felt real and while writing this scene, I felt both persons emotions and it sure took a lot out of me.

Tarrah Anders Bio:

I am a born and raised California girl, constant daydreamer, yet also a doer. My day job consists of managing subsidies for the homeless, and wrangling my toddler, step-daughter and husband into working together without utter chaos. Whereas my moonlighting gig is that writing some steamy words late into the night or randomly during the day. I have a thing for monkeys, Scott Eastwood and guys with tattoos. I’ve been writing since I was in middle school and throughout college. While it was a passion, I kept it under wraps and never vocalized or followed through with my desire to be a writer, until I read a horrible book and thought: ‘I could do better than that!’ And so I did. I kept my writing romance from my husband for nearly two years, but finally told him because… royalties and taxes. He immediately tried to skip forward to any steamy scenes, then referred to the moment as in Lethal Weapon My husband and I have a fun relationship, we’re both very sarcastic people and well, I was nervous to tell him that I moonlight in the romance author area purely due to him teasing me for reading the books in the first place. He now sporadically asks questions, but still manages to poke fun at me. I’ve written and self-published 4 books and one novella (coming March 14th) and I've currently got a few works in progress.

Purchase Links (Amazon, B&N)

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/zkgkdww Barnes & Noble: (Paperback): http://tinyurl.com/gsz9s2z Website: www.tarrahanders.com