U is for...Unusual by Tara Fox Hall

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Ever since my grandmother had me sitting at her feet begging to hear more of her ghost stories, I've had a love of all things weird. Aliens, bigfoot, ghosts, goblins, and of course, elves. You name it...the weirder, the better. My own life is surprisingly boring, compared to Tara Fox Hall's short biographical piece. Read on and see what I mean!!

U IS FOR...UNUSUAL

            I have always been attracted to the unusual. Who wants to be ordinary; just another face in the crowd? Stand out instead, proudly, and defy the masses! Is it any surprise then that my latest paranormal hero is not a cuddly werewolf, or a sad lonely vampire looking for his teen soul mate, but a weresnake? I didn’t choose a snake for a male lead on accident, but on purpose. I wanted my books to be different; not just romance, or suspense, or scary, but all of the above. I wanted my characters to not only be good and kind, but also capable of great evil and brutality.

            I like unusual pets (snake, again, though there is also a spider in my bathtub whose name is Frank). I have unusual friends (weapons sometimes appear in the mail, like knives, and hatchets). Even my middle name of Fox is a bit unusual, so much so that I got flak in grade school for it from other kids. I like to learn new things (taught myself to knit socks and how to sew on machine, and learned how to repair and maintain machinery, as well as operate it). I enjoy haunting the thrift stores, not only for the money I save, but for the weird and wonderful items I find that are like nothing I’ve seen in a store. Who can resist sequin or beaded jeans, or a tank top that says, “cranky”?

Buy it HERE!

            I’m weird myself (my husband is the first to tell me this, sometimes daily) and I enjoy surprising him. Years ago, I bought a wig with long, burgundy red tresses. I put it on that night, and went to bed, sitting there waiting for him to come home. He came in all smiles, took one look and let out a loud yell. When he recovered, he admitted that he’d thought me a stranger. I, of course, was doubled up laughing.

            Our wedding was a mix of religions and traditions, with a priest and priestess presiding, my invocation of my Heavenly Father, and my mother reading a poem of Apache beliefs. We created our own vows, which we both read, and also a scripted service, complete with athame and chalice (guess which one of us had the knife?). The hand fasting cord that was tied about our clasped hands was one I spent days embroidering with the words “Blessed Be the Tie that Binds”, along with tiny figures of our pets, some flowers, and a few bats and spiders, for variety. We had a traditional music band, but when they went on break, a drum circle began, with my husband drumming and myself and some of the other ladies dancing. It was our wonderful, magical day.

Buy it HERE!

            Of course, sometimes all this interest in odd things gets me into trouble. I remember looking into numerology when I was a teen, so curious to find out my life number, and other relevant info by assigning numbers to dates when I was born and the letters of my name. Discovering that “666” was in the very middle of my name gave me a shock of terror (yes, its true—see Alphabetic Systems, under Numerology on Wikipedia). I spent a week sure I had to be the antichrist, then moved onto something else.

            But there is an upside to my life of strangeness: I’ve not been bored in many years. If you only get one life—and you do, BTW—why not make it as unusually wonderful as possible?

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Tara Fox Hall’s writing credits include nonfiction, horror, suspense, erotica, and contemporary and historical paranormal romance. She also coauthored the essay “The Allure of the Serial Killer,” published in Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). Her first full-length action-adventure novel, Lash, published in April 2012. Her vampire series begins in June 2012, with the 1^st novel Promise Me. Tara divides her free time unequally between writing novels and short stories, chainsawing firewood, caring for stray animals, sewing cat and dog beds for donation to animal shelters, and target practice.

Links:
www.tarafoxhall.com

tarafoxhall@gmail.com

Tara's Blog: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5286654.Tara_Fox_Hall/blog

Tara's Facebook Page:

 www.facebook.com/pages/Tara-Fox-Hall/151813374904903

For info on my most recently published work, Lash, click here:  http://www.amazon.com/Lash-ebook/dp/B007UJ6KGC

For my latest interview, click here: http://lasrmysteryguests.blogspot.com/2012/03/interview-tara-fox-hall.html