Hiya Peeps! Today's my birthday, and what better way to celebrate than to welcome one of my favorite writer friends, Tara Fox Hall, as she hops around the blogosphere talking about her prolific paranormal writings. Read on to find out more about Tara and be sure to check out her books!
Who is Tara? Tara Fox Hall is an
OSHA-certified safety and health inspector at a metal fabrication shop in
upstate New York.
She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a double minor in
chemistry and biology from Binghamton
University. Her writing
credits include nonfiction short stories, flash, short and novella-length
horror stories, and contemporary and historical paranormal romance. Her horror
stories have appeared in Deadman’s Tome,
Flashes in the Dark, Ghastly Door, The Halloween Alliance, Black Petals, SNM Horror Magazine, Microhorror, Dark
Eclipse, Cemetery Moon, and various anthologies, including the recently
published charity works Fear (Vol. 1) and Shifters. She also coauthored the essay
“The Allure of the Serial Killer,” published in Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). She is the author of the paranormal fantasy Lash series and the paranormal romantic
drama Promise Me series. 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.
Why Vampires? I’ve loved vampires since I saw Frank
Langella in the first “hot vampire” version of Dracula years ago. That love
intensified in my later teens with The Lost Boys, and reading Interview with
the Vampire, along with anything vampire I could get my hands on. But I wanted
more than the evil monster chasing young virgins; more than the sweet,
misunderstood handsome fanged stranger that becomes the perfect mate for the
woman who captures his heart after so many lone centuries. I wanted a vampire
so well-crafted in detail that I could believe he was real. I wanted something
different to happen in the story, other than girl becomes vampire, or vampire
becomes dust. I wanted passion, tragedy, romance, suspense, action, and the
haunting sweetness of poetry and song floating on a soft night breeze. So I
penned my own vampires.
Here is part of an interview of Tara by Jodie Pierce:
What
is your name? Do you use a pen name (if so, why?)?
My
pen name is the same as my real name: Tara Fox Hall. I thought about using a
pen name, but decided I had enough to keep straight already. I’d likely sign books with the wrong name!
What
genre to you personally read?
Thrillers
as a rule are my favourite books, the more graphic the better. But I
occasionally branch out to YA, historical, romance, graphic novels,
action/adventure, westerns and other genres.
Tell
me about your latest?
My
latest book is Taken for His Own, the
fourth installment in my Promise Me Series. It takes up where the third book
left off. Sar had done her best to rebuild her life when her fiancé Theo went
missing. She’s partnered with her former vampire lover Danial to raise Theo’s
daughter Elle (Elle’s natural mother is dead from childbirth complications).
She’s also had a child of her own with Danial, Theoron, and is trying to come
to terms with her inevitable turning from human to vampire. When she finds out
Theo’s alive, she can’t stop herself from journeying west to find him, and
confront him about where he’s been for the last year and a half. This is where Taken for His Own begins. After a
passionate reunion and a hasty marriage, the two lovebirds are headed back
east. But picking up the pieces is far from easy. While Danial is accepting of
Theo’s return, Elle prefers her vampire adoptive father over Theo. More than
one enemy is waiting in the wings, making repeat attempts on Sar’s life. Add
into the mix Devlin, Sar’s old enemy who’s now turned good guy, and a new
paramour for Danial and you’ve got a powder keg primed to explode.
What
sparked your passion for books and the art of a good story?
I’ve
always enjoyed reading…a very passionate teacher taught me to read my first
words in kindergarten, and I began devouring short books by first grade…and
novels for YA by third grade.
Is
there a particular book that changed or affected your life in a big way?
The Hobbit. I like the message; that it’s not who you were or what you
can do that influences what you will do, it’s how willing you are to step
outside your own boundaries and push for what you think is right.
Is
there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?
That
it’s never too late to take control of your destiny…and that you are the only
one that really ever can. You may not be able to control what happens to you,
but you can always control how you react to events. And that it’s important to
always try to do the right thing…but that isn’t always possible.
What
challenges have you faced in your writing career?
Getting published. I spent 4
years getting rejection after rejection from every agent under the sun and also
some publishers. But the near misses were the worst, to think that I finally
had an agent or a publisher and then to have it fall through at the last
moment. Those were the crushing blows. The newest thing I worry about are bad
reviews
What
has been your best moment as a writer?
Getting
that first acceptance…though every 5 star review is another perfect moment for
me. I love getting validation for the world I created.
Do
you feel like your dream has come true or is there much more to do?
There
is MUCH more to do….I won’t be able to rest easy until all of the Promise Me
series is out and sitting on my bookshelf in a lovely row J
and after that, I’ll probably say the same until the Lash series is done!
What
does your workspace look like?
A
jumbled bed with stickies, sheets of notes, crumpled papers that have been
imputed into the computer, the phone so I don’t have to get up, a data stick
for backup and now a little pad of paper that says “Tara is WORKING” so my
husband knows when I’m going to be irritable if he interrupts!
Have
you ever had a day when you just wanted to quit?
Of
course. Getting my first 2 star review on Amazon made me want to quit. Poor
sales in a given quarter makes me want to quit. Having no free time makes me
want to quit. But I didn’t survive years of fighting to get my stories out to
give up now.
What
do you do when you’re not writing?
Lately….I
sew catbeds for animal shelters, review books, clean, exercise, bake, work my
day job, sleep, eat, and do chores like making firewood, spring cleaning, and
pet maintenance.
What
advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Don’t give up until you do what you
set out to do.
After
this book, what is next?
There will be more books in this series. Two more will
be out this year—Immortal Confessions
and Her Secret—with more in 2014 and
2015, until the series is done. The next installment in the Lash Series, Revenge, will be out this fall, and
hopefully my second anthology of short suspense/horror stories will also
publish. There will also be the first Promise Me anthology and a Latham’s
Landing anthology this fall. A new Lash short story, “Spiritwalker”, will
debut in the Shifters charity
anthology from Hazardous Press, and I also have a short story called “The Lie”
in the upcoming anthology Brief Grislys,
both due out in a month or less. I’m also working on a sequel to my transgender
short Grow a Pair, and another
compilation of BDSM stories for the late summer/fall.
Your
website?
Your
blog?
Other
websites?
Taken for His Own
(Promise Me
Series #4)
After learning Theo is alive, Sar
immediately embarks on a mission to find him. Reunited, the lovers return to
New York; Danial, Terian and Theo uneasily combining forces to protect Sar from
Al’s assassins still seeking her. But when Sar is taken prisoner in an all-out
attack, only one man can save her: her old adversary, Devlin.
Buy Links:
“What about what you did to me?” I whispered,
gazing at him and biting my lip.
“That wasn’t a whim,” Devlin said, dropping his
eyes. “That was my bad judgment. Sadly, it wasn’t the worst mistake I’ve made
in my life.”
“What was?”
Devlin didn’t answer. I reached out and took his
cool hand in mine.
“When you lead others you must do whatever you
have to in order to save your people,” he said with a sigh. “Compromising
values should matter less than saving lives.”
“I agree with you,” I said. “If you rule others,
you have a responsibility to them above the responsibility to yourself. But
even then, I think your family should come first.”
“They should,” Devlin said in a cracked voice.
He swallowed hard. “But the past can’t be undone.”
I squeezed his hand. “What happened to Danial
wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it was,” he said softly.
“How is it your fault?” I said curiously, easing
closer to him.
“Because I should have known what the thing was
when it attacked. I didn’t know anything back then, except strategy and
tactics. I was too concerned about rising through the ranks as fast as
possible, so I could leave my family behind and become someone important.”
“What did you want to be?”
“A commander of men, either soldiers or police.”
I was surprised that Devlin would want to uphold
the law or spend his life guarding others. Yet it made sense. When he’d taken
me from my house years ago, he’d insisted on taking me to Danial, because I wore
the choker. He was here putting himself in danger now to keep me safe.
“I knew something had attacked a few people on
that road in that last month,” he continued. “I knew that there was a chance we
might be attacked transporting the prisoner. But the road was the quickest way
to our destination. I’d been assured that if I made the journey in good time,
I’d get the promotion I wanted, and Danial would get my old position.”
“You aren’t at fault for what you did. It wasn’t
for an evil reason.”
“Yes, I am,” he said despondently. “It was my
greed and pride that doomed us.”
Carefully, I reached for Devlin and put my arms
around him. He tensed at my touch, then relaxed.
“You did the best you could. You aren’t damned.”
“Yes, I am. You have no idea what I’ve done.”
I shifted uneasily.
“And I wouldn’t want you to,” Devlin added, his
arms snaking around me loosely. “My ends have always justified the means, no
matter what they were. I’ve done great evil in the hope of averting worse evil.
Sometimes it worked and sometimes not. Still, it’s likely that given the chance
to do my life over, I’d do the same things, make the same choices. I’d find
myself here, at this same point in time, a fallen king.”
“In case you’re wondering,” I said deliberately.
“I’m waiting for you to add into your speech somewhere that you regret
everything you did to me while you were king…um, ruler.”
“I regret hurting you,” Devlin said quickly.
“Yet I don’t regret coming for you that night or taking you to Danial.” He
looked up at me. “You might not have gone back to Danial after Theo went
missing, if I hadn’t. Theoron might not be here. I can’t regret any action of
mine that led to him being born.”
I didn’t reply, considering his words.
Devlin laid his head against my chest, and his
arms tightened on me slightly. We lay there like that for a few moments, not
speaking, then I slipped into sleep.
I woke sometime later when Devlin stirred.
According to the bedside clock, it was almost dusk.
“I have only one regret,” Devlin said finally, propping
himself up on his elbow, his expression intent.
“What’s that?” I said, covering my yawn with my
hand.
“That it wasn’t me you found in your quarry that
night,” Devlin said, kissing the back of my hand with cool lips. His golden
eyes locked on mine, transfixing me, as he drew my hand away from my face.
He was going to kiss me. My lips parted as my
breath caught in my throat.
Hooked? For more excerpts and information about Tara and her books, follow her along the rest of her tour:
7/24-Christina Mercer-
