Tara Nichols is with us today

1. Tell us your latest news.
I just signed my thirteenth contract. This newest story is titled Island of Three, an erotic Ménage Amour, m/f/m, and will be published through Siren/Bookstrand. I also have two other, upcoming, shorter stories. One is Seamless, a very short and humorous romance coming out May 21st, 2010, through Breathless Press. The other is a story in the Spank! Anthology, (said to be released this fall), through Logical Lust. My first print book came out this year through Logical Lust with the Cougar Anthology, and I’m checking my mail every day anticipating its arrival. 
2. What initially inspired you to become an author?
I’m not entirely sure what came first, either my own love for writing and telling stories, or the fact that my mother wrote and I saw that it truly was possible. My mother and I had a conversation about this very topic just last week, and she said it was always in my nature, that I used to go out into the woods back of the house and make lists, create fantastical characters, and horde a stash of pens high up in the trees from a very young age.
3. What is your favorite book? And Why?

That’s a hard question. I have fallen in love with so many books for different reasons. I love To Kill a Mockingbird equal to A.C. Crispin’s Hans Solo Trilogy. Usually it is because of the characters that make me classify a book as a favorite, but in the case of The Great Gatsby, it was because of his finely honed writing ability.

4. Do you have a particular time of day to write? We love to hear about a writer’s process.
For me, anytime is a good time. Most of my daylight hours are spent at home with my four year old son, but even then I get stolen moments to catch a few ideas. Occasionally I get a whole day and the house to myself when a relative or my husband takes my son for the day. When that happens, my butt rarely leaves the chair. Otherwise, I write in the evening up until my husband gets home from work.
5. What do you find to be the most difficult part of writing?
Finding time. If I had two days a week I’d feel a lot less stressed and maybe enjoy myself a little more (not that I don’t enjoy writing), just that I have a hard time meeting all my goals and that I should frequent yahoo groups more often.

6. Do you have a favorite author?

I have quite a few favorites, Barbara Pierce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Portia Da Costa, Gary Paulson… I could go on.


7. Tell us about your first published work.
My first published work was Oasis of My Heart. It came out in 2007 through Cobblestone-press. It is a sweeter romance with a bit of sizzle. Thanks to Deanna Lee and her advice on what the story needed, and the basic structure of a romance novel, I was offered a contract and screeched like a banshee through the entire house.
http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/author/taranichols.htm.

Sadie Davies is running away for the second time in her life. She had been fifteen and in search of stardom the first time she ran away to the city. This time she is running from it.

After buying a rundown farm house near where she grew up, Sadie plans to search for the family she abandoned so many years ago. Intending to keep a low profile she sets up for a simplistic, solitary life but with sexy, know-it-all, neighbor Dustin Reed she finds it rather difficult, and he’s as complicated as they come.
8. Do you have a favorite of your own works?
I have a fondness for A Pleasurable Cure for Death, my second attempt at a vampire paranormal. Sebastian really appealed to me, but I also favor Secrets of Summer. I’d like to recapture the essence of both of the heroes in those stories in all of my future plots, but that of course would be typecasting them. I think, when it is finished, my all time favorite will be Black Leather, Crimson Cheeks. That is a novella length romance with a spanking theme, but it isn’t quite BDSM. It’s sweet and I really dig the characters, especially Julian. Sigh.

9. Where can our readers find you on the web?
My two main blogs are; http://tarasnichols.blogspot.com as well as http://tarasnichols.webs.com
But I am on myspace, Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook, fanpage, Romance Wiki and a handful of Nings, and yahoo groups as well.
10. Where can they buy your books?

My publishers so far are; Cobblestone-press, Breathless Press, Amira Press, Noble Romance, Siren Publishing, and Logical Lust.

11. Anything you would like to add?

(Blushing) Take care to read the heat level when selecting some of my books. I have a wide variety of stories from Sweet to burn-your-eyes-off, and I fear this can … surprise an unsuspecting reader.