Hi and Welcome!
Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to interview you for Romance Junkies.
First, can you let us know what projects you are currently working on?
Hello! I’m glad to be here and I’m grateful for this opportunity. I am currently working on several projects. One is a book that focuses on domestic violence, which I myself was once a victim of. The book is about a woman who was once in an abusive marriage. Her ex-husband finds her and she goes on the run to get away from him. I hope to have the book finished by the end of this year. I also have other books I am working on also that I tend to alternate between.
What does your writing schedule look like? Do you work outside the home also?
I do my best writing at night after my family is I bed. I usually write from ten ‘o clock at night until around five in the morning. Writing is an addiction for me. I have been known to write for twenty or more hours straight. I don’t work outside my home, but I do own two businesses (The Romance Shop and Sterling Editing) that I run from my home.
What is the best comment you have gotten from a reader? How about the strangest?
The best comment I have gotten from readers is that the book was so good that they couldn’t put it down once they started reading it. The strangest comment I have gotten from a reader was when I was asked if I practice for my intimate scenes. That to me is the same as asking a mystery murder author if they practice for their murder scenes.
What are the biggest challenges you find when writing a book?
The biggest challenge is getting my family to leave me alone when I’m writing. Some of them don’t view my writing as work and they don’t take it seriously. They expect me to stop writing and do what they want me to do.
Do your characters start the story with personalities or do the personalities come out as the story moves on?
I plan and flesh out my characters, but as soon as I start writing, my characters tend to come alive and take on personalities all of their own.
If you could mentor a new writer, what would be your first piece of advice to them?
Just let your words flow from within you and don’t hold back.
Do you have any exciting summer plans or do you just want to kick back and relax?
I wish I had some exciting plans for this summer, but I will just be staying home relaxing and writing. I hope to go on a Hawaiian cruise someday.
What are your personal goals, writing or otherwise?
My personal goals are to lose weight so that I can live a normal life. I am in the process of getting things set up so I can have a gastric bypass. My writing goal is to be published by Harlequin someday.
What is your favorite summer activity? How about your least favorite part of summer?
My favorite summer activity is swimming. My least favorite thing about summer is the heat. I live in Fairfield, California and there are days during the summer when it gets up over one hundred degrees.
What kinds of books will we find in your beach bag this summer?
Romance books. I love romance books. I am currently reading THE DEVIL SERVED TORTELLINI written by Shirley Jump.
MORE FUN…
What do you like to do at the beach? Tan? Walk? Read? Or do you hate the beach?
I love the beach. I love how the warm sand feels between my toes. I enjoy reading and tanning at the beach. It’s very relaxing.
What is your favorite summer drink?
Kool-aid. My favorite flavor is grape.
Would you rather go to an amusement park, museum or a park?
I love amusement parks. My favorite amusement park is Lagoon in Utah.
What age is your inner child and why did you pick that age?
My inner child is fourteen. I still enjoy hanging out with my friends and shopping.
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Are you a cone or bowl kind of girl?
I love ice cream. I will take it in a bowl or a cone, but prefer it in a bowl. There’s nothing better than a bowl of ice cream covered in chocolate syrup.
That’s sounds

I got to thinking since my last entry. There's something I forgot to mention. There is one man that I do trust, even if I have problems trusting people in the United States. This man is in Athens, Greece and if he's reading this, he knows who he is. He's the most sweetest, kindest man I know. I consider him to be very romantic. My second book that will be coming out (I'm not sure when it's being released yet), A Daddy for Christmas, is dedicated to him.

I hope no one has taken offense to my latest posts. If you have, I'm sorry. I'm going through a rough time right now. For about one month before and one month after the anniversary of when my I ex-husband and I separated, I have nightmares about what my ex-husband put me through when we were married. This causes me to feel depressed.

After five years of this, I say enough is enough. My ex-husband used to say that if I or anyone else did anything to cross him, they would experience to wrath of Keith. A part of me feels it is time for him to experience the wrath of Tarra. I have begun writing a letter to him telling him off for everything he did to me, which is somethiing I never dared to do in the past. I feel this could really help me to stop having these nightmares every year at this time. The question then becomes, once this letter is complete, should I mail it to him? If anyone reading this has an opinion as to if I should send this letter or not, don't hessitate to share it with me.

My mom and I are about to start a project together that I am looking forward to. We are going to put together a cookbook in honor of my grandmother. The recipes were my grandmothers and they are the kind of foods I was raised on. It will include recipes for such things as homemade pancakes with butter and homemade maple syrup on them, chicken and dumplings, and homemade baking powder biscuits, which are delicious hot with butter on them. We are also going to incorporate stories about my grandmother into the book. My grandmother died when I was only two, so I never got the opportunity to really get to know her. I know she was a writer and I believe I inherrited my love for writing from her. My mom has told me a lot of storied about her, but I have never had a very good memory. This project should help me to get to know my grandmother. We are going to publish it and plan to have my grandma's picture on the cover. We are even going to dedicate the book to my grandmother.

Things are not going well in my life right now. When I was married to my ex-husband, he not only beat me and abused me emotionally, but he cheated on me as well. Before I found out he was cheating on me and before all the abuse, I trusted him than I have ever trusted anyone in my life. Then he raped me. Trusting him became impossible after that. It was after that night when all the physical and emotional abuse started. To him I was nothing but a slut and the only thing I was good for was sex. When he left, I had a lot of trust issues. For about four months after he left, he was still calling me up on the phone and contacting me on the Internet just so he could continue abusing me emotionally. I remember feeling so trapped. I felt as if death was the only way out. The events that transpired after I began to feel that way I can't talk about. I don't even want to remember it. All I can say is what I did after that, I hate myself for.

I thought that by now that trusting people, especially men in particular would get easier with time. That's what people have told me. It hasn't. I am trying though. My ex-husband found a lot of faults with me and that's why he beat me and treated me the way he did. I'm scared that if anyone gets close to me, they'll find these faults for themselves and then I'll be alone all over again, so when people start to get close, I tend to back away. Another thing that scares me with men is that out the four relationships I have been in, all four of those men cheated on me. I have come to believe that all men cheat and that prevents me from getting close to them as well. All four of those men abused me in one way or another, too. Because of this, I can't help but to believe there is something wrong with me.

I don't want anyone who reads this to feel sorry for me. I'll be okay. I'm just going through a rough time in my life right now and I can't talk to anyone about it, so if I seem a little distant for awhile, this is why. I don't want anyone to take it personal.

This entry is just my way of letting it all out and not keep it bottled up inside of me the way I used to in the past. Writing has helped me through a lot of stuff in my life, including everything I went through with my ex-husband. I'm sure after I have my gastric bypass and several plastic surgeries, I'll have a better outlook on life. I know all this seems strange coming from someone who writes romance books. The romance books I write are how I wish love and life could be. They all have happy endings.