I am delighted to be speaking with author Tara Fox today. Thanks for chatting with us today Tara and welcome to FAR!

Thanks so much for having me here at FAR :)

To start, will you please tell us a little bit about your current release Lash?

Many themes run through Lash: being an outsider, discrimination, the benefits and drawbacks of family loyalty, evil begetting evil, and the lengths a person will go to in order to protect someone they love. The protagonist, Trystan, becomes Lash because he sees no other way to save his loved ones or himself. His actions to protect his loved ones drive the book, and change the course of his life, putting him on the path to infamy.

The blurb gives the best full synopsis:

Scarred from a childhood spent in perpetual indigence after being forced from their home in the Everglades, weresnake Trystan Valeras and his family make their way to the Case Hotel. When his wealthy gangster father arrives the summer he turns sixteen, Trystan's dream of a better life, along with the lovely aristocrat Mara, is suddenly within his grasp. Instead of paradise, a series of devastating events unfold, leading Trystan to become the instrument of his dying father's revenge. His violent reprisal instigates a backlash of murder and death, forcing Trystan to flee with the remains of his family to the sultry city of New Orleans where he sells himself into the service of the Vampire Lord Abraham. Becoming the assassin Lash to hide his identity, Trystan finds a measure of peace, even as his skill with killing heightens, bringing to him not only new allies, but also new adversaries.

What was your inspiration for Lash?

Lash is a character from the latter books in my Promise Me series. He is old when he appears in the Promise Me series, and not much is known about his earlier years, because he doesn't give the information. He was terrific fun to write, and one of those characters that I wanted to know the backstory on, so I began telling his story. Unlike the Promise Me series, his story is not a romance, but filled with action, adventure, horrific events, suspense, sex, and yes, a little bit of passion.

What is a typical day like for you?

If I am working at the metal shop, I am there anywhere from the minimum eight hours to close to twelve, if it's a day we have an inspection or some kind of safety monitoring done. If it's a day I don't work, I am usually online a few hours, checking email or doing book promotion. Then I am onto whatever is on top of my to-do list, from working on firewood to doing edits to sewing/kitting for charities to chores like laundry. I fit in writing whenever I can, but some days I can't fit it in.

Today I got up, fed all the pets, exercised with weights, fed myself, posted links to today's online promo, did some laundry and hung it outside to dry, then headed outside with my husband to pull out some 40' tree trunks a neighbor was kind enough to let us have down by the barn to age for next year. After that was done, we cleaned up, had lunch, and then I worked on edits for Bedtime Shadows, an upcoming anthology co-written by author Jenny Twist. After finishing those, I set to work on this interview. After dinner, I plan to bring in the laundry, walk on the treadmill, then finish this interview! :)

When did you decide to take "pen in hand" and write with the intent to publish?

I didn't write my books with the intent that they would get published. I wrote them for my mom, because she was going through a bad illness, and I had told her I'd write her a novel one day. When she told me her doctor had said she had a year, max, I began Promise Me. I did nothing else but write it, revise, and write some more for the next six months. She didn't find out she had been misdiagnosed for several months, and it took her another four months to get completely well. By that time, I had four books finished, so I decided to submit them to a friend of my husband who was an editor. She said they were interesting, but needed more work. So I began rewriting and revising. Five years later, Promise Me published.

Do you have any special rituals to help you get in the mood to write?

I make notes on anything that inspires me. So when I have some time, I can sit down and use those notes to write. Sometimes if the inspiration is very vivid, like a nightmare, or a real life event, I will drop everything and write a scene to capture how I feel, before the emotion passes.

Do you have any bad writing habits?

Not really, outside of constantly having typos. I think they multiply when I am not looking.

What is the biggest misconception about being an author?

I thought once I published, I could relax a little. Instead, I am busier than I ever was. Putting out books regularly means writing them, plus rewrites, edits, making promotional tools, submitting review requests, booking promotions online and offline, and also orchestrating those promotions successfully. I used to think that authors had all this time to think up stories, and wondered why it took so long to have a new book. Now I know. LOL.

What's one thing you would like your readers to know about you?

I love feedback. If you liked my books, please let me know via email, FB, or other! Nothing makes my day that someone telling me they enjoyed my work.

Congratulations! You just won a year off from work to travel anywhere in the world and write the story of your dreams. Where do you go, what type of book do you write, and what's the title?

I would spend the winter here, most of the summer at my family's lake house, and the fall at Letchworth State park, with maybe a trip to Scotland in the spring. I would also arrange to go stay with Jenny Twist at her lovely Spanish home for a few weeks. As for the type of book and title…I would probably work on my existing novels in the Lash Series :) If I truly had to do nothing else, I would be sitting and working on those for eight hours a day. I truly am very happy where I live, and writing my series books. But I wouldn't be opposed to going back to Disney World for a few weeks, either!

What household chore do you really hate doing?

Vaccuuming. Luckily, my husband is an avid vaccuumer!

Which room in your home would you say is your favorite?

My bedroom. It's done all in lush, moss green shades. It makes me happy every time I wake up. I also put some glow in the dark stars up on the ceiling, and they glow for a while after I turn off the lights.

What's the worst summer job you've ever had?

I actually never had a summer job. I volunteered the summer between high school and college, and picked up a part time job halfway through the summer working at a veterinarian's clinic (he was my family's vet for our cats). I had that job all through college (6 years), until I landed my first full time job two weeks after graduating. While I had to clean up a lot of messes, and work with some very uncooperative animals, I liked the people I worked with, and working with animals. I also adopted my first rescue dog, Lucky, from the vet when she was abandoned at the clinic by her former owner.

Can you share a little of your upcoming works with us?

The sequel to my paranormal action adventure novel Lash, titled Shadow Man, will publish in late October, just in time for Halloween. The sequel to my vampire romance Promise Me, titled Broken Promise, will be out in late September, followed by the next sequel, Taken in the Night in January 2013. More sequels will follow in both series. Besides Bedtime Shadows with Jenny Twist, there will be several other coauthored works, including a historical paranormal work with T. Fox Dunham, and a Lash crossover with the character Dick Dice with a fellow author and illustrator, Paul "Deadeye" Dick. I am a contributor along with another good friend, Tori Ridgewood, in a vampire anthology called Midnight Thirsts 2 that just released from Melange Books. Tori, T Fox., and I are also all contributors to a zombie collection called Quick Bites of Flesh due out this fall from Hazardous Press.

I also have a bunch of short horror stories under consideration, and hope to publish more short stories in the online e-zine Flashes in the Dark, as soon as I get a chance to write a few more :)

I hope also to schedule some book signings in the late fall and winter 2012-2013, if possible :) Watch here for details!

Do you have a website or blog where readers can learn more about you and your works?

Sure! Here are my links:
Website, Blog, Facebook and Twitter. For info on my recently published books Lash and Promise Me, click here.

Is there anything else you would like to add today?

Thank you for taking the time to read this :) I hope that you enjoyed this interview!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions for us today Tara!

Interviewed by: Tammy