I like men. I’m comfortable around them. Old or young, playful or serious, they’ve always fascinated me.
There’s no denying I was daddy’s girl, but dear old dad was just the start. I also have three brothers and an extended family full of boys. I myself raised three boys. It took nearly forty years for my youngest sibling—the only other girl—to finally have a daughter. She also has two boys. Can you say, “Celebration?” I see my upbringing as a fortunate accident because it prepared me for writing male characters. I’m not as hung up on labels like alpha or beta because they don’t go far enough in describing the complexities of a man, nor do they take into account situational influences that will drive actions. By putting too much stock into a label, there’s always the danger that the character can become a caricature rather than a man with a pulse. This is why I love writing men. My heroes are familiar. They live and breathe. These guys have hopes and fears, dreams and desires, feel passion and pain. Though physically stronger than the heroines, they can be wounded without shedding blood. Falling in love can be just as frightening or exhilarating for him as it is for her. So I like to get into a hero’s head. I’ll listen to his thoughts, catch a ride on his circulatory system to understand the buzz and tingle he feels when she touches him for the first time. How will he interpret something as opposed to the heroine? Can she manipulate him? Will he resist or play along? What would he fight for? Is there something so important to him he’d be willing to battle it out with the woman in his life? Are there sacrifices or risks he’d take to protect her or others? Now we’re getting somewhere. What kind of man is he? If I have a say, the best kind--real. —Tara Mills
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No matter what you celebrate or observe this holiday season, I hope it brings you peace and joy.
See you in 2024! I've been invited to appear on the Excelsior! Podcast this weekend. I'll share that specific podcast link once it goes live, but please pop over there and listen to Britleigh's other wonderful guests. They're interesting. What can you expect from my interview? Well, we'll be talking books, naturally, and food, and how romance and food comingle harmoniously in life and fiction. A few lucky listeners will also be getting a paperback so be sure to tune in. Watch for the podcast link here, on my official Facebook page, or on Twitter. - Tara Excelsior! There's always discussion about heroes in romantic fiction. Naturally, I had to weigh in. I enjoy romance. Heck, I write it! May as well explain why I prefer beta heroes. So let's go!
There's a lot to be said for these nurturing gents. Betas are definitely worthy heroes. I referenced this 2013 blog post the other day on Twitter so the discussion is ongoing. Rather than simply cut and paste the original, I decided to update it. Things change, attitudes certainly do. Mine has. In my original post, my tastes were decidedly against first-person point-of-view. Looking back, I didn't give it a fair shake. Since then, I've come to enjoy many books and series' written in first-person. A lot of genres are particularly suited to first-person. But I stand by my original assertion that when an intimate relationship is the central theme of the plot, first-person creates a he said/she said imbalance that's both incomplete and unfair to the silenced character. All we can really know of the love interest is what they express or divulge to the main character. From that, we get the MC's limited, and often flawed interpretation of the other person's words and motivations. It will never be complete or entirely honest. In first-person POV romance, the love interest is only as deep as any other secondary character in the story. He lacks a voice. Crop his head off the cover and he doesn't even need a face. He's little more than a prop for the heroine. Without an intimate peek into his head, all we have are his interactions with the heroine to give him substance. He's as deep as the cat winding around her ankles. Sure, we know at a glance the cat is happy to see her, certainly responds to her strokes with a deep, satisfied purr, but is that really enough for her love interest? I don't think so. I want to know what he thinks, fears, hopes for, and dreads. What does he withhold and why? What is he dying to share? What does he wrestle with? In a book supposedly focused on a developing relationship between two, his perspective isn't just valid, it's vital. He deserves a voice. Without it, the story may be good, but it feels out of balance. Again, I want to state that I have and do enjoy first person, and I've read some very good first-person romances by talented and more successful writers than me, but I can't help thinking as I read these books, how much better they would have been with a dual POV. They were fine, but imagine taking a taste of something and, while admitting it's pretty good, there's something missing. Something that will take it up a notch and round out the flavors into a delicious harmony. That's the point I'm trying to make. In the end, it takes two to tango, so let him speak. Here's wishing you a safe and stress-free holiday season. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
-Tara It's here! My Barnes & Noble BOGO sale featuring Caution: Filling is Hot and Grading on Curves - two light and sexy romances that give these pretty awesome single parents another chance at a happy-ever-after. Who wouldn't love that?
With their quirky casts of friends, relations, coworkers, and conspirators, these stories are sure to make you smile. Two fun and flirty single parent romances. One terrific deal. Exclusively on Barnes & Noble / Nook for a limited time only. So, fall in love today with...
Claire sat at the tiny table outside her favorite cafe, her laptop forgotten, her cup of tea now cold, and simply soaked in the bustle and charm of the narrow city street before her. Had she arrived earlier, everything on this side of the block would have been shadowed and cool. If she’d come in the afternoon, the front of this aging cafe and its neighbors would have been aglow with warm sunshine. However, she’d arrived an hour before noon, still wearing her thin sweater, the sweater now hanging off the back of her chair. As the sun drifted straight overhead, it had thrown every crack and crevice, every architectural detail and flourish into stark relief for anyone who cared to notice such things -- and she did.
This city had endured for centuries, as both home and haven for all who'd trod these worn and weathered cobblestones before her. This sabbatical had taken three years to plan. The flat she’d sublet just down the street was both unusually narrow and surprisingly tall at the same time. The ceilings were so high, in fact, she’d noticed an echo when she first arrived and decided then and there to stick with soft-soled slippers indoors for the duration of her stay. The kitchen, if you could call it that, was little more than an inconvenient cubby with a two-burner stove top, a single sink that wasn’t quite deep enough, and a mini-fridge barely larger than what she’d had in her college dorm decades ago. At least she was eating fresh foods every day. Claire could live with the uncomfortable futon sofa-sleeper. She could manage with a counter so small even making a simple sandwich took ingenuity, but she missed a private bathroom. Buildings this old weren’t easy to retrofit for modern conveniences. The shared bath down the hall was another reminder of college where you brought what you needed back and forth with you. It helped to pay attention to her neighbors’ schedules to avoid awkward overlaps. As she wasn’t a slave to a work schedule here, it was only right she be the flexible tenant. This is where she was going to write her masterpiece. No, she’d never done anything more than publish papers and a couple of articles, but she felt a novel inside of her, the driving urgency of it, the incessant need to put words to paper, or screen — her actual medium of choice. Then she got here and those voices shouting to be heard inside of her fell silent. It was an uncomfortable hush, a foreign hush more difficult to fathom than the speeding flow of overheard conversations spoken in an unfamiliar tongue. It was disquieting, unnerving, and she made excuses for the voices’ absence. It was only temporary. Perfectly understandable given where she was and what she was doing. But even soaking in a strange, aged tub at two in the morning didn’t bring them back. She tried to tease them out like a comb through tangles. She poked them. She prodded them. She gave them a conversational opening then paused, hoping one of these characters would pick up the thread and run with it. But her creative adventure appeared over before it even began and it was terrifying. This was not what she’d planned. So she walked miles, took more photos than she’d ever taken in her life. She developed a taste for crusty bread and dark coffee. She haunted old bookshops hoping to find the perfect book in English even while trying to improve her own pronunciations of somewhat familiar but definitely foreign words. She studied faces, heard their voices, and knew in some deep and disappointing way that this trip had been a mistake. No one was talking to her here, not even her characters. I'm thrilled to announce the return of Accidents Make the Heart Grow Fonder. This is one of my favorite stories and I'm just tickled with the new look.
Get it now from Amazon, your favorite digital ePub source, or order the paperback. If audiobooks are your thing, you're in luck. Listen to Accidents on Audible or iTunes. Enjoy! |
Tara MillsHopeful scribe and word-aholic. Loves reading, loves writing, loves my family and friends, and I'm tickled beyond measure that you've stopped by. Click the buttons to find my titles at the following retailers.
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Is fate messing with them or is he just unlucky? And seriously, how many times does a girl have to say she's sorry? Download this wickedly funny
rom-com today. Digital ebook Get the paperback. Also available in audio book. Listen on Audible / iTunes. Can a single dad and his pint-sized posse convince a stubbornly single demonstration cook to give romance another chance?
Download this delicious story today. Digital ebook. Get the paperback. She thinks he's a cute but soft academic. He thinks her tough act is just swagger. Funny how fast attitudes can change when you have to rely on each other to survive. Read this sassy and exciting romance today. Download the Digital ebook.
Get the paperback. Protecting others is what they do, but things get terrifyingly personal when Lauren is caught in the line of fire. Read this sensual, gripping romantic suspense today.
Digital ebook. Get the paperback. When a case puts a civil rights attorney in someone's crosshairs, her best defense is a cop with personal demons of his own.
Download this provocative suspense today. Digital ebook. Get the paperback. Working together has disaster written all over it. But she's desperate to save her dream so she'd better suck it up. Download this sassy, opposite-sides-of-the-tracks romance today.
Digital ebook. Get the paperback. Dating was the LAST thing on Mia's mind and then...opportunity came calling. Take a chance on a younger man today.
Download the Digital ebook Get the paperback. She's sabotaged every potential relationship to avoid caring for a man exactly like him!
Download this unforgettable story from your favorite retailer today. Digital ebook. Get the paperback. novellasA weekend fix-up goes awry when Britt casts her eyes in a different direction.
Download this sexy, saucy, deliciously naughty frolic today. Digital ebook Eden Books Get the paperback. Stepping out of her comfort zone may be the best mistake Naomi's ever made.
Download this second-chance romance today. Digital ebook. Get the paperback. Caught between two men - one she wants, one she can't leave. Who knew a simple favor would cause so much trouble?
Read this tasteful, sophisticated romance today. Digital ebook. Get the paperback. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what does a series of sketches mean?
Drawn back to the same beach time and again to sketch this compelling man, Rachel is about to find out. Download this holiday short story today. Drawn to You. She should have asked his name. He should have gotten her number. Can two strangers who shared a moment find each other again?
Read The Memory of You today. Pelican CayKate was blissfully happy when she boarded the boat that sunny morning. Then everything fell apart, leaving her questioning everything she thought she knew about herself and love.
Download this thought-provoking island romance today. Digital ebook. Get the paperback. He would have been perfect for her if only Dani's cougar mother hadn't already made a move on him herself.
Read this complicated love story today. Digital ebook. Get the paperback. When a woman who doesn't date chooses the newcomer, the approaching hurricane isn't the only trouble coming her way. Download this island romance today.
Digital ebook. Get the paperback. He never said anything to either of them. But then one night, after wine and laughter, the truth came out. Now they have to decide what happens next. How much love can they handle? Download your copy today.
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