*~*Houston Author Event – Author Spotlight Day 9: Tara Sivec & TWO Giveaways*~*

I was super excited to be asked by Emily of Lalone Marketing to take part in an ‘Author Speed Dating’ event right before the signing. Basically, each blogger that participated would get 5 minutes to talk to all 10 authors – hello! Yes, please! I was so excited because I’ve done interviews before but never in person – this was both amazing and scary at the same time, but it was an absolutely wonderful experience.

So, each day for the next two weeks, I’ll be spotlighting one of the authors that I got to sit down and chat with last Saturday – in case you missed it, last week we had S.C. Stephens, J. Sterling, Amanda Bennett, Jillian Dodd and Rebecca Donovan. Monday we had Carey Heywood, Tuesday it was Erin Noelle’s turn, yesterday we had Rebecca Shea and today we have the always amazing and fabulous Tara Sivec. I have known Tara for about a year (I actually ‘officially’ met her last year at the Columbus, OH signing)…and while she doesn’t think she is funny, she never fails to leave me in stitches. She is totally one of my favorite humans in the world…she’s completely unpretentious, what you see is what you get with her and she’s a million different kinds of awesome, dipped in fun and topped off with Sour Cream and Cheddar Ruffles – or meth, depending on your preference. (That will make more sense later… 🙂 )

We asked last week on our Facebook page for some questions for the authors – so I tried to incorporate as many of them as I could into the interview…I added the name of whoever ‘asked’ the question! Now…let’s get to the interview… 🙂

Lisa: We asked our followers to give us some questions – so I’ll start with those, what are some of your favorite books that you’ve read? (question from Kristen Kocher)

Tara: That I’ve read?

Lisa: Yes.

Tara: Oh Jesus…umm gah, I read so many! Shit balls…every book I read is good. Umm…Gillian Flynn, I’m totally addicted to her right now, cause she just write mind fuck books that just make you want to throw your kindle. Umm…she’s kind of my favorite right now. Umm…Gayle Forman, If I Stay…

Lisa: YES!

Tara: Oh my gosh! I just read those, like a month ago and I was blown away by those.

Lisa: Brooke loves those.

Tara: Yeah – those are my two favorites right now.

Lisa: Is there anything in any of your books that you would change if you were given the chance? (question from Kristen Kocher)

Tara: No, I don’t think I would. I don’t think I would.

Lisa: If you weren’t a writer what other profession would you be working in? (question from Deborah Favorito)

Tara: Stripper! Hooker? Meth Addict? I dunno…all of the above!

Lisa: All of the above!

Tara: Homeless…Meth Addict – I’d be making meth in my basement. Meth lab, anyone? I think I could make some good money.

(I was dying laughing during all of this because her face was stone cold serious…)

Lisa: How long from concept to completion of your first book? (question from Tanya Gaunt)

Tara: Oh my goodness, Seduction and Snacks, I started that probably a year before I published it and I actually, umm… it was up on a free writing site…

Lisa: Yeah – like FictionPress?

Tara: Yeah – FanFiction.net…

Lisa: Oh yeah! Okay.

Tara: So umm…it was on there for oh maybe a year first there, and I got such a good response from it like people were like you need to publish this, it’s good…so I just had to publish it, so umm…god probably about a good couple of years, at least, of me tweaking it and changing it.

Lisa: Cool! What is your go-to snack food when writing? (question from Nicole Montgomery)

Tara: Cheesy Pringles. LOVE Cheesy Pringles.

Lisa: I’ve never had those.

Tara: WHAT?!? You’ve never had those? *GASP* Fuck your face!

(Again…I am dying laughing…)

Tara: No yeah…Cheesy Pringles or Cheedar and Sour Cream Ruffles.

Lisa: I have those!

Tara: SHUT UP!

Lisa: I brought them with me! I’m not even joking…

Tara: Those are my…

Lisa: Cause I knew we weren’t going to have a break to eat.

Tara: Those are my favorite – yeah! I like salty stuff – I’m a chips person.

Lisa: Not chocolate?

Tara: No…I don’t like chocolate.

(My face was this look of shock and confusion…this is Tara Sivec…I mean, her books – come on!!?)

Tara: I know…I KNOW! Right?! I don’t…people like want to punch me in the neck when I say that. I don’t…I’m not a fan of chocolate, like I’ll eat it like if I have PMS or something, that’s when you know, if I’m shoveling chocolate in, you know just to get the hell out of my way. Just duck and cover – run! Save yourself cause the bad things are coming if I’m eating chocolate.

Lisa: Which of your characters will you always hold a certain soft spot for? (question from Andie Lea)

Tara: Claire (from Seduction and Snacks)…probably Claire, just because…this is probably narcissistic – because she’s so much like me. Like – I love myself SO much!

Lisa: You’re so awesome!

Tara: I’m so awesome! But she is what started it all…

Lisa: Right.

Tara: Umm…because like her views on having children were exactly my views on having children. So like she holds a special place in my heart, watching her grow and actually have a child, and like love her children.

Lisa: So I can remember the first time I read those first pages, I was walking into the office and I had to stop cause I was like crying laughing and someone was like are you okay? And I’m like, no…I’m not okay!

Tara: No…I will never be okay ever again!

Lisa: Cause it’s true!

Tara: Yeah…yup!

Lisa: Which character can you relate to the most? (question from Andie Lea) Well…Claire!

Tara: Yup!

Lisa: What do you think is the most difficult…beginning or ending a storyline? (question from Andie Lea)

Tara: Neither – like everything in between. Like I always know how I want to start a book and always know how I’m going to end it….everything else in the middle is pretty much I get the ideas as I go – like I’m not an outline person, I have a general idea that this is what I want the story to be about, but I can’t, I just can’t write like chapter one will be about this, chapter two…I can’t! Like I usually don’t have any clue until I start writing, and like as I’m like halfway through a chapter I’ll be like OOOH! I know what I’m going to do in the next chapter! Like…I’m so weird, I’m so ADD!

Lisa: How often are you thinking and jotting notes down about the characters and storyline that come into your head? (question from Andie Lea)

Tara: Oh all the time! Like right now I just thought of something that I want to…I’m like excuse me, time out I wanna put this in my notepad app on my phone. My notepad app on my phone and my ipad is insane! I just…I scroll for so many – like just one liners, like I dunno what book that will go in but…yeah.

Lisa: If you could sit down face to face with one of your characters, who would you choose and why?(question from Andie Lea)

Tara: Holy shit! Umm…I would probably sit down with Drew because he’s just the most insane and funny and I think he and I would get along quite well…because we both have the humor of a 15 year old boy, so…it would be like a contest of who could come up with the best one liners. I think…I think I’d win, but I’m just throwing that out there.

Lisa: Probably…who decides who and what goes on your covers? (question from Lorie Glowania)

Tara: Umm…I did all the Chocolate Lovers ones myself…

Lisa: Nice.

Tara: Umm…my serious books, Okay Creations did and it’s basically like I have this idea in my head, this is kinda what the story is about…go with it. Umm…and like for Watch Over Me, I knew I wanted a girl like by a cemetery and she just, it like blew me away when I got that cover…

Lisa: I remember – you had it in Ohio and showed us.

Tara: Yeah! It was just…blew me away. And like same with my Playing With Fire series, like I just give her a basic like this is what the story is basically about and we don’t even have a full summary yet, it’s just a couple lines of this is what happens with her and him and go with it and she just is really good and like a lot of times I’ll do, I’ll look for images for a while first and just see just what catches my eye like for Worn Me Down, I knew I wanted a girl with some like shadowy figure like watching her in the background.

Are you missing out on the amazingness that is Tara’s books?

Tara Sivec is a wife, mom, chauffeur, cheerleading coach, soccer coach, babysitter, shortorder cook, genius and albino squirrel hunter. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two kids. In her spare time she likes read, write and cover things in chocolate. Most of her material comes from real life experiences with family and friends. Lucky for them, the names have been changed to protect the innocent (aka, drunk).