RBL Presents!
Tara Janzen








       

       



Tara Janzen is the author of the wildly adventuresome contemporary Crazy Series. She has also written fantasy romance under the name of Glenna McReynolds, as well as thirteen Bantam Loveswepts. She has won numerous industry awards from RWA and Romantic Times, and we are honored to have her visit us from 738 Steele Street. Welcome Tara!



Robin: The ReBeLs at RBL Romantica always like to know something about the author when she's not being an author. Would you tell us a little about yourself -- where you live, your background, family, pets ...?

Tara: We have two West Highland Terriers, Zoe and Finn, and they are the sweetest animals on earth. They sleep 23 out of every 24 hours, just loll around, which is perfect for me. I like lots of quiet when I work. For family activities, we ski in the winter – a lot! And the rest of the time is spent running around to hockey games, going wakeboarding in the summer, shooting out on the range, lots of outdoor stuff, except yard work. Our yard definitely has the “survival of the fittest” look to it – lots of green, lots of stuff growing, but it grows where it wants to. It’s about an acre of wildness out there.

Robin: What kinds of books do you read for pleasure? Who are some of your favorite authors/books?

Tara: I actually read a ton of nonfiction for research. As fast as I’ve been writing the CRAZY books and the LOOSE books, it’s taken most everything I’ve got to keep up with cars, and the weapons, and the tactics, and the stories. But I do have some very favorite romance writers: Mary Jo Putney, Patricia Gaffney, Cindy Gerard, Jill Shalvis, Laura Kinsale, and Judy Cuevas, who also writes as Judith Ivory. Oh, yes, and Diana Gabaldon.

Robin: How do you relax and unwind between deadlines/books? Aside from reading, what other hobbies do you enjoy? (We are hoping to get the lowdown on the hotrods. How do you know about a ‘supercharged 383LT1 stroker under the hood’?)

Tara: When I started writing the CRAZY books, I knew I wanted hot, fast cars, and for me that meant American muscle, all those great cars from the late sixties and very early seventies, before the insurance companies shut them all down (the cars were too hot, and too fast, and the insurance companies said, "We ain’t gonna insure some of these things. Y'all gotta tone these babies down a bit.") But for a few years, Ford and Chevrolet and Chrysler/Dodge and Pontiac, Plymouth and Oldsmobile and Mercury – well, they just kept putting the pedal to the metal and making these monster machines with massive amounts of displacement. In order to learn about the cars, I started reading car magazines. It doesn’t matter how old these cars are, geez, thirty to forty years old, the car magazines are still writing about them, so there is lots of information available. And I go to the car shows, to see these babies “on the hoof” so to speak. And we’ve rebuilt a couple of engines in the garage. So I got a little greasy, and finally understood how engines are put together.

Robin: Tara, let’s talk about writing. How did you get into writing? Did you have any mentors who inspired you? When did you know you wanted to write? And why did you choose the romance genre?

Tara: The first romance novel I ever read was by Ann Mather, and I loved it, and my thought was, “If people want to read books like this, I could be a writer, because I would love to write books like this.”

In a wonderful turnabout, years and years later, when my book RIVER OF EDEN (written under the name Glenna McReynolds) came out, I got a letter from a reader who had loved the book, and she signed her name “Ann Mather.” I immediately wrote her back and said I knew of a very famous Harlequin writer by the name of Ann Mather, and could that possibly be you? It was! So I told her she was the inspiration for my writing career, why I got started writing romance, and now she’s writing to tell me how much she loves one of my books – it was like coming full circle, and we both loved that!

Robin: What do you enjoy most about writing? Any drawbacks? What is your writing method like? Do you have a special place where you do your writing? Do you keep to a daily schedule? Do you plot out the story ahead of time, use an outline, have sticky notes all over the room, just sit down and start typing?

Tara: I always start with a character -- that’s the hook for me. I always write in my office, and I wish I were more flexible about that. I never outline, but I do use a lot of sticky notes and I always have a notebook, which usually lasts me for three books before it’s just too used up to keep going in it. I never write chronologically in my notebook. I always just open to a blank page anywhere and write down whatever I need, like a bit of research, or a character’s name, or a time line, or my grocery list, phone numbers, a to do list, whatever. So when I finish with a notebook, there will be three books worth of notes and squiggles all jumbled in there together. I don’t have a daily schedule. I just always hope for the best.

Robin: How long does it take you to write a story? Do you ever get "hung up" when writing - the dreaded "writer's block?"

Tara: It takes forever to write a story. I’ve taken as long as two years, and done it as quickly as two months – again, I’m always hoping for the best. And I live in a perpetual state of writer’s block. The best way to deal with it is to just ignore it. So I do. The words never come easy, I just do my best to keep them coming.

Robin: We know you also write medieval historicals as Glenna McReynolds. Do you find it tough to go back and forth between time periods?

Tara: I put aside a very special time to write the medievals. THE CHALICE AND THE BLADE trilogy took six years, and I haven’t gone back to write more medieval books, so I haven’t really gone back and forth. I started CHALICE because I wanted to find out if I had a historical voice. It was a wonderful journey, quite arduous, mind-bending at times, but worth every hard-won word for me. CHALICE was total creative indulgence. I’m not sure I’ll ever let myself be quite that indulgent again. I think I’ll put a few more demands on myself before I jump off another cliff quite that high.

Robin: Your stories have a lot of action and a lot of sizzle in them. Do you love to read this kind of book or watch this kind of movie? Or is this a reflection of your real life? *g* Where does all of this come from?

Tara: Well, I do love the cars, but I don’t own one – yet. *g* As far as the action – well, I’m a mom who loves being a mom, and there are no hair-raising adventures in my life, thank goodness, but during my research for the books, I did learn how to shoot, and I fell in love with the sport. So I don’t have a 1970 Chevelle SS 454, like Angelina, but I do own Kid’s sniper rifle, and I own Skeeter’s shotgun, and Dylan’s pistol, respectively: an accurized Remington 700P, bolt action, chambered for .308, with a Schmidt and Bender PMII K scope; a Remington 870 12 gauge with a Surefire Tactical flashlight and a BRLLC sling; and a very customized Springfield 1911 semiautomatic. My “Gun Divas,” a group of girlfriends, and I take a lot of people shooting, especially women, the last person being a friend’s 82 year-old mother from Alabama. I was very careful with her. We only shot .22 caliber firearms, and she had so much fun she wants to do it again next year. Eighty-two years old and absolutely jazzed to be able to hit a target. It was a hoot!

Robin: Each of your six books in the Crazy Series features an operative from a special defense team. How do you decide which character will have his or her own story/book? Do any of them say, "Hey, it's my turn next?" Do your characters ever take over a story and change the direction you were headed in?

Tara: The characters are always in charge. All I do is listen to them. As far as the sequence of the stories, I knew from the beginning that everyone would get a story, but as far as “who is next” it just sort of unfolded that way, with one story leading into another.

Robin: Tara, many ladies on the RBL Romantica board have raved about the Crazy books. I have to admit, while loving all the Steele Street characters, Creed is my favorite, with Hawkins coming in right behind him. The characters you create are so fierce and heroic, but then we see a tough guy like Superman holding his child and being a complete marshmallow. What do you think makes a Tara Janzen hero so heroic, so enticing?

Tara: Rock-solid moral grounding and noble hearts. Even if they’re doing bad things, they’re doing them for the right reason. And yes, I know why you love Creed. *g* Me, too. The guys have all been tested, hard, in their growing up years, and in combat. They know where their bottom lines are, and they don’t let them get crossed, ever.

From CRAZY KISSES:
The river was rising like a sonuvabitch, but according to the bartender, the Garza was still out there, chugging her way downstream, which meant there was still a chance to catch a ride out of this hellhole tonight. Thank you, God and C. Smith Rydell. Even if he had to swim for it, he wasn’t missing that damn boat. No way in hell. Screw the piranhas. If they wanted a piece of him, they were going to have to get in line.

Robin: These books are solid page-turners! How do you keep the tension going?

Tara: For me, as a writer, as a creative person, this is the whole heart of the series, the wonderful thing that keeps me going – the question of how fast can I make it move? How intense can I get it? How true and compelling, page after page after page. This is the part I love, keeping it real, and keeping it moving.

Robin: Tara, I keep hoping J.T. (ed note: J.T. is the brother of one of the main characters) is alive somewhere and that he wasn’t really killed -- that it might have been someone else with a sack over his head, and maybe the enemy is holding J.T. captive and trying to get secrets from him. But after Creed's and Kid's stories, I don’t know anymore ... my eternal optimism is slowly ebbing. Is there any way that J.T. can still be alive?

Tara: Oh my gosh, I have gotten so many, many letters on this subject. Readers have come up with all kinds of story ideas for J.T. to still be alive. I think about it all the time, and still don’t have an answer, but I can tell you that we see him in a flashback in CUTTING LOOSE, and I loved seeing him, listening to him talk, watching him move.

Robin: Your new book, ON THE LOOSE, comes out October 30th!

From the publisher:
He's a special agent who never loses his cool.

She's the heat-seeking missile headed straight for his heart.

Keeping cool under pressure is the credo C. Smith Rydell lives by. That’s why he was handpicked by the Special Defense Forces for a mission few men survive. So why has the ex–DEA superstar been reassigned to Panama City, playing bodyguard to a blond in a black string bikini? Except Honey York isn’t your average pampered socialite. She’s the woman Rydell caught smuggling cash into El Salvador four months ago. And now she wants him to take her back.

All Honey has to do is find the guerrilla camp, deliver the goods, and get the hell out of the jungle -— all in forty-eight hours. Only one man is up for the job. But sharing an unforgettable one-night stand was nothing next to being stranded with Rydell on some third world mountaintop. And with bullets flying and all hell breaking loose, now is not the time for passion. As if these two could possibly resist it ...

Are we ever going to find out what the “C” in C. Smith Rydell stands for? LOL

Tara: The C. is revealed in ON THE LOOSE!

Robin: What are the next two titles in the series and when can we expect them to hit the shelves? Would you tell us a little about them?

Tara: CUTTING LOOSE comes out December 26, 2007 –- so not much of a wait there, thank goodness! The story from ON THE LOOSE just rolls into CUTTING LOOSE. It’s hard to talk about CUTTING LOOSE without giving away spoilers for ON THE LOOSE, but we’re back with one of the original Steele Street chop-shop boys, and a schoolteacher, Lily Robbins, who got in way over her head in El Salvador during ON THE LOOSE. The whole book –- CUTTING LOOSE -- is a wild, wild ride in a 1968 Shelby Cobra Mustang as the chop-shop boy and Lily try to make the run from Albuquerque to Denver in record time with a whole lot of very bad people out to kill them. They’re looking to survive, and what they find is love. CUTTING LOOSE moves so fast, I put the time at the beginning of each chapter.

And I’m in the process of writing LOOSE AND EASY, which is Johnny Ramos’s story, which I am soooo loving. He’s got a very prim and proper wild girl on his hands, Esmee Alexandria Alden, who he started calling “Easy Alex” way back in seventh grade. She was always getting him in trouble back then, and guess what? She’s still at it, only the stakes have gotten much much higher than after-school detention.

Robin: What was the best advice you received prior to becoming a published author and who gave it to you?

Tara: A wonderful writer named Lee Karr said to stop polishing the first book forever and ever, to set it aside when it was finished and get on with the next book.

Robin: We have several aspiring authors here at RBL Romantica. What advice would you give an aspiring author?

Tara: The truth is, Robert Heinlein said it best:
          1. You must write.
          2. You must finish what you start.
          3. You must refrain from rewriting except by editorial order.
          4. You must keep your work on the market until it sells.

Well, some of my first work will never sell, and I rewrite like crazy, but I’ll stand by the first two rules all the way.



Thank you, Tara, for spending some of your valuable time with us! We look forward to the new book, ON THE LOOSE, out on October 30, 2007.


~Robin~


And don't forget -- coming December 26th!




Tara's Web Site



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