Tara Maya's Tales

Yesterday, I met a snow gnome. This was odd, since we have no snow in California. I was really cold, though. (Not sure if the gnome was to blame...) The snow gnome, or nisse , asked me, "Are you living your best life?" Immediately, I started thinking about a palatial estate with a gorgeous, cozy grand room, a fire crackling in the immense fireplace... "No," said the gnome, "Not THE best life. Not the best life you can imagine..." "Fair enough," I said, "Since I have a very vivid imagination!" "We know," said the gnome, "since you're talking to gnomes. But I meant: Are you living the best life you can live right now? " As I wandered home through the snowy street lined with white marble facades and glowing, festive evergreens... or actually, through a suburban California neighborhood lined with palm trees (but really cold, guys, I'm serious!) I pondered this. Am I living "the dream?" No... There'...

In a previous post , I brought up the concern that AI generated art could start putting artists out of business. And I don't deny that new tech can discombobulate us. Shortly after I wrote that post, I read about an artist whose distinctive abstract style of art was stolen by one of the art-generation programs that easily produced imitations (although not as good, I have to say) as hers.  Stealing her style was pretty crummy. If she had created the program herself, though... hmmm. She could have fed it the original art to train it and then sold other people the right to make art in her own style. It's not the AI itself that's the problem, it's that our legal and commercial systems have to catch up in a way to reward the artist. That's tough, yes. Not insurmountable, but tough. But meanwhile, there's another issue that artists almost always overlook on this topic.  Has anyone really considered just HOW MUCH DANG ART we are going to need for the future? Let's ...

AI generated art. An English teacher, Natalie Kay, wrote about the rising difficulty to “ The College Essay is Dead ” posed by ChatGPT and like programs. (Natalie Kay   Dec 9, 2022, https://medium.com/predict/ai-is-here-and-its-harming-future-generations-and-the-present-ones-cf40985b9bbf) This time last year, I was in the middle of my one-year stint as a high school English teacher. There were many reasons I left the job (the teacher shortage exists for a reason, it turns out), but undoubtedly one of the most significant ongoing issues I had was plagiarism. I tried it myself using ChatGPT, the AI program he discusses in the article. I used a prompt that I had given to my own students when I asked them to write essays on Romeo and Juliet. The quality and level of detail was similar to that of my students. Even if I had been suspicious of plagiarism, I never would have found a way to prove that a student didn’t write the essay. It passed in every way I know to look for...

Bethany November 30, Wednesday night 21 Days to the Winter Solstice Kyrah, where are you? Please call out to me! I want to help you! Bethany Dilly Giscard was flying around, a sure sign that she was dreaming, ‘cause she didn’t have wings in real life. Moreover, Bethany was aware that she was dreaming, which was pretty cool—and usually a sign that it wasn’t her own dream—she was Dreamwalking. In the last year since Bethany had become a Guardian, she’d learned that her power was not limited to simply being a big, walking Null. As a Guardian to the Sphere of Dreams, she could visit that Blessed Realm in order to enter the dreams of anyone. Since entering another person’s dreams constituted a severe breach of privacy, Bethany didn’t do it often. Tonight, however, she was searching for her friend. Her best friend, Kyrah, had been captured by the Dark Triad, the three powerful sorcerers who were driving the Elven War. Bethany had been trying to connect to Kyrah in the Sphere for Dream...

  The Mirror is a Portal into Winterdom . My "final" draft of The Tree & the Egg came back with some scathing critiques from my Content Editor.  Ouch.  This is the last book in the Major Arcana series, which is meant to wrap up the whole series in a neat bow and yet still leave the door open for future series set in the Tarot Magic universe of Arcana Glen. The original draft was almost 50,000 words on the dot. The first round of revisions saw another 30,000 words added. That makes this the longest book in the series. It's not usual for the last book in a series to be the longest. It's the Final Battle, all the loose ends must be tied up, and every major character needs a moment to shine. I have twenty-two major characters, who each have at least one Point of View scene in the book. I also have several villains and gray characters (who may be either villains or anti-heroes) who aren't PoV characters but still deserve their due. In addition to that, I also want ...

An Enchanted Thanksgiving on sale today for only $0.99 I started writing The Unfinished Song more than a decade ago.  It has twelve books, with a story arc planned from the start, yet the latest book out is Book 9 - Maze.  I haven't finished the series yet. "Stuff" happened that delayed me. And sometimes the next book itself delayed me.  The moral of the story? Maybe I should have set a deadline!  That's what I decided to do with my next series. And next. I vowed that I would publish two complete series this year: The Major Arcana Elf Tarot series and the Holiday Elf Tarot series, both a series of sweet, Paranormal Romances set in Arcana Glen, Colorado. The timeline in the books themselves determined by deadline, because the stores (which are independent but intertwined) occur over a year. They have to come out in the month they feature. So far, I've met my deadlines, although in few cases, I was scrambling, and had to sheepishly (inside joke-some books have Shee...

  Excerpt from  Judgment & the World : Once again, he closed the distance between them. Trudie backed up another step, and he took another step forward, until finally she hit the bureau against the wall. She couldn’t back up any further and he kept closing in on her, as if stalking her. He didn’t touch her again, but he put his hands on either side of the bureau, trapping her between his arms. He leaned down and murmured into her ear, only an inch from her face, “When are you going to tell the Guardians the truth?” He was terrifying her and yet at the same time the heat of his breath against her neck made her tingle with desire. She was so messed up. It didn’t matter what he did, she still wanted him. “What’s your game this time?” he demanded in a husky whisper. “Are you going to pull my heart out again, Angel?” she demanded, looking up into his face. “You hate me so much. Why didn’t you kill me when you had a chance? You could’ve crushed my heart instead of returning me t...

  Excerpt from Judgment & the World : The Dragon Hall had been set up like a court. A very ancient and wizened little old lady in a black robe sat at the judge’s bench. She was an extremely powerful Dragon, almost 5000 years old. Her human form was so gnarled and wrinkly that she had no discernible race; her hair was snow on iron. Her eyes gleamed gold, like the predator she was. The jury box was to Raziel’s right as he entered the room facing the judge’s bench. The jurors were a mix of Guardians and Dragons. He had no idea how they had been selected. Two desks faced the judge’s bench. The prosecutor was closest to the jury. The table for the defense, where Raziel sat with Charisa Borboleta and Michael Lambent, was on the left. The prosecutor would be Eleni Bendox, the Gorgon. The Magician played no formal role in the trial. He sat in the benches for spectators, as if only curious about the outcome. And yet Raziel knew that none of this would be happening if Alephander Guiscard...

  New Book! An Enchanted Thanksgiving is now available. I realize those of you in Canada have already celebrated Thanksgiving, but in Arcana Glen, which is in the Colorado Rockies, they celebrate on November 24th. About this Book: Cody Lawson and Caroline Longford are colleagues. Nothing more. No matter how much Cody admires his cool, beautiful partner in the Department of Arcane Affairs, he knows better than to risk their professional relationship by admitting his feelings run deeper than they should between two agents. He intends to keep his emotions under wraps. That applies to family too. Cody knows that during the last year, when he was struggling with his discovery that magic was real, he alienated his brother and his sister, who both married arcanes, people with magic. His solution—cut off all contact. That way, he can’t hurt anyone again. However, when Cody and Caroline are assigned to his hometown, Arcana Glen, Cody’s sister Marla insists they attend the family Thanksgivin...

  Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Trying to write a book in a month this November? (Or whenever you end up trying it... it doesn't have to be November, after all). One week in, how are you doing? Maybe you're going strong? Maybe you are off to a great start... but now that first burst of inspiration is running out of steam? Maybe you're floundering just a wee bit? Maybe you think it's too late to start?  Even if you're a Pantser and your going strong on a streak of inspiration, you might find it helpful to track your progress with an Outline. This is a more focused, streamlined version of the Book Outline Planner I designed to use for myself. (That's also available for sale, because why not?) This is a sample of the inside: As you can see, it's simple and straightforward. If you hit the word count on each page (whether or not it's on the proper "Day X" or not), you'll reach a 50,000 plus novel . If you miss a week or whatever of NaNoWriMo, instead...

The techniques here are designed to help you streamline your writing...and that includes not wasting your time on false starts or novels with huge, gaping plot holes that torment you during revisions.  These are my best No Fail Formulas for starting or re-starting a new or broken novel, for kicking myself out of writer's block, and for making the most of every precious writing minute in a tight schedule.  This book will help you: - write fast AND fabulous prose - fix broken plots - avoid false starts and meandering middles - create endings that sizzle, not fizzle - plan your wordcount to fit your book and genre - painlessly add or cut words - end writer’s block and recapture you love of writing... even during the tough spots. Today, you can read this free on Amazon . If you don't read on Amazon, get it here .

 If you're looking for a great movie to watch tonight, after Treak-or-Treating, here are three movies I recommend. Here they are, in no particular order. The Sixth Sense.  This movie stands the test of time. It's spook and creepy enough to warrant being a Halloween classic, without being TOO scary or gruesome. Personally, I also prefer the tear-jerker ending to the "monster attacks to the end" technique employed in a lot of Horror films.  Ghostbusters. The original. Accept no substitutes. Sing along.  I Cast A Spell On You. There just aren't enough Paranormal Romance movies in general, not even themed around Halloween. I found this one this year and I really enjoyed it. It's like a Cinderella story, except if the story started with the Ball and the Glass Slipper was magic powers.  The hero is a Warlock who accidentally loses his magic to True Love's Kiss. He has to find the woman who stole his magic and his heart... even though he's trapped in an arran...

  Excerpt: My Only Love Sprung From My Only Hate... “We match,” Julia teased the handsome young man across the table from her. He was staring at her as if he had never seen a girl before. Julia knew she wasn’t especially beautiful, so there could be only one reason he was staring at her with a flabbergasted expression. This must be Shawn Strongclaw, the boy her mother wanted her to meet. He had probably seen a photograph of her and was now too shocked to say anything to her face. She had guessed as soon as she had seen him come in, that he must be Shawn, because of his costume. Her mother must have told his mother what Julia was wearing, and the two wolf wives conspired. He blinked at her. She felt a strange flutter in her heart. His expression right now was adorably goofy, but she had seen him when he entered, cocky, and sure of himself.  At first, Julia hadn’t been impressed. He was lanky, with a plain face. But when their eyes met, something struck her with the force of an ...

  From now until Halloween, Initiate is on sale for only $0.99 on Amazon and FREE on other sites! Excerpt: Rthan Rthan surveyed the damage to his water spell. Weeks of fasting, planning, traveling and dancing, ruined. The careful crystalline lines he had built up around the mountain snows had been realigned, the original configuration would have unleashed a flood of snowmelt several months from now, with spring’s kiss. No longer. The new glowing blue lines of magic would sluice the melt water harmlessly down a dozen smaller arroyos, instead of toward the enemy settlement in the main valley below the mountain. Someone had protected the Rainbow Labyrinth tribehold. "Who could have done this?" he asked aloud. The other six men and women with him only mirrored back to him his own bafflement and bemusement. They shivered and wheezed in the snow, not used to either the temperature or the altitude. He knew they were wondering if he would order them to stay the long weeks required ...

  Cody regarded the office like a snake might look at the skin it sloughed off. It looked familiar, but wrong: hollow and smaller than he remembered. Spencer might not be happy to see him because he feared Cody was here to challenge him for the position of Sherriff, but Cody felt he’d outgrown that role. He wasn’t sure that was something his older brother was prepared to understand. “I’m now with the DAA,” Cody said without preamble. “Agent Longford is my partner. We are both going to be stationed here in Arcana Glen. Your department is asked to provide all due cooperation.” Cody pulled out his secret weapon, a wad of papers embossed with official seals and signed by high-ranking muckity-mucks. Spencer raised his eyebrows higher and higher as he perused the documents. “So... let me get this straight.” Spencer tossed the papers on the desk when he was done reading the fine print. “You’re going to work for me as a Deputy Sheriff again... but not really. In reality, you’re going to be...