Tara Maya's Tales

  When you're working on a long, complex project, what slows you down isn't the larger story arc, but polishing the details. In the case of a fantasy epic like The Unfinished Song, it's often the stories within the story which I have to rework and rework to hone just right. Why are the subplots sometimes so much harder to write than the Main Plot?  I think there are several reasons.  One, I've known the arc of the Main Plot for a long time. In fact, I've been anticipating some scenes since I started, and I couldn't wait to write them. Naturally, those came easy! Two, once I have my Main Plot nailed into place, any fiddling with the book has to come in the subplots. The subsidiary stories have to wiggle into the spaces left by the Main Plot, and conform to it, not the other way around. They therefore require more... fiddling. Three, the subplots and stories-within-stories serve a dual purpose in the overall book. They aren't there only because I love to go o...

In a vlog, Rowan Ellis complained about "The Creepy Implications of Time Travel Rom-Coms." (Feb 19, 2023) She complained that the male protagonists use their Time Travel powers to manipulate and remove choice from the female love interests. The hero learns something about the heroine in one timeline, travels backwards in time, and relieves another timeline in which he uses that knowledge to impress her. Reiterated over several journeys, she experiences him as magically attuned to her needs, marvelously able to anticipate what she wants--and because he loves her so much, he gives it to her.    I can see her point. I can.  (And nothing in this post is a personal attack on the vlogger.) But I have a different take. And I have an advantage that she doesn't... I'm married to a Time Traveler. I want to tell you ladies: if you find a man who not only possess the supernatural power of rearranging space and time, but the willingness to use it to find out w...

  On Sale Today for only $0.99! Excerpt from Root : Dancing, Kemla felt the heat pour forth, burning without consuming, the familiar sensation she lived for and loved. She lifted her hands aloft, palms up. Flame-red fae began to cavort in the palms of her hands. Kemla knew these Red fae well. Smokeytoes, Blaze, Sootsy… Then, to her surprise, the Red fae abandoned her. Sparking away on blazing wings, they rode the wind a short distance and landed on the hands of Dindi, who had been mirroring every move of her Fire Dance. Shocked, Kemla stopped dancing. Dindi didn’t. While Kemla watched, open-mouthed, the Red fae began to gather around the serving girl. “What are you doing?” Kemla shouted at the Red fae. Dindi, unable to see the fae, must have thought Kemla was addressing her, the stupid little goat-head. She stumbled to a stop and began to stutter some idiotic response. “I was just practicing…” The Red fae, still flying around Dindi, grinned at Kemla. “How dare you mock me!” Kemla o...

  In a previous post, I admitted (gasp) to experiementing with ChatGPT. I promised to keep you updated, so here I am. After further experience, I have practiced writing a full novella with ChatGPT. (I renamed AI assistant Steve, like the dude from Minecraft, because he's a well-meaning blockhead.)  I developed a method to get a "raw draft" from Steve, which is equivalent to my raw Dictation draft, although, as I mentioned above, both kinds of draft need extensive revision. I call Steve scenes "backbone" scenes. Maybe "stickfigure" scenes would be a good term too, because in general, what I will keep out of it is the underlying structure of the scene, while the sentences themselves will have to be replaced with better prose. Overall, ChatGPT is still better at nonfiction than fiction, but there are plenty of places in writing a novel that it's useful to have a nonfiction assist. I've written another book in my Fiction Writing Guide series about ...

  Get the book on your favorite site. An Arcana Glen  Sweet Paranormal Romance ( click here to buy): Dahlia was hired to hunt down a Lion Shifter who stole a deadly weapon. Aaresh was a mild-mannered school teacher by day. By night, he turned into a monster he couldn’t control… But when Dahlia hunts him down and he traps her in his lair, who is the hunter and who is the prey? The loneliest portion of her run home was through a thick pine forest. When Dahlia entered the tree cover, she heard another runner’s footsteps pacing behind her to match her foot falls. Someone was following her. He was using stealth, trying to hide his presence. Almost certainly he was up to nothing good. It was going to be one of those nights when some cocky, predacious Shifter attacked Dahlia to rob her, rape her, kidnap her or kill her. Awesome. She looked forward to taking out another loser who thought to prey on the weak.  Adrenaline zinged through her body, followed by the zip-zap tingl...