Ask the Author: Tamara Shoemaker
Answered Questions (9)
Tamara Shoemaker
I don't know that I've ever NOT been a writer, if that makes sense. I've been telling stories since before I could make letters on paper. After I learned how to write, I vividly remember copying down on notebook paper the entire book of The Boxcar Children, because I wanted to "write a book." I didn't actually get published until 2012, more as a result of a mental push: "I want to write and publish a book." I fell in love with the process. That first book certainly wasn't expert, but many more have followed it.
Favorite book? I have so many. The ones that I love the most go way back to my very young days: Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Lord of the Rings, Laura Ingalls Wilder, etc. Later ones were Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight. There are so many good books out there, and I know I'm missing so many of them. It's a reason why I will never be done reading. :)
Favorite book? I have so many. The ones that I love the most go way back to my very young days: Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Lord of the Rings, Laura Ingalls Wilder, etc. Later ones were Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight. There are so many good books out there, and I know I'm missing so many of them. It's a reason why I will never be done reading. :)
Tamara Shoemaker
This is like asking who is my favorite child. I have so many favorites, each of them the best in their own way, none of them better or worse than another; they are each special in their own right. So I'll lay out a cross-section of favorites: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejudice), Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre), Shiloh Irons and Cheney Duvall (Cheney Duvall, M.D. series), Christine Daae and the Phantom (Phantom of the Opera, and yes, I know she ends up with the "other" point in the triangle), Matthew and Mary Crawley (Downton Abbey), The Beast and Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Daymon Houser and Alayne Worth (Guardian of the Vale trilogy)... and the list goes on.
Tamara Shoemaker
Hi Emily! I'd love to send you a copy. If I have your email address, I think all I need to do is forward it on to my publisher, and she will get you a copy. Thanks so much! :)
Tamara Shoemaker
I have no patience with writer's block. Write through it. No matter what. If I just can't figure out what's going to happen next, I reverse my character's actions. If he/she walks in the door somewhere and there's nothing to happen, I have her/him run back out. Up the stairs? They charge back down. Still, peaceful scene that's too quiet? There's a fire. Or a storm. Or the spat of gunfire. The beauty of being the author is that you can make anything happen, no matter what it is. Don't let writer's block keep you from the magic.
Tamara Shoemaker
For me? I love wearing my pajamas all day (until my husband pulls in the driveway. Then I run frantically through the house to find an outfit, so when he walks in the house, I can say with a nonchalant shrug, "Oh hey, you're home.")
More importantly, I love living more than one life. Of course, I enjoy my own life with my husband and my three children and the wild craziness of being everybody's chauffeur and cook and housekeeper and all that, but I'm wild to experience my characters' worlds too. And as an author, I can do that anytime I want.
More importantly, I love living more than one life. Of course, I enjoy my own life with my husband and my three children and the wild craziness of being everybody's chauffeur and cook and housekeeper and all that, but I'm wild to experience my characters' worlds too. And as an author, I can do that anytime I want.
Tamara Shoemaker
Set a goal. See it through. Don't get discouraged. The publishing process is chock-full of things that are going to make you cry. So cry, and then write. No matter what, put your words onto paper, or laptop, or tablet, whatever. This process requires a thick skin. I have about the thinnest skin you'll find anywhere, and my pillow has seen many tears from multiple rejections, bad reviews, etc. But I'm a writer. It's not only what I do, it's who I am. So I clear out the obstacles, no matter how formidable, and I write.
Tamara Shoemaker
I've got two works in progress at the moment. I'm finishing up the third book in my Guardian of the Vale trilogy (currently my only fantasy trilogy), and I've just begun another mystery. This one won't be in the same series as my Shadows in the Nursery series, but it will be for the same audience.
Tamara Shoemaker
I have to laugh at the idea of "inspiration" to write. Do I think that authors are inspired to write a story? Yes, often. Do I think that every story out there was inspired? Not by a long shot. The main thing I've learned over time is that if I wait for the inspiration, the book will never get written. Writing is sitting down, every day, slogging through the thousand words or the two thousand words or whatever your goal is for the day, and getting your ideas onto paper. From there, the story grows. Someone (I don't know who) said, "You can't edit a blank page." So true.
Tamara Shoemaker
Mark of Four (not published yet) is a story of a girl who can wield four elements (air, fire, earth, and water) in a world where everyone else can wield only one. I don't know exactly where the idea came from. I had never seen The Last Airbender, so I didn't have that story to inspire me. I was just tossing around ideas, grabbed at the seed (the four elements), and from that the story grew. It's gotten much more complicated than I ever intended. I set out to have a simple story. I'm nearly done now with the trilogy, and the story has taken over my world.
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