About Tam Francis:
Tam Francis writes vintage romantic fiction and has taught swing dancing for fifteen years with her husband (a US Navy aircraft mechanic on the carrier flight deck in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars). She’s an avid collector of vintage sewing patterns, vintage clothing, and antiques. On most weekends she can be found sipping vintage cocktails out of eclectic barware.
She’s published, contributed to, and been Editor-in-chief for two indie magazines, as well as a published poet and Poetry Slammer, (two-time National Poetry Slam Phoenix Team Member, Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Art Walk Featured Poet, New Times Feature Poet, Visual Voices Featured Writer) and short story writer (two-time shortlisted for Scare the Dickens Out of Us contest).
She blogs vintage lifestyle tips, recipes, interviews, give-aways, fun and games.
She began the Ghostoria compilation when she moved to Texas and entered the Scare the Dickens Out of Us Ghost Story Contest. Ghost ideas kept knocking her noggin until she wrote them down an
d assembled a collection.
Look for The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress in 2016, and the sequel: The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress Hops the Atlantic. And the paranormal murder mystery time-travel romance The Flapper Affair, early 2017.
She now lives in Lockhart, Texas in a 1908 home, which may or may not be haunted.
What inspires you to write?
Sometimes dreams, sometimes a place. I’ve written my entire life, but had a lot of breaks in-between. I guess it would start with a feeling or an observance. I try to get that feeling down through characters and situation. Sometimes I write what I see, or think i saw, and try to capture the beauty and nuance and the significance of it.
Tell us about your writing process.
For my first novel I did an outline. I’d never written a novel before. I’d been writing blogs about my dance adventures and a girlfriend said I should write a novel. I came up with a decent plot and outlines most of it. There were lots of gaps to fill in.
When I did my first and second NaNoWriMo, I just pants it all the way. I had a beginning, end, and characters, but that was all.
Now, I’m most comfortable with treating novel writing like a cross country trip. I know where i want to start and end, and the big cities I want to hit on the way, but the rest is panster all the way.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I listen, but i have talked to them. I had one of them interview me for my blog post before I launched my book. I read to myself out loud a lot which really helps me hear their voice.
What advice would you give other writers?
READ your genre. Edit, edit and edit. Hire professionals to help. SAVE the money. I make minimum wage subbing and I saved up the money. Also get in a really good critique group. Don’t try to work in a vacuum. Don’t be afraid to cut or delete whole scenes.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
With the ghost story collection, I new it was just about impossible to get an agent or publisher interested. And although I’d been short-listed on a ghost story contest, unless you’re already famous, its hard to sell a compilation. Besides I wanted to try-out the process of self-publishing.
With my second book I hit the query trail and learned a lot from agent rejections.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I don’t know. I think we’re in a big state of flux right now. I think the flood of Indie and self-publishers might serve a lowest common denominator, yet at the same time wonderful books are rising above, that never would have been published in a traditional legacy way.
What do you use?: Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: paranormal, women’s fiction, new adult, romance, fantasy, historical
What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print
Website(s)
Tam Francis Home Page Link
Link To Tam Francis Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
