Looking Back On My First Book and Who I Have to Thank...

Dear Readers, My first book, Rules of Darkness, has been for over a year, and the second book in the series, Rules of Fire, just released earlier this week. Wow. I almost can’t believe it. I want to thank the readers out there, the reviewers who took the time to read my story, and Resplendence Publishing for believing in my work. ~Tia Fanning "Fanning the Flames of Romance" http://www.tiafanning.blogspot.com/

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In a remote forest settlement, a place almost untouched by the modern world, a baby girl is born with a powerful healing gift. But like all wondrous gifts, this one too comes at a high price.

Because of her special ability, Katia has to follow the twelve Rules of Darkness, rules she must abide by at all times, or else risk losing her soul forever. But when Katia accidentally breaks a rule, horrific repercussions ensue and an old love mysteriously appears at her door.

Katia will soon discover that things buried in the past can come back to haunt the present, that a promise made is a promise kept, and that no matter the circumstances, there are some rules that should never be broken.

REVIEWS

“Rules of Darkness is a marvelous novel bursting with supernatural thrills that had me turning the pages... It's a story I would enjoy revisiting. I'm hoping that the author will write a sequel, and there are no rules to say I can't keep my fingers crossed.”

--Patrice F, a Reviewer Recommended Read, Joyfully Reviewed

“Tia Fanning has written an exceptional novella. The relationship between Katia and Stoyan is realistically developed, and the rest of the characters bring much to the table. Fanning has fully developed Rules of Darkness, and the storyline is absolutely perfect. You’ll be laughing, and crying, but in the end, you’ll find yourself loving the story, and extremely happy with how things turned out. Rules of Darkness is a fantastic story, and Tia Fanning is an amazing author.”

--Denise Kivett, a Reviewer *Must-Read* Award, Rogues and Romance

I just absolutely adored this story from the very first page. It had me sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading it. Ms. Fanning wrote with such detail and emotion that I was feeling everything that Katia was going through. Ms. Fanning did a superb job with the development of her characters and how she told the story... I highly recommend this story to everyone. You will not be disappointed!

--Diana Coyle, 5/5 and a Reviewer Top Pick, Night Owl Romance

The tug of self-preservation insisting I eat the damn soup...

Taken With the Enemy is the book of my heart. What does that mean, the book of my heart?

For me, that means it's the book an author has to write even if no one wants to publish it. It's the book that an author drops everything for, including their current projects, to complete because they are feeling the story that strongly. It's the story with characters and a plot that is so much a part of the author that if they didn't put it on paper, the story would haunt them and they would never be able to move on to write something else.

In the end, it's the book that an author loves best of all their work.

Taken With the Enemy is the book of my heart.

Inspired by a dream I had, Taken With the Enemy is a contemporary spin of those old historical novels where the heroine ends up falling in love with her captor. I had locked myself in my basement to write this book, completing it in about one month, during the holidays, knowing full well that the story might never see a printing press due to its "politically incorrect" nature.

I mean, this is the 21st century; you do not fall for your kidnapper.

But is it possible that true love could form under such circumstances? Could a solid, secure, healthy relationship develop around abduction? Especially in a modern world where psychological conditions like Stockholm syndrome exist—a term often used to describe any attachment a person might feel for their abductor?

I like to believe it’s possible, at least for the characters in my story. (LOL!)

I’m a hopeless romantic. I’m an avid believer in the concepts of love at first sight, of love conquering all, and that if two people are meant to be together, true love will bloom regardless of the circumstances.

I am a romance author.

Cheers!
~Tia

* * * * *

Yanking the covers away, he grasped my arm and pulled me off the mattress. I was so shocked, I didn’t object when he dragged my ass into the dining room. He shoved me down into the chair at the head of the table.

“You will eat. Now,” he growled.

Staring at the steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup and the glass of fruit juice before me, I instinctively touched the spoon resting on the napkin, but drew my hand back. The thought of putting something in my mouth made me feel queasy. I really just wanted to go back to sleep. I was exhausted.

At the other end of the table, he angrily slid the heavy wooden chair out, marring the air with the shriek of scratching marble. I flinched, hating the sound that echoed through the room.

He sat and stared me down. “I said eat.”

“I’m not hungry,” I mumbled.

“I don’t care.”

The edge in his voice, the hard set of his jaw, and the dark gleam in his eyes cautioned me not to press the issue. But amongst the inner chaos that consumed me—including the tug of self-preservation insisting I eat the damn soup—was the overwhelming urge to rebel against his demand.

“Don’t make me tell you again,” he warned, raising a dark brow.

What was I? A wayward child? If I wasn’t hungry, I wasn’t friggin hungry.

I shook my head.

“Eat.”

It was all too much.

Frustrated, I slammed my hands down on the table’s surface. “I’m not eating this.”

“Yes, you are.”

I swept my arm across, knocking the bowl and the glass off the edge. They hit the hard floor in a shattering, splattering mess.

The gratification was short-lived.

Quick as lightening, he was out of his chair and in my face, as dangerous as the first time we met.

“I’m going to let that slide,” he growled, “because apparently, not having food for five days has made you irrational and far braver than you should be, given the circumstances.”

I glanced away.

He pounded the tabletop. “Look at me!”

Flitching, my gaze immediately jumped back to his, my heart thumping in fear.

“I am going to get you another bowl and you are going to eat,” he continued, enunciating each syllable with careful restraint. “And if you don’t, I will tie you to that chair and force feed you. Am I making myself clear?”

~Excerpt from Taken With the Enemy by Tia Fanning

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Night Owl Romance


“I am a fan of Tia Fanning and her work. She pens wonderfully entertaining stories that don’t disappoint her readers. This story was extremely engrossing and had me wondering the entire time what was going to happen to Brenna. I will definitely add this one to my library...”

--Diana Coyle, 5/5 and a Reviewer Top Pick, Night Owl Romance

A New Year and A Letter of Thanks...

I’ve always been a writer. Like my love of reading books, the passion I have for writing stories is something that has been in my blood since I was a child. In school, I was one of those weird students that actually got “all excited” about writing assignments.

However, I didn’t start writing seriously (and with the hopes of being published) until I was in high school. Of course, being a melodramatic teenager, I began by writing dark poetry, some of which became published in the school’s literary magazine.

I was twenty-six years old when I decided that I wanted to be a romance author. But somewhere around 44,000 words into my first novel, I realized I had no idea what I was doing. So, after much internet research, I signed up for an aspiring authors course at a Romantic Times conference.

Going to that conference was the best thing I ever did.

First, I never would have thought I could learn so much from one three-day Aspiring Author class. My fabulous teacher, Author Judi McCoy, explained all the ins and outs of getting established in the romance industry. Honest and up front, she shared the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in-between.

(If you are an aspiring author, I highly recommend her course.)

It was also at this Romantic Times conference that I met four other amazing, beautiful women who would change my life in profound ways.

Two of these women ended up becoming my critique partners and, more importantly, my close friends. Without Author Aleka Nakis and Teanette Major staying up long nights to read and correct my work, my manuscripts might never have been accepted. The other two wonderful ladies I met at the conference would later become the dazzle behind Resplendence Publishing— founders Leigh Collett and Jessica Berry.

So let me take a moment to say… Aleka, Judi, Tea, Leigh and Jess… thank you for everything. Your insight, wisdom, patience, encouragement, and friendship have been invaluable.

Of course, I have to thank my family as well. They fueled my love of reading and writing.

Mom, you are the reason I love romance novels. I will always appreciate the time, and money, you spent supporting my “romance novel” addiction for all those years.

Dad, if you didn’t take the time to read to me when I was young, I might never have grown to love books the way I do now. Ever since high school, when it came to writing, you’ve always been my biggest fan.

And Aunt Celeste, you have always been a flowing spring of positive encouragement and love.

I love you all so much.

Also, I want to thank my husband, Warren. He was the one who taught me the true meaning of love, who supported my dream, and stuck it out with me (and our marriage) even though I ignored him for days and nights on end while I worked to complete my books.

Warren, you’re a wonderful husband. I couldn’t imagine my life without you.

Last, but not least, I want to thank the readers out there. As a writer by nature, I will always write, but it is because of you that I became an author.

Sincerely,

Tia Margaret Fanning
“Fanning the Flames of Romance”

It's All About Tia... Oh! And Tia's Tiara

Me at my very first book signing... (sigh...) I know, it's an awful picture. Goofy smile, scrunched nose, squinty eyes, buckteeth, double chin...

I also know you all are wondering why I'm wearing a tiara on my head.

Seriously, that tiara helped me out a lot. Others wondered the same thing and kept coming to my table. I managed to sell out of my books that day, and I truly think the tiara is the reason why.
;)

I began writing early on in life, as most writers do, but I took a very nontraditional path to becoming an romance/erotic romance author. Believe it or not, I began exploring my passion for writing as a poet. Don't get me wrong, I had always loved reading stories, especially tales involving some kind of romance (like fairytales), but it was not something I ever thought I would write.


Poetry was my outlet. Not only did I want to tell a story, but I wanted it to be beautiful, lyrical, flow the way a whisper is carried on a moonlit breeze. I wanted my words to wrap around the reader and subtly caress their senses. I wanted to pull at that secret place deep inside a person where fond memories and distant dreams resided, and take them far away from the harsh realities of the world. (Fluffy, I know…)


While I wrote poetry, I continued to feed my other passion—reading. Everyone once in a while, I would stumble across an author that wrote stories the same way that I strove to write my poetry. Not only were these stories beautiful, romantic, stirring, but they were written in a way that made me feel what I always endeavored to make others feel with my own work.


Because of this influence, my poetry slowly evolved into short stories. But as time went on, I grew older, wiser, and eventually moved into adulthood. Sadly, I abandoned my childhood aspirations so that I might concentrate on other “grown-up” things. However, the more I lived life and learned what a cruel place the world could be, the more I grew bitter and jaded. (sigh…)


Thankfully, while I gave up writing and my desire to be a writer, I never gave up reading romance.


So years passed and I matured physically, mentally, emotionally, and finally sexually, (or in some order close to that) and I discovered that my reading tastes also matured. I found that I still wanted the romance, but I also wanted the passion to be a little hotter. Reading myths and fairy tales gave way to sweet fantasy romances, which gave way to historical romances, and—now confident and secure in myself and my sexuality—mainstream romances gave way erotic romances.


One day I met a wonderful man, and like a storyline from one of the many books I read, we fell in love and got married. A little less bitter and jaded with life, I started writing again. (LOL!)


So, here I am.

I believe that my work today is a blend of all I confessed above. I find that many of the stories I write, whether it be contemporary or paranormal, still have the element of fantasy and fairytale that I loved so much as a child. My stories promote the ideals of love at first sight, of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people, the concepts of fate, destiny and coincidence, and always have the perfect happily ever after.

However, I also find that most of my characters (especially my heroines) tend to exhibit a very... um... realistic attitude that many associate with the modern world. I think it makes the story interesting when the heroine comes across with that honest “this is freaking unbelievable, but since my luck is so bad, I shouldn’t be surprised that it happened to me” attitude. I like to think it allows readers the ability to relate to a character, and this makes the overall “fairytale” feel of the story believable—like it could happen to any of us at any moment.

Cheers!
~Tia


Official Website: www.tiafanning.com

MySpace Page: www.myspace.com/tiafanning
Official Blog: www.tiafanning.blogspot.com

YouTube: www.youtube.com/tiafanning

NowLive: www.nowlive.com/tiafanning


You can also find me hanging out at Amazon (www.amazon.com), Fictionwise (www.fictionwise.com), Coffee Time Romance (www.coffeetimeromance.com), and of course… Resplendence Publishing (www.resplendencepublishing.com).


A Letter To My Readers...

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www.tiafanning.com


Dear Reader,

Welcome to a world where love, romance, and desire burn as hot as flame...

Whether you want to read about love at first sight, or a reunion of love from the past, there is a story to be found here. From contemporary romance to the paranormal, from the shy heroine who has a secret love of adult toys, to the powerful hero who uses magic to protect the love of his life, in this world, the flames of passion and romance are fanned to scorching levels as love conquers all.

I love hearing from my readers, so please, feel free to contact me by e-mail at tia@tiafanning.com or befriend me on MySpace at www.myspace.com/tiafanning.

Sincerely,
Tia Margaret Fanning
"Fanning the Flames of Romance"