Showing posts with label author bio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label author bio. Show all posts

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).