#HotBedHQ: Guest Post from Tara Bond
This week's #HotBedHQ is an exclusive guest post from Tara Bond, author of Beautiful Liar which is out this July.
I stumbled onto the New Adult genre quite by chance. Back in August 2012, I happened to see a novel on Amazon that had a huge number of great reviews. After reading the synopsis, I thought it sounded like something I’d enjoy, and so I went ahead and bought it. That book was Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster.
From the first page it completely captivated me. I got instantly sucked into Abby and Travis’s will-they-won’t-they relationship, and couldn’t wait to find out if they’d finally work out their issues and find happiness together. I stayed up all night reading, and finished the novel within twenty-four hours.
Unsurprisingly, I was desperate to find similar novels to read, so I Googled the author, and came across articles and blogs on the New Adult / Erotica genres. Soon I had a list of book recommendations, and over the next year I discovered the likes of Tammara Webber, Christina Lauren, Samantha Young and Colleen Hoover, among others.
At the same time, I was trying to write my own novel. I’d completed two books in the women’s / family saga genres, but I wasn’t feeling entirely happy. Somewhere along the way I’d started trying to write what I thought people wanted to read, and it had left me with a bad case of writer’s block. I’d come up with ideas, start writing them, and then lose interest. I got so frustrated, that I was convinced I’d never complete anything again.
Then, in mid August 2013, I started on Abbi Glines’s Fallen Too Far. I remember reading it on the tube, as I went to meet my friend, and thinking how much I was loving the story. It was just so much fun! And I thought to myself: why don’t I try to write a book like this?
It was a revelation. By the end of the night, I had an idea for a story, and over the next couple of days, I began to plot what would eventually become Beautiful Liar. After months of banging my head against a wall with my writing, I suddenly felt energised and excited again.
Unfortunately, ten days later my happiness abruptly ended, when my mother was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer. We knew she was terminally ill from that very day, 23 August 2013, and from then on, our lives began to revolve around doctors, hospitals and chemotherapy.
In the initial shock of the diagnosis, I found it impossible to write. My poor mother had gone from being a fit, active person, to being unable to walk down the road. She was devastated to realise that she’d never get better, and frightened at the prospect of dying. Meanwhile I was filled with overwhelming anxiety at the thought of losing her. I’m an only child, and we’d always been close, and I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without her. For the first few weeks I went round in a daze. I couldn’t eat properly, and lost a lot of weight. I’d wake in the middle of the night, and search the Internet for information on my mother’s cancer, desperate to find a glimmer of hope.
But as the chemotherapy kicked in, things settled down. Her symptoms eased, and we were able to get back to some semblance of normality – going out on shopping trips and for afternoon teas, like we always did. Even though we still knew she was terminally ill, I think we all began to hope she’d have years rather than months. I started to work on my novel again, and writing it provided a much-needed escape from the harsh realities of a loved-one having cancer.
Obviously I told my mum all about my new work-in-progress. She was delighted to hear that I’d found inspiration again, and her greatest wish was that she would live long enough to see it published. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be. After Christmas, her condition went rapidly downhill, and she died on 6 February 2014.
It’s almost a year since my mum died, and if anything I miss her more every day. She was a naturally happy person, with a great enthusiasm for life, and family gatherings just don’t feel the same without her sparkling presence. She was always my greatest supporter, and believed in me even when I wasn’t sure I’d ever write again.
Naturally I’ve dedicated my first New Adult book, Beautiful Liar, to my lovely mother. I know she’d have been so pleased to see it published. She would have sent me congratulatory flowers, and taken me out to dinner to celebrate. And so, however happy I’ll be on publication day this year, I’ll also be mourning the fact that she isn’t here to see it happen.
If you'd like to pre-order Tara's Beautiful Liar the links are below:
Amazon / Waterstones / WHSmith / Foyles
