Tara Fox Hall on Getting Published

Tara Fox Hall’s writing credits include nonfiction, horror, suspense, erotica, and contemporary and historical paranormal romance. She also coauthored the essay “The Allure of the Serial Killer,” published in Serial Killers – Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). Her first e-novella, Surrender to Me, was published in September 2011. Her first full-length novel, Lash, will publish in April 2012. Her Vampire series begins in June 2012, with the novel Promise Me. Tara divides her free time unequally between writing novels and short stories, chainsawing firewood, caring for stray animals, sewing cat and dog beds for donation to animal shelters, and target practice.

For years, I had written short articles in a small print magazine that a friend, Harald Moore, put out to promote his catnip farm in Johnsonville, New York. Yet even happy with my success as a writer, I longed for an outlet for my fiction ideas, primarily my scary stories. I had longer works of paranormal suspense, and vampire romance, but no publisher or agent I submitted to was interested. The only successes I had to my credit were my short nature articles. I had to build up my publishing credits, but how?

In spring of 2011, it suddenly dawned on me that I had the tools; I just needed a new platform. Using material from nightmares and my imagination, I began churning out stories. To my delight, flash fiction was about 500 words, which was almost exactly the length my nature articles had been. I already knew how to begin and end a story within a page, and draw the reader in. I could do this. My only worry was could I do this well enough to get published?

I submitted a few stories, then scored when Deadman’s Tome published The Hunt in May 2011. Encouraged, I devoted all my spare time to writing short horror stories, submitting them as fast as I could write them, seeking out new markets for each. In the fall of 2011, I began to hit it big, with story after story being accepted. I had found my horror “voice,” and had both readers and editors wanting more. That cumulated with my publication of Just Shadows in January 2012, an anthology of my previously published horror stories and my new works.

I have my first novels coming out this year, with likely more to follow. My small stories of nature paved the way, leading me in a roundabout way to my dream of being a published author, and a novelist.

Tara Fox Hall from “Starting Small” published at The Short Review 2-14-12: http://theshortreview.blogspot.com/2012/02/starting-small-guest-blog-post-by-tara.html

Tara is a poet, writer, safety inspector, associate marketing manager, wife, animal lover, and wildlife savior

For lists of publications, dates published, and links in all genres, please go to www.tarafoxhall.com and view separate pages for horror, romance, non-fiction, etc.

Links:

Melange Books Author Page: http://www.melange-books.com/authors/tarafoxhall/tarafoxhall.html

Bradley Publishing Author Page: http://www.bradleypublishings.com/Tara_Fox_Hall.php

Manic Readers Page: http://www.manicreaders.com/TaraFoxHall/

Tara’s Blog: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5286654.Tara_Fox_Hall/blog

Tara’s Facebook Page:

www.facebook.com/pages/Tara-Fox-Hall/151813374904903

For info on my recently published work, Just Shadows, click here: http://www.amazon.com/Just-Shadows-ebook/dp/B006V4HB2Y

For my latest interview, click here: http://lasrmysteryguests.blogspot.com/2012/03/interview-tara-fox-hall.html

Website: www.tarafoxhall.com

Email: tarafoxhallATgmailDOTcom