Are you looking for a writing group? Have you written some literature and want some feedback? Are you prepared to participate in an online writing group? Do you have access to Google Docs ?

If you answered yes to these questions, well “Write Here, Write Now” is the answer for you. This is all uncharted territory so I thought I could limit it to 10 people who would be interested in giving as well as getting feedback from a safe distance. And how much safer can it get than from the safety of your own home? Join this writing group and continue your passion for words. Let’s keep writing and reading! Please no erotic or adult literature, nothing controversial that you can’t share with your grandmother!

Please send me your email and the type of literature you love and we can get the list started!!!

www.taraboteldoherty.com

When I heard Quentin Tarantino was filming a story about Hollywood in the 60’s/70’s, I was extremely intrigued. Not only because I love Hollywood as the world does, but also because the Boulevard was my backyard growing up. A couple of months later, a friend posted a picture of the Pussycat Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, during the filming of his newest movie and it brought back so many childhood memories. The Pussycat Theater looked exactly as it did when I was a kid and Deep Throat was on the marquis. These events prompted me to begin my forthcoming short story collection, Growing Up Hollywood, with a story titled, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”  The story introduces my character Mia, who is creating a perfect world in her head after being traumatized by a significant event. We all have a story to tell, and this is the way Mia begins her story.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

Once upon a time in Hollywood, I’m going to have a husband who loves me more than anything and a bunch of children who will be as graceful and beautiful as I am. We will live so high up in the Hollywood Hills that the palm trees will look like dandelions from our Olympus. My Prince will work in the studios and I will bring his cocktail out to the kidney shaped pool in our sprawling 50’s rancher where the young Los Angeles skyline will appear to be just beyond our backyard. It will be that rare day when the smog has not attached itself to the civic center and the offshore winds were blowing. The perfect picture. We will be the white bordered frame of perfection in our 1960’s snapshot. Post war. Post troubles. Post post.

The beautiful cover art by Simon has been awarded a Gold Star Award. Although I don’t often hear about the cover, he did a beautiful custom art piece for the cover. It has helped my love of the lotus and their beauty resurface! I have started a lotus collection. I bought beautiful art up in Lotusland and even a gorgeous lotus pen at the Getty in Malibu. I believe my story and the cover make my book a great Indie package. Buy a copy today and help me celebrate Indie!

Is it a unicorn on a rainbow or a rainbow unicorn? Is it a good review about bad writing or an honest review about a good, yet brutally honest story?

As an Indie Author, I am all too familiar with the difficulties of getting reviews. Every time I take part in an author takeover or guest spot, I cross my fingers at any readers who will discover BFTT and realize it is well written. So imagine my delight when I saw and read review #12 today. And I reread it again and cleaned my glasses, the ones that I use for distance so I can see that red light before I come to an abrupt stop. And I spotted my two stars. Here are three reasons I want to thanks you for taking the time for the review.

Reason #1 in backstory. I am embarrassed to confess that I am back at my day job, so I usually troll my reviews on Amazon when I am filling the cart with needs, well honestly all of my wants. I’m not going to perish if I don’t get a size 11 Frye Melissa boot. Now BFTT was and is a labor of love albeit a 20 year gestation. I wrote it in grad school at a prestigious local university where I was heritage because my mother had followed her heart to music school.  So we are a family of artists, civil-servant artists? “Think James Joyce, my dear,” my mother used to say to me. But as a point of fact I am not a silver spoon, even today I am paying off my loans. I wrote BFTT in 12 weeks after my Advisor(a term I use loosely) declined my collection of sisters growing up in Hollywood in the 1970’s. My reviewer wallowed in so much sadness.  I evoked emotion and entertained, although not merrily. I am OK with that. There was so much emotion 20 years ago.

Reason #2 is reality based. Now you can’t please everybody. It will just never happen. I waited tables for years(life lesson here to write what you know…wink…wink). When you wait tables, you learn to predict what the wants and needs will be of your table. You make customers feel special and a part of your inner circle. Your tips are all dependent upon your personality and services. Thank you for recognizing that the story is about healing, forgiveness and redemption. These elements are what most of life is about when you are not taking selfies and posting on social media. Detritus.

Reason #3 is the humorous situations I find myself in everyday. In my day to day life of reality, most who know me would say I am humorous. I’m often labelled the funny, sarcastic girl. So I was successful in stirring up the negative emotions the book seemed to evoke while reading. I do thank you for getting it. I thank you for telling me that the book was well written, because I have had so many problems with formatting. Can you say formatting nightmare???

All Indie Authors say any review is a good review. Again I thank you for my review. Keep em’ coming!

Who is your novel’s cousin? What famous author do I coincidentally write like? I had a computer tell me.

So I succumbed to the ads I was receiving and purchased the analytics of my novel, Bread for the Table. It is one thing to browse the likes of Goodreads and Amazon, lovingly looking for stories that mirror my story, another to leave it up to a computer. I signed up and signed on. I  excitedly wondered what authors would I most emulate with my writing style. I had not had any thought of a specific writer when I wrote this novel, but I have always loved a strong female voice. It took me longer to type my synopsis and select my excerpt than it did for my results. So I waited less than five minutes and then I received my answer. “Analysis for Bread for the Table indicates…   The author who you most closely match has averaged sales of 30,000-40,000 books per title across all of the titles published in their career. Key drivers of your books future success include self-promotion, your publisher’s marketing support, and the correct genre classification of your book in the retail marketplace.”

1. Ok…check… Self-promotion…I am all over social media with FB, Insta & Twitter.
2. Ok…check…Publisher’s marketing support…me again…see #1.
3. Ok…check…genre…Women’s Fiction was what a rep told me…and I was thinking Literary Fiction.

So I was sent a Ratings Key that included Authorial Vocabulary, Expressive Complexity, Grammar and Tonal Quality. I thought I was reading Cliffnotes!

The first book was a suspense thriller, the next horror/occult/psychological and the last general fiction.

After reading all of the selections, each novel had a string of my story. The first story begins with an encounter with an “enigmatic stranger”…like Tomas in BFTT.

My next novel cousin by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author has a father dealing with the loss of his daughter. Well Rose-of-Sharon does die in BFTT, her father cannot drag himself away from the beautiful words of John Steinbeck, can we say dissociative and borderline abandonment.

The last novel cousin shares the same 1970’s spirit, although this is a small town in California and BFTT takes place in Echo Park in Los Angeles. There are two girls in the other book, but poor Sage is all alone(because her sister has been killed) as a survivor in a restricted and controlling home. Both mothers have abandoned these homes.

Ding…ding…ding. Honestly I must admit that I had never heard of all three of these novels. But now I will read my novel cousins. And it does not hurt that Cousin #3 has a movie based on her novel(not my novel cousin) coming out with Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts.