I would like to welcome this week’s Muse Wednesday guest blogger, Tara Quan. I think you will all recognize her muse book.
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When I was young, I was the nerdiest of nerds– the obnoxious, know-it-all who always sat at the front of the class. It was no wonder my social circle was non-existent. Being an only child, I learned very early to occupy myself with books. While my parents were indulgent, they were nerds themselves. They bought me titles by Austen, the Bronte sisters, and Tolstoy. My teachers and the school librarian, spotting my thick glasses and ill-fitting clothes, always pointed me to the literature and science sections, recommending books such as Schrodinger’s Kittens and A Brief History of Time.
As much as I wished I liked reading all those tomes, I didn’t. By the time I was in high school, reading became a painful mind-numbing experience that launched me into a phase of pursuing math and sciences. At least equations were short and sweet, and a physics proof would take a few pages at most. Thumbing through a literary masterpiece took many painful days, sometimes weeks, and at sixteen I would very much rather be playing Warcraft II.
One day, my aunt gifted me with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (there is a Romance tie-in coming, I swear). Not one to read out of sequence, I went to the school library and checked out the first Harry Potter book. The next day, I checked out the second, and the day after that, the third. By the time I finished the fourth book, I was chomping at the bit for the next. Unfortunately, Ms. Rowling had not finished the fifth book yet.
To make matters worse, I had developed a healthy crush on Draco Malfoy, and there was realistically no hope he would marry Hermione and live happily ever after. It was no surprise that I stumbled into the wonderful world of fan fiction, which, as it so happens, contains a lot of very naughty material. I soon discovered that much of said material was not written the way I wanted, so I decided to come up with my own variations. I was rather prolific by the time college admissions season hit, at which time I tabled my dream of becoming a published author to pursue a more traditional career.
Now, approximately ten years after abandoning my fan fiction.net screen name, I am back to writing and wish I had never stopped. My very first novella (to be published–the ones in my closet don’t count) just came out, and I am frantically working on its sequel.
Bio:
Tara Quan wasted four years of college daydreaming about the fantasy and paranormal romances she wanted to write. After graduating with two degrees she never uses, she spent three more years trying to be happy with a traditional career. Luckily, her husband’s work took that option away, and Tara now has the license to pursue her dreams of becoming a romance author. While she still has a day-job, she spends all her free time writing and trying to convince publishers to give her stories a chance.
