Serious Sunday…Brand Tara

Warning: R-rated, adult content and language. Avoid if it offends you.

Today, I pull out an old blog post from May and update it just a bit. It is not your usual Serious Sunday fare,  but what could be more serious than…who the fuck is this Tara Neale? I hope by the end of it you will understand me and my writing just a bit better. Because after all, we are friends.

Brand Tara

So I am a member of a writing group and the other day I was chatting with one of the more successful (i.e. making money on Amazon) authors. She challenged me for writing in so many genres…inspirational romance, mystery/suspense and of course…kinky smut.

She said that the ‘formula’ was write in one genre, write lots and do series. I thought two out of three ain’t bad. Then a day or two after our chat she posted a blog to the group about an author, who did the same thing I do. Well, worse actually. He wrote action/adventure, mystery and non-fiction.

But all of it got me to thinking. I realized something: no matter what category/genre a Tara Neale story falls into they have some things in common. I hate to sound pretentious as an erotic writer…but central themes of my body of work. So what are they? What is unique about a Tara Neale story?

1) Life sucks. You are not going to see a Tara Neale story with a Christian Grey, spoiled little rich boy character. My heroes and heroines have problems…autistic children, PTSD, body image issues, their families fucked them up or over.  ‘Real’ people, i.e. as fucked up as I am and not too proud to admit it.

Two other things that I believe in too…are Fate and Choice. I had said before that this is my favorite poem of all time. Fate brought you to those roads. But you alone decide which you will take. All of my characters will face REAL life problems that push them to their limits. Those limits are usually to give up and withdraw from the people they love and who love them or to open up, be transparent and stand and fight for what they want/need. That is the hardest thing in this world that we humans will ever do…make ourselves vulnerable to someone else, which leads me to…

2) Love is the only thing that makes it worth living. Your career/job ain’ gonna do it. Your car can crash. (Christian Grey’s helicopter too.) That house you worked so hard for can burn to the ground. Those gadgets that we all work so f’ing hard to buy will be out-of-date within months. You won’t see a whole long description of the designer outfit that the heroine is wearing in my books cause she has more sense than to waste her money on such things…clothes are to be functional and gotten out of as quickly as possible.

Things don’t matter…people do. Lovers…children…friends. That is what will save you. Make you a better person. And give you a reason to go on when everything around you is falling apart. When you face death, you will not be thinking…damn, I really wish I could stick around just long enough for the release of the I-Watch. Unless it is a dream like being a writer, most of us will not even think about ‘jobs.’

It will be people we think about…that old girlfriend that we cheated on and wished we had not, the recitals that we missed because of that project at work that in the end meant so little, all the times we turned him away in anger or because we were not the mood.

It will not even be the things that we did…but what we did not do. Apologies we never gave, dreams not followed, those three little words that we never said enough…or said to that person we should have.

3) Kinky sex is absolutely the BEST way to show that special someone (or someones for us polys) that you love them. Way to many of my readers write me about their ‘name only’ marriages and honestly I never know what to say. I could never do it (trust me…I tried for five years and never would again). Sex is a form of communication…it says, no, it shouts and screams, that you care for this person. You will never, ever find one of my characters using sex as a weapon. That is a cardinal sin in this girl’s book. And I practice what I preach…not even on my death bed, especially not then, would I turn away someone I loved.

And I can hear some of you saying…if I ain’t in the mood, I ain’t putting out. Trust me…once things get going you will be surprised at how quickly you get in the mood. I remember seeing some TV show about this couple, who were on the verge of divorce. They decided that they would make love every day…whether they felt like it or not. It saved their marriage…and those two ‘fucking’ glowed.

Am I saying it has to be whips and chains all the f’ing time? No, the average sex session takes ten to fifteen minutes. If you can’t be bothered to invest that amount of time each and every day into this person that you supposedly ‘love’ then let them go…and find someone that will. And you find someone that you want as well.

Yeah, I know…depression, illness, children, finances, anger…but if you make the effort sex cures just about everything except major illnesses. And let’s go back to the what-if…little blue pills ain’t working, you still gots two hands, ten fingers, a mouth/tongue…and for the truly kinky among us…ten little toesies. There are also toys…hell, kinksters…check out the fridge if you get desperate enough.

So Tara Neale stories have loads in common. And most importantly of all…Happily Ever After. I know we cannot always have that in REAL life so writing allows me the chance to correct that. Not that the roads are straight and narrow. Not that there will not be loads of pumps along the way. Not that it will not take them a while to get there…but in the end…almost all of my characters do…find their…

And they lived happily ever after…

That is what I wish for all of you too! And if you want to find out even more about me and my writing then check out my About page here for ways that you can find out the latest on what is happening in my live and writing.