Welcome Tamara...

​Tell us a bit about yourself
I’m an Australian author telling Australian stories about women making choices about how they want to live, who they want to be and what it really means to love and be loved. It’s not smooth sailing for my ladies though, they’ll take you on a journey, for sure.
I live in South Australia, watch far too much television, am fuelled by Doritos and chocolate sultanas and am of course a bit of a book addict. I like to bake but don’t because I tend to eat it all and I don’t want to run it off. I like a little hiking and of course, we have a bevvy of wonderful restaurants and festivals here and then there’s the Barossa, we’re very good friends!!
 
How do you find time to write?
If I don’t write, I go bit a bit loopy and my brain doesn’t function well and I have the strangest, most vivid dreams so I make sure to schedule some in as often as possible. I’d like to say I do it every day, but I don’t and that’s okay, that’s life and it depends on my schedule as to how much I can do each day/ week. So I’ll look at my week ahead on a Sunday night and plan out my week with all the other things that need doing.
 
What’s your publishing tips?
Treat it like the business it is. Schedule your time and your tasks as you would in any other business. Which isn’t always fun but it’s necessary. Hire a good editor (if one has not been provided for you! But still, a professional edit before submitting will make a massive difference if that’s the path you’re choosing) who understands your work and your style and a good cover designer if you’re going the indie route. No matter which path, traditional or indie, learn the business. Learn who is who and what they’re doing and what the industry is doing. So many agents and editors share their wisdom in many places, read it. I used to spend hours every morning reading a whole swag of their blogs. I ended up going the indie route but by then I knew things and I feel it was a huge benefit.
 
Any promotional and marketing tips?
Be brave. Believe in yourself and your product. Understand your target market. Your book is not for everyone and that is okay, work out who it is for and find them, understand them, connect with them, write blogs and social media posts with them in mind. Set your promo budget, if you’re doing Facebook ads or Amazon ads or a Bookbub ad etc., work out your plan, your expectation and budget before you start and stick to it. You can increase if something is successful but if you can’t afford to then so be it, run your own race, follow what works for you each day. It may change tomorrow and that’s okay.
 
Tell us about your recent book.
Running From Me is the story of Jilly, she’s been living a double life, running from who she was and what she did, never letting anyone get close to her, break through her walls. She leaves her boyfriend when he’s about to propose, she has no ID, she can’t get married so she leaves and then she meets Sienna and Mel, her new housemates who she can’t help but love. And then there’s, MD, Sienna’s brother and he’ll have her wanting things a person like her can never have.
When Jilly’s past comes to town, she’ll have to decide if she runs or if she can risk everything for her new life, her new friends and the love she doesn’t want to give up. But they’ll all be in danger if she stays, if they don’t hate her for what she did. Can she risk the rejection? Can she risk her heart? Will they catch her if she falls?
I love this story so much. It was a total surprise though. I hadn’t planned to write it. I’d just finished the first draft of another book, a dystopian love story called Almost Perfect, and then I had the opening line of this one fall into my head so I typed it out hoping to quiet the muse and 21 days later I had the first draft of Running From Me and I was like whoa, where did you come from. I usually sit with a story for a while as it does its thing in my head but this one just burst through. Gotta love a little miracle like that, right?! 

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