Interview With Author Tanya Newman
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve loved reading and stories for as long as I can remember. At the age of ten, I decided to write a book of my own. When finished, the story was an epic thirty pages, complete with a cover I drew myself. It led to countless other stories, mostly about horses and riding. Over time, romantic relationships became a theme in my work, and later, a little crime fiction began finding its way in there. Readers have described my work as romantic, mysterious, poignant, and heartbreaking yet heartwarming. I’m grateful to have discovered my passion so young, and to be able to do it and give the world what I’ve created. As the years passed, I completed BA and MA degrees in English, taking every creative writing class I could. In between years of teaching writing and raising my family, I have published short stories with Gadfly Online, TWJ, The Fictional Cafe, and Writing in a Woman’s Voice. I have three novels as well: The Good Thief (2016), Winter Rain (2017), and Brilliant Disguise (2024).
I live in upstate South Carolina with my husband, son, daughter, 2 cats, and Labrador/Coonhound mix, and where I set many of my stories. When not writing or serving as professional maid, laundress, chauffeur, or homework tutor (hubby handles bulk of the cooking!), I love a good cup of coffee, action/adventure movies with a good love story added in, reruns of The Golden Girls, the music of U2, long jogs, and traveling with family–our latest big adventure landed us in Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I hadn’t planned on writing Brilliant Disguise. I’m not much of a direct sequel person. I’ve hardly ever found them to be as good as the original story. So when I wrote The Good Thief, to me, that was it. But then someone told me it ended on a mysterious note. Another asked me when the sequel was to come out.
I went back and forth on this thought and the more I heard my readers, the more I wanted to know. So I did the first thing I usually do in my writing process: nothing.
An idea comes organically through characters for me. I see them first, then hear them. If James and Scotlyn had more to their story, they’d tell me. I just had to sit back and listen. I wasn’t going to force an idea (what’s wrong with many sequels).
For a long time, they were quiet. Oftentimes, when they are, it’s because the story is painful to tell. But one day, Scotlyn started to speak through a few songs I happened to hear: “I Knew You Were Waiting” (George Michael and Aretha Franklin), “Waiting for a Star to Fall” (Boy Meets Girl), “I Will Wait” (Hootie & the Blowfish).
Scotlyn promised to wait for James, no matter what, at the end of The Good Thief. And waiting for someone, especially for someone completing a dangerous, deadly job, can be hell. As I explored that in the first several pages, another character grabbed at the mike, wanting attention: an old boyfriend of Scotlyn’s mentioned in The Good Thief. I didn’t like Raylan Hunt. But he had something to say. As unpredictable as he was tenacious, he wanted Scotlyn back no matter what. And as James finally made his way front and center in this circle of characters, speaking quietly in that low voice of his, I knew what he had to say was going to be no picnic. And it wasn’t. Raylan was a criminal and the FBI needed him and Scotlyn (the only woman Raylan has ever loved) to go undercover to see what they could find out. I didn’t know how it would turn out, but I knew that as the months passed and their story unfolded, Raylan’s obsessions and James’s intense love for Scotlyn would lead to a climax I’m not sure any one of them would survive.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know if they’re unusual but I like to listen to my playlist to get in the mood (music is great inspiration), and I just make sure to have plenty of coffee and snacks on hand and a quiet place. One of my favorite writers said he liked to go to cemeteries to write. It sounds strange, I know, but I could see writing there because it is a quiet and peaceful place.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
F. Scott Fitzgerald, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, some of J.R. Ward’s works, Michael Mann, Andre Dubus III, Jhumpa Lahiri
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a new suspenseful/supernatural love story. I write a lot in the suspenseful love stories genre but the supernatural part is new for me, so I’ve been working a lot on world building and characterization.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook and my own website (www.tanyanewmanwriter.com)
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read a lot (especially poetry and in the genre you want to write) and write a lot, preferably every day.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Read, read, read, and write, write, write from an old professor of mine.
What are you reading now?
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m continuing work on my latest novel, and I hope to turn it into a series.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
On Writing by Stephen King
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Story and Its Writer
A Poetry Anthology
Author Websites and Profiles
Tanya Newman’s Social Media Links
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