Archive (Page 2) • Tara Talks More • Buttondown

Two Terrific Books

September 9, 2022

Hey folks, I'm adding in a monthly piece on two books I wanted to highlight. Likely these books will also appear in my quarterly reading roundup, but the...

How May I Help You - 10 and 11

August 26, 2022

Rita had a healthy concern for DMs. Even in the workplace, the people who wanted to DM you often wanted to do or talk about things they wouldn't do on main...

Sssh - Early Release Maybe

August 19, 2022

So, the official release post is going to go up Tuesday on the blog. But, I made a minor goof uploading to all the various sites. As a result, depending on...

How May I Help You #9

August 12, 2022

Eden had demanded they do a virtual happy hour via video chat. Rita had teased asking if the drinks had to be virtual. “What you think Ben’s deal is?” Rita...

Ripped Bodice Bingo Report

August 11, 2022

Hey, so here's my personal reading for the Ripped Bodice Bingo. Some of these I bumped to the top of the TBR, some I found through the library, some I sought...

How May I Help You - 8

“I need to add a child to my coverage," the voice said with a sense of urgency. "Congratulations," Rita said. "We'll just need a copy of the birth...

How May I Help You - 7

Rita saw the email pop up, just as she was sending her notes about the errors on a client's medical file. It was from her manager Carla. "Please give me a...

How May I Help You - 6

"My spouse lost her very terrible job," the caller sang, "and this is really a blessing in disguise!" Rita felt like she was missing a meme or something. She...

Reading Roundup - Second Quarter 2022

Things I've read and enjoyed over the past quarter. I tried to keep this to a top ten, but, well, didn't entirely succeed. Bookshop links included. Winter's...

How May I Help You 5

Eden: I got a secret baby! Rita, can you forward me what the process was. Ben: How can a baby be secret? Rita: It's a trope name. Eden: Apparently they only...

How May I Help You - 4

"Hello," the caller said, "I have sort of an unusual situation." "Okay," Rita said. "So, I had removed my spouse from coverage last year during open...

How May I Help You 3

Quick Note. The prior installment is here. "I would like to make sure my intern is covered on my health insurance," the voice announced after giving her...

How May I Help You - 1&2

How May I Help You Rita Ulani Lai checked her headset and answered then phone. "Global US HR consulting, how may I help you?" She had tried to convince her...

How May I Help You - Seven Things

So, I teased this story a while back. And here we are. A lot of my story ideas start with a thing that isn't really a story idea. In this case I started with...

LTAFS Addendum: LGBTQ Teens and Sex Ed

Lol, I wrote a whole series thinking, cool, I'll never have to soapbox again. And here we are. So I was reading a middle grade where the mom is telling her...

First Quarter Reading Roundup

I read a lot of things this quarter, which means the amount of things I read was a little higher than normal. I also quit more things than normal for this...

Reading Roundup - Fourth Quarter 2021

January 7, 2022

The final quarter of 2021, I gobbled up a wide variety of things. Here is my top ten, with bookshop links. [A Phoenix First Must Burn](...

Things That Made Me Happy

December 29, 2021

While the calendar year isn't quite over, so my quarterly and annual wrap up will show up next year because more reading to be done. I thought I would list...

Cover Reveal! - Bored By the Billiionaire

November 26, 2021

Lulu Williams is bored with dating billionaires. She has just ditched the latest and is on a late night train back to DC when she encounters a handsome...

Reading Roundup – Third Quarter 2021

October 15, 2021

Hey, I drafted this, and then through a series of unfortunate things, managed to lose the entire thing, so here we are. Technology. (Yes, I had a backup....

My Own Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo Report

August 27, 2021

So, while there’s still a few days to finish if you yourself are playing along, I thought I would share my progress. The post about the suggestions I had...

And the Book Version is Here!

Yeah, for those of you who dislike learning via email, and/or who want to have all the info in one place, the newsletter info has been compiled into book...

LTAFS: Question Box

In the class I teach, we do what we call a question box. Everyone has to write something down and pass it forward, and then the instructors review, research...

LTAFS: Sex scenes and Character Growth

An analogy I use a lot is this. If you go to the movies by yourself, it can be a wonderful and exciting experience. You get to choose the time, the place,...

LTAFS: Sex and Power Dynamics

I know we touched on power dynamics a little in the consent topic, but let’s talk in a little more detail. In almost any configuration of a relationship you...

LTAFS: Sex and Mood-Altering Substances

Because we are talking about drugs and alcohol today, and how they affect a character’s ability to consent, we are going to brush up against some discussion...

LTAFS: Ableism and Sex

Before we dive in, I’m going to note that ableism is an area I am still working on myself. As we are discussing some ableist myths, this may be a tough read...

LTAFS: Sex and Money

So let’s talk about something that often goes ignored in some fiction. Money. Sure, it comes up when a character needs money to save the community center, it...

First Quarter 2021 Reading Roundup

Some things I read and enjoyed in the first quarter. Bookshop links included. This is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey - Jess starts to notice her life is...

LTAFS: To Be or Not to Be a Parent

One of the things the middle school version of the sex ed class I teach does is presents the students with a variety of prospective parents and asks them to...

LTAFS: Contraception What?

I am going to talk about modern contraception primarily. I do know that there are historical authors who are having their characters use things like sponges,...

LTAFS: Contraception Why?

Now, to a certain extent, if you are still reading, I assume you have or are planning to include contraception in your fiction. But let’s talk a little about...

LTAFS: Let's Talk Outercourse

One of the things a lot of novels don’t spend a lot of time on is outercourse. Outercourse is a broad term that includes a wide range of sexual behavior that...

LTAFS: Infections, Disease, and Pregnancy are not Morality

There is a tendency in our culture to put a lot of parameters around acceptable behavior. Sexual behavior is especially prone to this. As an author the...

LTAFS: Dating – There’s an App for That

A couple of caveats before we get into this. I am in my forties. I like to think I keep up to date with such things, but I am generally doing so as a...

LTAFS: Prior History

Authors spend a lot of time - whether before, during, or after the first draft (Hi my pantser friends!) - building a character’s backstory. Other than...

LTAFS: Consent, Boundaries, and Other forms of Communication – Part 2

While we are primarily going to discuss what positive and enthusiastic consent looks like today, I am aware this can be a difficult topic for some who might...

LTAFS: Consent, Boundaries, and Other forms of Communication – Part 1

While we are primarily going to discuss what positive and enthusiastic consent looks like today, I am aware this can be a difficult topic for some who might...

LTAFS: Attraction is a Spectrum

There are lots of reasons people find each other attractive, and it can often be a process or it can be immediate. In social psychology, they often talk...

LTAFS: Gender is a Spectrum

Gender is not a binary. Even looking purely at the biological expressions found in humans, there are more than two. Equivalents to the variations that humans...

LTAFS: Religion and Sex

I suspect some of you are thinking, yawn, we already talked about values. As someone who has taught comprehensive sex ed in a church, I want to note a couple...

LTAFS: Sexuality and Values are Intertwined

The choices characters make regarding sex are an expression of their values. For romance authors in particular, this should not be new information, but it’s...

LTAFS: Novels are Not Instruction Manuals

Fiction, even contemporary or realistic fiction is not intended to be a replacement for education. I think we all agree on that. But even in genres like sci-...

Drumroll: Let's Talk About Fictional Sex

February 25, 2021

Sex scenes provide authors an opportunity to explore their characters more deeply. (Pun intended!) Fiction is not a how-to manual, but sex scenes are about...

Reading Round Up - Fourth Quarter 2020

January 15, 2021

My big number crunching post is still to come over on the blog. But the last three months of reading with some highlights I read. As per usual, this is based...

Consent and Discussions of Pop Culture

December 30, 2020

Content Warning: I will be discussing fictional violations of consent and disclosure. If this is not the right time for you to engage with such, I completely...

How Flowers Made Me Like Instagram or Vice Versa

December 4, 2020

I am a person who took photography classes in high school. I had - okay still technically have a flickr account. I had shutterfly and a bunch of other things...

Always Have a Book On Your Phone

November 6, 2020

This may sound weirder in these pandemic times when a lot of us are spending more time at home, but I highly recommend this idea. Obviously, a phone has a...

Reading Roundup - Third Quarter 2020

October 16, 2020

Let’s start with disclaimers. I started doing this over on my blog, so the prior quarters can be found there. I am a mood reader, so this will be a mix of...

What About Baking?

October 2, 2020

I have been through more flour and sugar this year than I have before. I've dialed back a bit on pandemic baking, because well, it turns out eating a lot of...