Ep. 172: Tara East on Interviewing as a Superpower for Writing

Tara East has four degrees in communications and is currently completing her doctorate in Creative Writing. She is the author of a time-travelling novella, When Bell Met Bowie, and a mystery novel, Every Time He Dies (currently holding a solid 4.83 stars on goodreads!). She also has a blog, a YouTube channel, and a podcast because TV is boring. (The exceptions being Outlander and Fargo). 

How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you’ll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing.

Transcript

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 172 of “How do you Write?”

Today, I am joined by the delightful Tara East, and we have a fantastic conversation. She is adorable, and she’s sitting on this beautiful wraparound porch in Australia, so you might want to look at it on YouTube. And I just had a really good time talking to her about all things writing, including how interviewing people about the stuff you’re writing about can actually be a super power of being a writer. Really, really enjoyable to talk to her. I know that you’re going to enjoy that. 

What is going on around here? Still, I am very much enjoying my co- working space. This is actually the official podcast booth, and they have a blue yeti mic right here, so I don’t even need to carry my microphone back and forth. It is amazing, and this is a little bit better padded, so hopefully not as echo-y, although I will try to master that out when I am mixing the podcast together, and what else is going on? I’m writing, I’m writing a lot because I’m on deadline.  I’ve got about six weeks to finish this book and revise it. So I’m panicking a little bit, but that’s okay because panic to me means words every day and the co-working spaces really working for that. I love showing up, turning off my internet, and I have nothing else to do. There’s nowhere to go. There’s nothing to clean up. I loved working in the Mills library, but it wasn’t as comfortable. I didn’t have a refrigerator. I didn’t have couches I could move to when I wanted to. It’s like being at home with none of being at home. It’s just magnificent. So, I can’t say enough about this co-working space. I really, really love it. If you are interested, if you’re local, and if you are of the female persuasion, it is called The Sphere and its downtown Oakland, so it’s pretty darn great. 

That is going on. I’m really enjoying doing the writing. I just wrote the, kind of moment where everything has turned upside down and our main character is in severe jeopardy, so it’s great. I was really enjoying writing that today, that was fun. I wanted to tell you all about something that I wrote about in my Patreon essay for February, so it just went out about a week ago. I write a patreon and say every month it’s usually about something that is happening to me, it is something about my life, my creativity. Oftentimes, it’s very, very personal, and I wrote about a relapse that I had in the beginning of February and I’m not going to go into it. I’m kind of teasing you a little bit to go get the patreon essay but those of you who are patrons, I have had just the most beautiful, wonderful reaction to that the short story is that I wasn’t prepared when somebody offered me weed. Then I smoked it. I had been sober for almost two years, and for about six days. I tried to tell myself that I was, I had still been sober since weed was never really a big problem of mine. It was always about alcohol. But I wasn’t sober for two or three hours. So I reset my sobriety date. And that patreon essay is about that. And I just wanted to say a very, very full hearted, thank you, to you, patrons who wrote in, who responded to the essay itself, who emailed me separately, privately. It’s been really wonderful sharing that part of my heart with you and thank you for listening to that and for sharing with me what you go through when you’re with your struggles of any kind of addiction, whatever that looks like in your life.

Speaking of Patreon pledges, I would like to thank some new patrons. Thanks for coming over. I think I already thanked Tammy Brightwise, Hello Tammy! I might’ve already thanked Zooey Lee but if I haven’t, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And now new patrons, Kristen Harrell and Sandra Schnackenberg, that’s an awesome last name. I’m sure I mangled it. Thank you for being new patrons and first showing up here. Thank you, new and old patrons. If you ever want to check out what I offer, mostly it’s very personal essays that people seem to like. That’s over at www.patreon.com/rachael R, A, C, H, A, E, L so you can always check that up.

I’m just going to jump right into the interview now with Tara and not keep you in suspense anymore, but I will say again, thank you to people who reach out to me. I’ve had more than the normal amount of people reach out to me recently and say, thanks for what you do. Thanks for this particular podcast. Thanks for this episode. Thanks for something you said, and I have to say, it means a lot to me. If I can ever provide anything of use to you. This is not a podcast for me just to whine on about how I am doing or am not doing my writing. This podcast is meant to be helpful to you, which is why I interview these people and which is why I gave some of my own tips on the mini podcasts. So thank you for reaching out. It really, really makes a difference in this Podcaster’s life. Now, I hope you enjoy the interview with Tara, and I hope that you are getting some of your own writing done. Please come and tell me how it’s going. I love to hear from you. 

Hey, you’re a writer. Did you know that I send out a free weekly email of writing encouragement? Go sign up for it at www.rachaelherron.com/write  and you’ll also get my Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use today to get some of your own writing done. Okay, now onto the interview.

Rachael Herron: [00:06:03] Well, I could not be more pleased to welcome to the show today, Tara East. Tara is it pronounced Tara or Tara?

Tara East: [00:06:09] Tara, 

Rachael Herron: [00:06:10] Tara. Okay, perfect. It’s so good to have you on the show all the way from Australia, so

Tara East: [00:06:16] Thank you very much.

Rachael Herron: [00:06:17] And we get to listen to your gorgeous accent. I’ll give you a little bit of a bio. Tara East has four degrees. Not one, not two, not three, but four degrees in communications and is currently completing her doctorate in Creative Writing. She is the author of a time-traveling novella, When Bell Met Bowie, and a mystery novel, Every Time He Dies, which is currently holding a solid 4.83 stars on goodreads, which I have to say is like a miracle for goodreads. Tara also has a blog, a YouTube channel, and a podcast because TV is boring. The exceptions being Outlander and Fargo. You know, I haven’t seen the out- the Fargo show.

Tara East: [00:06:53] It’s so good. All of the seasons consistently good. 

Rachael Herron: [00:06:56] Ooh, okay

Tara East: [00:06:57] And even though there’s a different cast every time. 

Rachael Herron: [00:06:59] Good. I need to- I need a new like series to binge. So fabulous, thank you for that. Well, welcome to the show. As you know, we were just talking off air a little bit that the things we talk about on this particular show are things that always bear repeating. We always want to talk about writing and what it is like. So I would love to know how writing fits into your life. What is your personal writing process?

Tara East: [00:07:24] Well for a very long time, it was quite a rigid process and I would always write in the morning from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM with the goal of hitting 2000 words. But lately the routine has had to change as it does with life. And I do still try to write every day if I can. And I tried to write in the morning if I can, but I’ve allowed myself that flexibility that I can write in the early afternoon or late afternoon if need be. But I’ve also had to realize that I can’t always write every day anymore, and I’ve had to make that change where now maybe you have your dedicated writing days just to take that pressure off. Especially when life changes and it becomes more complicated to allow to give yourself permission for that routine to change, even though it may not be optimal at this time, it might have to change. But-

Rachael Herron: [00:08:17] How does that make you feel emotionally? Because I get really stuck and rigid about these kinds of things, and I get very frustrated when things don’t go my way, which they often do not do. How do you feel about it? 

Tara East: [00:08:29] Oh, it’s incredibly frustrating because the writing for me, it’s always one of my top priorities. Even when other responsibilities come in and as you know, there are these optimal writing times, like I’m an early person. The other day I had the luxury of waking up at 5:00 AM and starting to write at about six or seven and the writing was so much easier because that is my optimal time. So it is disappointing and frustrating when life changes and it’s no longer feasible to work at that time, or you would have to change so many things or inconvenient so many other people to swap the routine around. But, yeah, it’s, there’s sort of like no easy solution to it other than just having to like accept that this is the new routine for now and maybe trying to work back towards the old routine if you can.

Rachael Herron: [00:09:25] Yeah. 

Tara East: [00:09:26] That’s the space I’m in right now and hopefully it can go back to how it used to be.

Rachael Herron: [00:09:30] You are actively working this practice right now, yes. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to writing?

Tara East: [00:09:37] Well, there’s two things. One, in terms of specifically craft setting is so hard for me 

Rachael Herron: [00:09:45] Me too!

Tara East: [00:09:46] Yeah, and it’s so funny because setting can add so much to a novel, and setting isn’t just about naming the town or the place where the story is happening. Like some of my favorite novels aware the setting is really informing, the story can add so much richness to it. But certainly when I go to write, it is so focused on relationship and moving the plot forward and almost, it’s almost floating in the air like there is no setting and I have to really go back and build that.

Rachael Herron: [00:10:20] So is that something you do in a revision pass? 

Tara East: [00:10:25] Oh, absolutely. And it, and it has to be quite intentional, when I do revise, our revise focusing on a specific thing, I sort of don’t go through revising, trying to fix all of the problems at once. I’ll go through and be like, okay, during this round, I’m just focusing on setting. During this round, I’m just focusing on character or plot holes, that sort of thing, and yet it has to be very intentional and a lot of work goes into it because it doesn’t come naturally or intuitively to me as I’m writing. 

Rachael Herron: [00:10:57] So let me ask you, because I’ve been curious about this, and I’ve asked a couple of other people, do you see your scenes as you write them? Because I don’t, I, I see the words, but I don’t actually get an image in my mind. And I’ve wondered if that’s why I can’t do setting. Do you see scenes play out in front of your eyes?

Tara East: [00:11:16] That’s so interesting. I actually do see the scenes quite often playing out in my mind’s eye and it freaks my partner out a little bit, but often I don’t even look at the computer screen. I’m like looking out the window while I talk, and then that helps reduce eyestrain, tip. But then it also, 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:39] That’s great. 

Tara East: [00:11:40] I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get so sick of looking at computers all day, 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:43] Yes

Tara East: [00:11:44] But, yeah, and by looking away from the monitor, I think in a way it’s almost like daydreaming and it’s that much easier to lose myself in the story compared to when I am looking directly at the word document and not focusing on the words. Though admittedly, it might be easier because I’m a touch typist. If that isn’t a skill you have, that could be quite difficult to do, but that is, it certainly helps me get into the story so that it feels more like creation rather than, oh, sorry, so it feels more like dictation rather than creation.

Rachael Herron: [00:12:19] Oh, that’s great. Yeah. And I also do like to look away from the computer as just doing it. I was looking down on the street and there was a construction crew, and I was just kind of watching them and not thinking about them when I was writing, but my eyes were on them and it was kind of a relaxing feeling. Yeah. 

Tara East: [00:12:33] They sort of just glaze over. Yeah.

Rachael Herron: [00:12:35] Yeah. And yeah, exactly. What is your biggest joy in writing? 

Tara East: [00:12:40] Two again, one of the biggest joys which is actually not directly related to the writing per se, but it was during the research process of my latest novel. I got to interview detectives and embalmers about their work processes, and I was able to have face to face interviews with them. And those are just not really conversations you get to have with everyday people, especially with something like embalming, it’s very sensitive topic.

Rachael Herron: [00:13:10] Yes

Tara East: [00:13:12] Absolutely. Like if you, if you met someone like that at a cocktail party, if they even told you that that was their job, if they did say that, then you’re not exactly going to feel the permission to ask them a lot of fairly invasive questions about their work and their work life and all of that. So that was incredibly rewarding. And I think that was something I definitely picked up from journalism is that as soon as you stick the name tag on you, I’m a writer, suddenly you have this permission to go up to complete strangers.

Rachael Herron: [00:13:43] Yeah.

Tara East: [00:13:43] And ask them questions. So 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:45] Yeah it’s, it’s really amazing. 

Tara East: [00:13:48] Yeah

Rachael Herron: [00:13:48] And, and I, I have been into like mortuaries and back by where the, the crematorium is and I’ve gotten to touch those things and look at those things. Did you get to look at a body? They probably wouldn’t let you do that. 

Tara East: [00:14:01] No, they, that was the one thing I didn’t get to look at. And it was so fascinating because I got to get that granular detail that you can’t find on Google. I was able to smell the chemicals

Rachael Herron: [00:14:14] Yes

Tara East: [00:14:15] that they use, like not taking big waves, obviously, just like little snip. And being able to describe that and describe the workplace and what, what even the workplace actually feels like when you’re there, let alone how it looks and that daily routine of what everybody gets up to, like that exposure to these worlds, these real worlds that you would never get to step into. And then you get to bring all of that juicy information back and put it in your story. I mean, it’s just as definitely a highlight. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:48] It’s priceless. It really, that kind of research really is priceless. 

Tara East: [00:14:51] Yeah

Rachael Herron: [00:14:52] when I was in the crematorium, there was this smell of burn. Like there’s this smoky smell and I’m, you know, and to realize that those are bodies, sorry, squeamish listeners and then I learned that they have a double, they have a double burner. They need to burn the body, but then they need to have a machine that burns the smoke. Because they do- they can’t really smoke into the air or all of the community would be like, there’s, there’s dead bodies in the air. So they have to have a smoke, they have to have a burner that burns the air and releases it as basically clean.

Tara East: [00:15:24] Yeah

Rachael Herron: [00:15:25] Like who would know that?

Tara East: [00:15:26] I know. 

Rachael Herron: [00:15:27] It’s so fascinating. So fascinating. 

Tara East: [00:15:29] It is. It’s all those like, 

Rachael Herron: [00:15:30] But you said you had, you had two things, though, yeah. 

Tara East: [00:15:31] And the other thing that I love about writing is just those moments when you nail a sentence or an exchange of dialogue and you either feel really proud of what you’ve created or you feel really moved, like when you can move yourself to tears, that’s pretty amazing. And that is so rewarding in itself. And also when you somehow, are writing a scene and you completely by accident, loop it back to this like offhand comment that happened in like chapter two or three and you’re writing chapter eight, that is just like, you just feel like the stars have aligned in the cosmos is like totally on your side. It’s fantastic, those moments. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:19] I wish it happened more often, but yes, I agree. Totally. Okay, can you share a craft tip of any sort with us? 

Tara East: [00:16:26] Oh yeah. The best craft tip I ever got was actually from an editor who I got to work with it and she was my mentor for a while and regardless of genre. But especially if you write crime or mystery, I highly- or thriller, i highly recommend that you create a timeline for your events and for the chapters’ scenes. All of that because so often where writing in random chunks and we might not sit down and complete a whole scene in the day. We come back to it either the next day or even a week later, and you and timelines become muddled up. Now, I wouldn’t really worry about the timeline during the drafting phase, unless you’re a hardcore outliner, then by all means go for it. But if you’re a bit more of a pantser, just do that first draft, create a timeline based off that first draft and see where those inconsistencies and problems are, and then you can go through, create a new timeline and use that as your guide when you start doing your revision. It, it saves me so many problems in writing my mystery novel where it is time is so important in those kinds of genres, but even if you’re writing romance, they’re still in credible value. You still need to make sure that it’s a believable and consistent timeline.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:49] Something that I learned definitely the hard way. Like I, I would turn in books and then I wouldn’t know if the last time they saw each other was three weeks ago or 42 hours ago, I would have no idea. And that changes how characters respond to each other. So yeah, that’s an incredibly good and valuable tip for people to know. And I also don’t do it in the first draft. I do it on that big second, make sense draft. Yeah.

Tara East: [00:18:13] Absolutely. 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:14] What thing in your life affects your writing in a surprising way? 

Tara East: [00:18:20] One of the biggest comments I’ve gotten from my work short story or longer length, such as a novel novella, is that the dialogue is so strong and I believe why that is, is because I had private speech and drama lessons from the age of 4 to 14 and then I continued on –

Rachael Herron: [00:18:40] Oh my goodness.

Tara East: [00:18:41] Yeah. And then I continued on independently until I was 22 and I have a really rich background in theater, acting, poetry, all of that. And I believe it was that initial learning of how to tell a story through dialogue that has actually really impacted my writing. When I was first getting into fiction writing, my early drafts were almost entirely dialogue with very spaz pros. And then I had to teach myself, how do you write pros? What happens in between the dialogue? And that was a skill I had to build. So I do believe that that background and acting really helped me develop this skill track really good dialogue. And I, I think the thing about acting is that it is a novel brought to life. So there is this really nice bridge between them, even though of course they are their own forms of art, but that was just absolutely a happy accident. 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:39] That’s wonderful. And I’ve never heard anyone say that before. Do you have any yen to write a screenplay? 

Tara East: [00:19:46] I have thought about it now just because of the feedback that I’ve received on, my recent novel. So I had definitely thought about it, but I am yet to do any education on it because I do know that that is its own whole structure and process, but it’s something I’ve definitely got my eye on for the future. I think. I suspect that I could be good at that just with having that natural tendency towards dialogue. But yeah, nothing is happening yet in that respect. 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:21] What a wonderful talent to have to bring to this different art, and you can kind of tell by the way you are speaking and your beautiful use of language. I have this terrible fault, which all of my listeners know, which is, I don’t really ever end a sentence. I have ands and buts and commas. And I go back and, you know, start over sentences without ever pausing. But you have that beautiful extemporaneous, I’m going to say a sentence beautifully, and then I’m going to begin another one. In the meantime, this is all in one sentence for me, but that’s something they talk about.

Tara East: [00:20:55] If we were to translate our written speech, you wouldn’t even understand it because we do, we don’t speak standard written English. We speak in these broken mixed up. We stay half a sentence and then we swap and change. Like that is real life dialogue when you’re talking. So yeah. We got all of that-

Rachael Herron: [00:21:14] And the trick is to make it sound like that on the page. It’s not exactly what we hear. So, you’re obviously excellent at that, and I love that. That’s great. What is the best book you’ve read recently and why did you love it?

Tara East: [00:21:28] So it’s this book that was written in 1963 and it’s called The Wall by Marlene Crucifer. And that’s H, A, U S, H, O, F, E, R, and it was written during the cold war. So you have to think that we’re still in this sort of, we’re still in the eminence of world war II and in the novel, this woman goes out to the woods and we never learn her name. And she goes out with some companions and they leave to go to town. She stays on this farm, and when she wakes up in the morning, a glass dome has come over the farm and the surrounding fields, and she is trapped inside the dome with the farm animals, which are a cat, a dog, and a cow. And the entire novel is about her domestic survival. So learning how to crop, learning how to chalk wood, how to take care of the animals, how to help the cow give birth. And it is not about her trying to figure out how the wall came down or trying to escape. She’s actually just trying to survive in the wall. And very quickly, it just becomes this gorgeous story about a woman’s need to survive and to connect with animals and animal human kinship. And it is so beautiful and the writing is so elegant. There’s these human animal exchanges where she’ll look at one of the animals and she’ll have this knowing of what they are thinking about, and yes, there are elements of anthropomorphism, but she’ll describe these beautiful exchanges in a single sentence. And then she just like leaves it and then moves onto the next thing and then it’s up to you to unpack it. And it’s just beautiful. And it’s got this like quiet tension throughout the whole novel to like pull you through because it’s written as one long journal entry as she explained her survival over the years. And there’s, she keeps hinting at this disaster that’s going to happen and it’s not an environmental disaster, but this thing that’s going to happen. And that just keeps pulling you through and you’re just like, what’s going to happen? What’s going to happen? And you – 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:41] Don’t- don’t tell us ‘cause I want to –

Tara East: [00:23:43] Oh no, I wouldn’t 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:44] read that stuff cause it’s amazing

Tara East: [00:23:45] But you don’t find out until the final pages and it’s, yeah, it’s fantastic. I highly-

Rachael Herron: [00:23:52] And it’s called the wall?

Tara East: [00:23:53] The wall. Yeah. And it was made into a movie as well, but I haven’t seen the movie. 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:59] And is it, is it recent or it’s just set in the cold war? 

Tara East: [00:24:03] It was released; it was published in 1963 so it’s actually 70 years old.

Rachael Herron: [00:24:10] So it sounds like she was really ahead of her time and

Tara East: [00:24:12] Yeah

Rachael Herron: [00:24:13] Oh, that sounds wonderful.

Tara East: [00:24:15] Yeah. It, it reads like it could have been published last week, it’s very, it has a very contemporary feel. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:25] Thank you for sharing that. That is absolutely going on my TBR path. I have two comments. Number one, you just made every American swooned by saying, Heytch, which is just one of our things that we love so much so that, thank you for that. Number two, before we go into like where we can find you and about your books, where if people are watching on YouTube, where are you sitting? It’s beautiful. I will describe it to listeners. It looks like she’s on a white covered porch with these beautiful white windows and white curtains behind her, and she’s wearing an orange blouse. So it’s, you’re very, you’re very beautiful. And where are you? 

Tara East: [00:25:02] So my office is on a veranda that has been closed and I’ve changed the veranda into a sunroom and it’s gorgeous. The house is like 120 years old, which is very old for Australia because we’re such a –

Rachael Herron: [00:25:18] -it’s very old for America too. Yeah. Especially for California. Yeah. 

Tara East: [00:25:22] There you go. So it’s like-

Rachael Herron: [00:25:23] It’s gorgeous. And I heard your clock chiming at one point. 

Tara East: [00:25:26] Yep. Got a grandfather. 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:30] It’s like, it’s so heavenly. Okay, good. We’ve answered those questions. Excellent. Okay. What would you like to tell us about now? Tell us about your latest book. Tell us where we can find you. All of those things. 

Tara East: [00:25:40] Excellent. So in November last year, I published my first full length novel, and it’s called Every Time He Dies, 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:49] And this is the most beautiful cover. 

Tara East: [00:25:53] Thank you.

Rachael Herron: [00:25:54] Absolutely incredible. 

Tara East: [00:25:55] I’ve had so many compliments on the cover, which was –

Rachael Herron: [00:25:59] I would pick it up in a heartbeat from just the cover 

Tara East: [00:26:01] Good because like, I don’t know about you, but naming a novel and trying to come up with a design, I had no idea what cover to, to help to design for the book cover. I hired a designer, but we obviously collaborated and work together. But, yeah, I’ve received such positive feedback on it. And you could say it’s a mystery novel. If you wanted to get super granular, you could say that it’s a self-coiled crime novel with paranormal elements. But basically it’s about a woman who finds a watch that is haunted by a ghost with amnesia. And while she’s trying to uncover his identity and how he died, she becomes involved in her estranged father’s homicide investigation. 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:50] Oh, that’s great.

Tara East: [00:26:51] Yeah, so it’s about grief, time, family, loyalty. It’s full of psychics, bikeys a dry leading lady and a ghost suffering from an identity crisis. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:08] And it’s called Every Time He Dies 

Tara East: [00:27:10] Yes. Every Time He Dies.

Rachael Herron: [00:27:11] And the, and the cover is, can you describe it? It’s like an upside down skeleton, but it looks  

Tara East: [00:27:17] Yes, so it’s an upside down skeleton and the rib cage is full of flowers. And the reason why the skeleton is upside down, is because my main character is an embalmer. So it’s supposed to be mirroring you pull out the cold tray. Yeah. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:33] Yes

Tara East: [00:27:34] So it’s, basically the pulling out the tray in a morgue. And that’s the body. So, but obviously you can

Rachael Herron: [00:27:40] Did you hire the art too? Is it unique art or is it stock? 

Tara East: [00:27:45] It actually stock art, which is amazing

Rachael Herron: [00:27:47] Wow

Tara East: [00:27:48] Considering it’s this, you know, why it like looks so good, but 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:52] It looks so amazing. That is just gorgeous. 

Tara East: [00:27:55] Oh, actually I’ll plug the designer cause she does have her own place. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:58] Oh please.

Tara East: [00:27:59] Yeah. Her name is Jessica Bell and she’s Australian, but lives in Greece and I believe her website is www.jessicabelldesign.com And she’s fantastic. And she has a range of different packages. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:12] It’s truly one of the best book covers I’ve ever seen, trad self, anywhere. That is incredible. So, and it is also on my TBR pile. I’ve already purchased it. 

Tara East: [00:28:23] Oh, thank you!

Rachael Herron: [00:28:24] You’re welcome. It’s on, it’s one of many books waiting for me on my Kindle. So thank you for being on the show. Tell us where people can find you.

Tara East: [00:28:31] Absolutely. So my website is probably the best place, and that’s taraeast.com I have a weekly writing advice blog that goes up every Thursday, Australian time. And I also have a writing advice YouTube channel as well. And I’m of course, also on Instagram and both of those pages, authortaraeast 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:55] Author Tara East. That’s perfect. Oh, thank you, I’m going to check that out too. It has been such a treat to talk to you in your beautiful space there, and I’m just so glad that we’ve connected. 

Tara East: [00:29:06] Absolutely. It was such a lovely conversation. Thank you, Rachael. 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:09] Thank you so much, and I wish you had very happy writing. 

Tara East: [00:29:13] You too. 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:14] Okay, bye. 

Tara East: [00:29:15] Bye!

Rachael Herron: [00:29:11] Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.