Do
you write in different genres?
Yes, I write romance fiction, young-adult, and
middle-grade (which is just a little younger than YA) fiction.
If
yes which is your favorite genre to write?
I don’t have a favorite. They’re all great!
LOVE SONGS was my first romance novel, and the style
and approach took a little getting used to. The first forty pages came easily,
and didn’t change a whole lot in future drafts, but I got a bit stuck just at
the point the plot really needed to take flight.
I don’t want to say “rules,” but there are a lot of
guidelines an author needs to follow in order to give readers and the highs and
lows they yearn for when picking up a contemporary romance. And thankfully, I
had a great editor, Stacy Abrams at Bliss, who helped me understand how to hit
those spots and craft a better story.
How
did you come up with the title for your latest book?
This was fun. My mom is a novelist and poet, and
teaches poetry to middle-school kids. I asked her to help me brainstorm titles,
and she came up with LOVE SONGS FOR THE ROAD, which I loved! (Luckily my
editor, Stacy Abrams, loved it, too.)
Do
you title the book first or wait until after it’s complete?
The working title for the book was the much
trope-ier THE ROCK STAR NANNY. I liked the double meaning there—Ryan is both
the rock star’s nanny, and she’s a total rock star as a nanny. So in a sense I did come up with the title before
writing the book, but then the title changed later, and I’m glad we came up
with something slightly literary. I hope the book is both a trope-filled
page-turner for lovers of romantic fiction and
a story that might click with readers of other kinds of contemporary
women’s fiction.
Is
there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
I don’t think in terms of messages, because I don’t
want my storytelling to be preachy. But I was definitely conscious of wanting
to look at social media and how it impacts privacy and relationships. LSFTR’s
two main characters are a celebrity and a “normal person,” and both of them
have been scarred by the way their relationships have been picked apart on
Facebook and Twitter. I hope their experiences will resonate with readers.
What
book are you reading now?
Believe it or not, I’m reading Moby-Dick. It’s probably the most revered book in American literary
history, and I’d never read it, so I knew I wanted to at least try. Honestly,
it’s been a bit of a nightmare. I read 300 pages of it in 2011, then put it
down, and never picked it up again. I started over in August, and now I’m
closing in on the last 150 pages of the book (it’s 624, total…believe me, I
checked).
I can’t say I’m enjoying it, exactly. There’s very
little story, and about 80% of it is tangents. At a point of frustration, I
bought a Kindle version of a tiny little book called Why Read Moby-Dick? (which is a question I ask myself every other
paragraph!), and that has helped provide some context.
There are some great passages, and I loved the first
fifty pages or so, where Ishmael shares a bed with Queequeg (this book was way ahead of its time, people!), but I
wouldn’t do it again, unless it was with a book club with a case of white wine
and a half-dozen of my best girlfriends.
What
is your current “work in progress” or upcoming projects?
I’m working on a young-adult novel (or middle-grade,
I’m not sure yet) about a boy who was born blind but is extremely gifted, both
musically and intellectually, to the extent that he almost has super-powers.
It’s a realistic book, though. His name is Laeth. And he will fall in love! I’m
just not sure with whom, yet.
Who
designed the cover of your latest book?
Jessica Cantor, who happens to be my editor Stacy
Abrams’ sister (the book was copyedited by their mom, Nancy Cantor!). I think
Jessica did a great job in finding just the right photo that captured the
summery setting of the book. She’s had a lot of practice, having designed every
Bliss cover since the imprint started in 2012.
Do
you have any advice for other writers?
My advice to writers is to complete projects,
whether or not your work is published, or not. Novelists, especially, are
guilty of nearly killing themselves to complete a first draft, then putting it
down and never returning to it. What they might not realize is that they’ll
learn just as much as they transform the book from first draft to second draft
as they did when starting with the blank page, and that the book will become so
much better if they take that next step.
Other novelists write a million drafts of their
first novel, endlessly revising without either publishing the book or moving on
to another project. To them, I say, let
go and move on. Your second novel will be better than your first, and your
third, hopefully, will be better than your second. Complete your project to the
best of your ability, and go on to the next idea.
Do
you have a song or playlist (book soundtrack) that you think represents this
book?
I know it’s a big trend to do book soundtracks now,
but I couldn’t not do one for a book
called LOVE SONGS FOR THE ROAD.
The hero of the story is Marcus Troy, an
internationally known rock star with a heart of gold, but a complicated past.
Though Marcus was named after a friend of my husband’s (yes, Marcus Troy is his
given name), when I wrote him I was thinking a lot about Chris Martin, who seems
like a smart guy and a good dad who didn’t chase fame, but was simply too
talented not to become famous. So I had to put some Coldplay on here, and in
fact I thought about “Hurts Like Heaven” as a possible title for the book. Most
of the other songs are thematically right for LOVE SONGS, but I didn’t
over-think it. I just wanted to create a mood, and while I picked a mix of
contemporary and vintage tunes, it was hard not to notice that mid- to
early-90s songs seemed to work quite well. Who knows why? It was a more
carefree time, perhaps.
There are a couple great road-trip songs on here by
Liz Phair and Deer Tick, and some super-cheesy anthems like Jon Secada’s “Just
Another Day.”
There’s also a real-life, never-released song, “I
Lock the Door,” by a band I loved in the 2000s called The Foster Family. This
song and its lyrics feature heavily in the plot of LSFTR so I hope readers will
enjoy discovering that it’s a real song.
Anyway, I hope everybody enjoys listening to this…I
sure had fun putting it together!
“Hurts
Like Heaven” – Coldplay
“When
You Were Young” – The Killers
“The
One That Got Away” – Katy Perry
“Just Another
Day” – Jon Secada
“You’re
Still the One” – Shania Twain
“Wicked
Game” – Chris Isaak
“These
Arms of Mine” – Otis Redding
“I
Wanna Dance With Somebody” - Whitney Houston
“Tennis
Court” – Lorde
“I’ll
Be There For You” – Bon Jovi
“Jilted
Lovers and Broken Hearts” – Brandon Flowers
“20
Miles” – Deer Tick
“Divorce
Song” – Liz Phair
“I Lock the Door” – The Foster Family
Love
Songs For the Road
Farrah
Taylor
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing -
Bliss
Date of Publication: January 13,
2014
ISBN: 9781622661640
ASIN: B00HFUAOWW
Number of pages: 220
Cover Artist: Jessica Cantor
Book Description:
A
rock star. The nanny. A love that could rock their world.
The only thing rock star Marcus
Troy loves more than making music is his kids. So finding just the right nanny
to take on tour with them is important—as is proving to his ex he deserves
joint custody. Falling for his employee wouldn’t just be fodder for the
paparazzi: it could ruin everything.
Too bad the perfect nanny turns
out to be beautiful, vibrant Ryan Evans. Ryan’s never left her small Montana
town before, so she jumps at the chance to see the country. And as much as
accidental fame doesn’t gel with shy Ryan, what does is her relationship with
her capricious, smoking-hot, shockingly good dad of a boss. Marcus is nothing
like what she expected. But when the whole world’s watching them, will life in
the spotlight be too hot to handle?
About
the Author:
A reading specialist with a Masters degree in Early Childhood Education, Farrah Taylor has taught first
grade in Northwest Montana for over a decade. She is thrilled to be publishing
her first novel, Love Songs for the Road. Farrah, a lifelong music lover who
has spent far too much of her savings on concert tickets, is glad to finally be
seeing a return on the investment. She lives with her husband, Ty, and son,
Latham, in Polson, Montana.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/farrahromance
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