What is your name (the one you write under) and what genre/s do you write?
S.G. Tasz, writing in urban fantasy, dark humor and contemporary gothic fiction
How long have you been writing for and how did you begin your writing journey?
Short answer: forever. Long answer: I began my novel-writing journey in 2015 because I'd moved back to my home town and needed something to do while I figured out what to do next with my life. I'd been writing screenplays up to that point, but without a film community in my "new" city I turned back to narrative fiction because it was art I could do by myself. Turns out, I love it, and the self-publishing industry was just starting to come into its own, so it was kind of a perfect time for me to jump in. I've been doing it ever since.
Which of your characters is your favorite to write and why?
Oh God...I don't think I chose! They're all wonderful in different ways...okay, so by a very stringent and painful process of elimination, I have it down to two men and two women: Grace Henry and Adina Venture for the women, and Rex Ranganathan and Levi Breitling for the men. Grace and Adina are very similar and I had/have the easiest time jumping into their voices, even after a long absence. Breitling is an intriguing, sexy mystery with lots of layers, and Rex is approachable, uncomplicated anarchy, and that's always fun to write.
Which of your books or series was your favorite to create and write?
Death by Miss Adventure, no question. It's my sophomore series, so I already feel much more confident talking it up, plus it's set in Vegas and wrote it as a local, which means I was in a position to capture the city both the way it is and the way I see it (i.e. full of strange magic).
What do you do when a new idea pops up and you're still in the middle of your current book, do you chase that squirrel or complete your current project first?
I'm a compulsive finisher. Even books I'm reading that I don't enjoy, I still leave the bookmark in for years just to avoid admitting that I'm not going to finish it. New ideas get put into my Notes app on my phone and are either lost and forgotten, rediscovered down the road, or implemented into my immediate future release plan.
What do you enjoy the most about writing in your genre/s?
I make the rules :) Also, I like being dark. Ish. I don't know if I'll ever write extreme horror, but if I did, it would still have to have humor. I can't help it. Being able to find something ridiculous and worth laughing at no matter what the situation is my secret super power.
Tell readers something unique or fun about yourself or your writing process.
Sorry about this, but I'm going to be a snob right now and quote Flaubert: "Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work." I'll give you a moment to roll your eyes before I go on. I don't know where I stumbled upon this quote, but...that's me all over. I may look organized and just-so in my day-to-day life, but when I work I'm an absolute mess. When I'm in first draft mode, I'll sit down at eight in the morning and work straight through until three, not stopping to eat or get dressed, just continuously banging out words on the keyboard because I'm trying to get them into a workable medium. I don't care if they're terrible, because I know I'll fix them later. If you ever saw one of my first drafts, you would wonder how I get from that disaster to a book someone actually wants to buy. But I do. I've done it. Several times. Anything can be improved, but it has to exist first.
Is there something readers can take away from your writing or characters?
I like writing heroes with issues and villains you can empathize with, which means that the lines between good guys and bad guys can run together a little bit. My favorite moments are when characters come upon an ambiguous situation, and though they all see it differently, none of them are necessarily "wrong" about it. I like it when books give you the opportunity to form an opinion of your own, instead of the author telling you what they think (or what they want you to think). That's what I'm aiming for in my work. If you're one of my readers, you'll have to tell me if I've been successful :)
What do you know now about writing/publishing that you wish you knew when you published your first book?
Very little. I just published it on Amazon one day with zero preamble. I knew it wasn't the "right" way, but I wanted to have something to work with, experiment with, and make mistakes with. It wasn't an efficient way to do things, but I learned a TON and that knowledge has helped my later work immensely.
What advice would you give to those thinking about writing their first book?
This is going to be unorthodox, but here's what I truly think: If you're thinking about writing a book, keep thinking about it. Think about it until you can't think about anything else, until you literally can't do anything else without getting some words down on paper first. If you never get to that point...honestly, ask yourself if you really want to do this. Writing a book is hard. Editing it and publishing it is even harder, and marketing it is--I'm not exaggerating--a never-ending chore (unless you already have a devoted fanbase of some kind, in which case, I'm super jealous). If you're not passionate about it, you may find it rough going later on. But if you are, then welcome to the madness, and what are you waiting for? Sit down and get to work!
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