Author Q&A Tara J. Stone

Tara started writing fiction when she was in first grade, but she didn’t discover the thrill of screenwriting until she studied Communications Media at John Paul the Great Catholic University. Screenplays are her favorite way to tell stories. Tara resides in Colorado, and in 2016, she became a Consecrated Virgin Living in the World in the Diocese of Colorado Springs. In addition to making things up and writing them down, Tara enjoys praying, hiking (definitely not running), going to the symphony (especially movies at the symphony), discovering new craft brews, and spending time with family and friends.

I’m a screenwriter by training, so for a long time, my focus was on pitching scripts and entering screenwriting contests. But when the pandemic started, I ran with this crazy idea to self-publish a couple of my screenplays as paperbacks and ebooks. Bergman Manor, a 1920s ghost story/murder mystery, released in May. The Detective’s Secretary, a 1930s mystery/musical, released in June.

No. Well, sometimes. My favorite books to read are fantasy books, and I would NEVER write a fantasy book. I couldn’t. I don’t have the right kind of imagination for world-building. I can’t make up settings I’ve never seen or been to myself, so I fear if I ever tried to write a fantasy book, I would just end up borrowing details from my favorite fantasy authors to build the world. It wouldn’t be original at all. But I do occasionally read mysteries and historical fiction, which is what my screenplays are. My new novel is a contemporary coming-of-age story, and I almost never read that genre.

Depends on who’s giving it and what the criticism is. Over the years, I’ve gotten a much better handle on which notes will objectively improve my writing and which ones are simply a matter of taste. And the key is to take neither type personally. When someone who knows what they’re talking about gives me an objective note, my first step is to take a day or two to absorb and process and get my ego under control (there might be some crying involved). After that, I can usually think clearly enough to implement the note and make my writing better. Criticism that is clearly a matter of taste rolls off my shoulders pretty easily these days. It hasn’t always because it took me a long time to separate criticism of my work from criticism of me. Now, when I can recognize matters of taste for what they are, I just shrug and move on.

My latest work is my very first novel, 6 Blocks Home, releasing November 24. It’s a coming-of-age story about a girl who moves in with her neighbors when an accident hospitalizes both of her parents for several months. Family and faith are major themes, but at the heart of the book is a sweet love story.

Sam Ingram is 12 years old. She’s brilliant – so brilliant that she pretends to be average just so she won’t have to do the extra homework her teachers always want to give her. She loves – she’s currently learning the trumpet, but she has played the piano for years, writes her own compositions from time to time, and enjoys going to symphony concerts. She’s an only child, and she isn’t aware of any extended family – it’s just her and her parents until the accident. She wears socks with her sandals. And, most importantly, she’s in love with the boy across the street, Tobias Howard.

As a screenwriter, this question always makes me chuckle a little bit. Of course I want my screenplays to be made into films! That’s why I wrote them in the first place. But my novel? No. If I wanted 6 Blocks Home to be made into a film, I would have written it as a screenplay. Not all stories belong on the screen.