A lot of her writing gets done while she is on a commuter going to and from work. Tara’s favorite place to write is in her home office, surrounded by all of her clutter and a nice smelling candle burning. There would be no point in the story, otherwise. Tara thinks that her characters are sympathetic and even if you do not agree with things they are doing, you can still see their side of things and where they are coming from. She constantly has to fight this desire for harmony and push toward conflict. She always wants the true-love couple to wind up together and see the bad guy get caught. This is one reason why she could never be a television writer. She loves her characters, all of them, even the rather nasty ones, so it can be hard for her to make anything bad happen to them.

Tara has a tough time dealing with the way violent things will unravel something inside of her characters that wasn’t too tightly wound to start with and they can suffer, as a result of this. However, she will read it back and see some of her lines weave in and out and then on top of each other. She keeps a pen and a pad of paper nearby and has even learned to write pretty well in the dark. She will wake up from a truly bizarre one and just know that she has to write it down before she forgets it. She writes a lot about violence, ghosts, Pennsylvania, how people are unable to communicate with one another all that well, newspaper reporters, and married people that aren’t doing well.

However she came to have this interest, she is a total sucker for all things that are slightly off, weird, or just downright terrifying. Tara was born on Halloween and she thinks it might mean that she was destined to love creepy things. She also loves being the first yes for an author, it is one of her favorite things and it is a great feeling for her. Tara also likes finding that one story from the slush pile that truly shines, and just knowing that they provide artists and writers a place to showcase their stories. She has found you get to read a lot and you know what the trends are and what is out there, which allows you to make your own writing unique or fresh. A lot of different editors and writers, which leads to networking opportunities.

Through editing for SmokeLong, she finds she gets to meet a lot of people. With flash fiction, though, she has found that sometimes it is best just to take whatever voice, image, or whatever it is, and go off exploring. While writing longer pieces, like short stories or novels, she likes to plan it all out first before she writes anything. She got an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University and a BA in English with a writing minor from Susquehanna. Author Tara Laskowski grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski