An Interview with Tamara Smith: Author of Coming Into Power

Tamara Smith was raised in Virginia, where she resided until moving to British Columbia, Canada in her adult years. Her father was American and her mother is Canadian. Tamara has dual citizenship along with her two sisters. In her eyes, she had the best of both worlds as they lived in the States during the school year and traveled as a family to Canada during the summers. Currently, Tamara is Payroll Manager at a reputable company in BC, Canada.

In 2021 during Covid, Tamara had her second child and was on maternity leave when she had a dream that her spouse encouraged her to turn into a novel. It took a few months from start to finish before she had the rough draft and had to return to full-time employment. During this time, on the weekends she continued to write and edit her novel, finally completing it at year-end where she engaged BookBaby to assist with self-publishing her work and creating her cover.

Tell us about your book.

Coming Into Power is a paranormal romance thriller about choosing between the life you always saw for yourself and the life which has presented itself. The heroine, Mikayla, is introduced to the world of werewolves and finds herself mated to the Alpha of the pack, Jason. Jason is at odds with another Alpha, Justin, who seeks to gain control of Jason’s pack and lands through unconventional methods. On the brink of war, Jason meets Mikayla by chance and struggles with her delay in making a decision to be his Luna. Follow the two of them as they learn about each other and secrets that make everything even more complicated. This novel changes points of view throughout the storyline so you can understand what different characters are feeling and thinking throughout the novel. The most prominent points of view being from Mikayla and Jason.

Why did you want to write a book?

One morning I wakened from an exciting dream. I recounted it to my spouse, who encouraged me to write it into a book. I was on maternity leave at the time and needed something other than watching the kids to focus on. By the time I returned to work, I had completed the first rough draft.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

I am new to the world of writing and being an author. I was actually going to publish on Amazon Publishing and they had information on their site about their partnership with BookBaby. I phoned BookBaby and asked several questions on numerous occasions. Once I felt comfortable, I engaged them and signed off on a project and the rest is history.

Would you self-publish again?

I would definitely use self-publish again, but wouldn’t be adverse to being involved with a publisher either. As mentioned I am new to this and am learning as I go. BookBaby did make it simple and I am extremely happy with the finished product.

What was your steepest learning curve during the publishing process?

The small editing techniques required for the page layout. This is my first book and as an example, the chapters of books usually start with a space at the top of the page and maybe the chapter starts mid-page to signify a new chapter. I didn’t realize I needed to update the spacing for this, so this first book is published with the chapters aligned at the top of the page. Little things like that which I didn’t realize would be that way until I received the first hard copy and noticed little things I am not used to seeing when reading other books. Lesson learned and ready for improvement in the next book.

As a writer, what is your schedule? How do you get the job done?

My spouse and I had to plan for the time I spent writing my book. Typically, I would think about what I wanted to write outside of having already seen it in my dream. We would block a day at a time for me and I would be isolated for the day while he watched the children and I would write as much as I could. My strategy which worked well for me was to just write down my vision for the book as it came to me. I didn’t worry about editing or getting it perfect. I wanted to get the main story down like a brain dump onto paper and then sort out the flow and proper grammar/English.

Tell us about the genre you wrote in, and why you chose to write this sort of book.

I have always loved the paranormal movies, books, and TV shows from a young age. Werewolves, witches, vampires, etc are all of interest to me. When my young children woke me up at night, I was unable to get back to sleep, so I started reading several different online novels within this genre late night/early morning. I guess it left an impression because I had a dream unlike any of the stories I had read but in the same werewolf genre.

How do your friends and family get involved with your writing? What do they think of your book?

After the rough draft, I had two friends and one family member review the story and provide feedback. The feedback was minor and I made some adjustments accordingly, but from the beginning almost everyone who has read it has praised the flow of the reading and enjoyed the characters and context. Some who are unfamiliar with the genre were a little confused but as information is explained to the heroine in the novel, the reader learns what it means as well and the confusion is answered.

What did you learn on your journey as an author?

I honestly didn’t think I had it in me to finish the book to completion but writing it came very naturally to me and was actually easier than I anticipated. Writing the book, in my mind, was going to be the hardest part of this journey but I actually am finding the marketing, social media aspects, and getting the word out to be more difficult than actually writing the book. It is not something I am vastly familiar with and am definitely outside of my comfort zone.

What are your plans now your book is published?

The dream was quite long and intense. When I started jotting down everything, I had to research the genre to identify what the minimum and maximum word count should be for my novel and when I looked it up, I was already well within the median and was unfinished, so I had to end the story. After creating an outline of the remaining aspects of my dream, it became clear this novel would be a trilogy. I am currently writing the second book and hope to have it published end of 2023 or early 2024.