Houston Author Event Interview & Giveaways: Day 1 Spotlight on Tara Sivec

I was given the incredible opportunity to sit down and have some one-on-one face time with the attending authors at the recent Houston event. It was a blast! I got to pick their brains for five minutes each. Thanks to all of you who submitted questions, I was armed and prepared. ~Nadine 

We’ll be featuring a different author and their interview here for the next several days. Make sure you scroll to the bottom and enter the AMAZING Rafflecopter for your chance to win a SIGNED paperback from each attending author and keep scrolling for another chance to win various swag from the event.

Today’s spotlight is TARA SIVEC! You asked the questions, she answered them. Enjoy!

Were you funny as a child?

I think I was. Like in my mind I was hilarious, but I was probably just annoying. Yeah, I think I was pretty hilarious.

Is Gavin a REAL kid?

Yes, he’s my son. He’s seven now. He was four when I started writing Seduction and Snacks. So he was the basis at 100% for Gavin. And my daughter a little bit because she has her own little sneak attack humor of things that come into play. That one whole scene where Gavin has the KY Jelly and he’s like ooooh it tingles, it’s warm, that was actually my daughter that did that.

 

How do you come up with such hilarious characters in your Chocolate Lovers series?

A lot of it is based on real life. Things that have happened in real life. Mostly my brain is a real scary place to live. Like the stuff that is not true, you don’t ever want to be in my brain, weird things are happening in there.

How do you get any work done when you write these hilarious books?

*laughs* See, I don’t think I’m funny. My editor gets so mad at me because I’ll send her a chapter note saying this is the stupidest thing, it’s not funny at all, I hate it, she’s like you are a moron. I don’t think anything I write is funny. I always second guess what I’m doing.

What inspired you to start writing?

Boredom with my job that I was doing at the time. I just wasn’t happy with it. Things were changing and I was miserable day in and day out. In my mind I’m figuring if I’m going to work this many hours away from my family, I want to be doing something that I love. And so at my full-time job I just started writing at my cubicle in a corner where no one could see me. I wrote Seduction and Snacks and Futures and Frosting 100% when I had a full-time job. All day during work, that’s what I did, all day. Come back later, I’m busy. No, I can’t go to that meeting I have a lot of work to do. I have a lot of editing, err I mean work.

From start to finish, how long did it take you to complete your first book?

It didn’t take me long to complete it, probably a couple of months. But, the tweaking and the editing and adding things and changing things probably at least a few years.

That's all I had time for folks before the chimes dinged signaling my time with Tara was up. Yes, I said chimes! :) Make sure you pick up Tara Sivec's new release, Passion and Ponies, it's out now and will have you in fits of laughter.

Connect with Tara Sivec: Facebook | Website | Goodreads

 

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: Love and Lists (Chocoholics #1) by Tara Sivec

Love and Lists is the first book in the Chocolate Lovers spinoff Chocoholics: The foulmouthed offspring tell their stories.

Twenty-five-year-old Gavin Ellis has always had the love and support of his family ever since he was a little boy and couldn't stop talking about his penis. He's also always had their unsolicited advice and uncanny knack of embarrassing him at all costs. Now that he's an adult and trying to convince the love of his life to love him back, things haven't changed very much from when he was younger.

When Gavin's best friend Tyler suggests he make a to-do list of items that will ensure he wins the girl, Gavin is one-hundred-percent on board: after a few six packs.

After puking in the shrubs, a bad experience with Viagra, a Sex-Ed course gone wrong, and a slew of other mishaps courtesy of his family and friends, Gavin is pretty sure this list will be the death of him.

Sometimes, trying to make someone love you with a list isn't always the best idea. Especially when "Show her your penis" is the first "to-do" item...

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Available at:  Amazon | B&N

REVIEWS

Tara Sivec is back with a spin-off to her hilarious Chocolate Lovers series.  Remember Gavin, the wise cracking, wiener talking, ball busting little boy from Seduction and Snacks?  Well he's all grown up in Love and List, book 1 in the new Chocoholics series. 

This book had me laughing harder and harder the further I went.  We open with Gavin being in love with his best friend, Charlotte.  She has no clue he's in love with her and has been for years.  They grew up together.  Their moms are best friends.  How would Charlotte react?  Would she be disgusted by it?  Could she by some miracle love him back?  And what about her boyfriend? 

Enter THE LIST.  At his friend’s, Tyler, suggestion together they come up with a list to win the girl.  The story takes us on a journey of the items on that list.  But of course things don't always go as planned.  Actually, for poor Gavin, they never go as planned.  And that's when the comedy comes in.  I mean how could it not with things like Show Her Your Penis being on the list.  Yep cause that's how you impress a girl.  Although I don't think sharing that part of himself with the community and coming off as a perv was what he had in mind.

The whole gang from the original series is back in this one as well.  And OMG they were the whip cream and cherry on top of a gooey, crazed filled nut muffin.  In other words they were added perfection.

Tara Sivec has become my go to author when I need a pick me up.  Her Chocolate Lovers and now her Chocoholics series never fail to lift my spirits and bring a humongous smile to my face.

Fans of Tara Sivec’s Chocolate Lover’s series will not be disappointed at all when reading Love and Lists.  It is as raunchy and hilarious as her previous books.  Gavin is no longer the little boy being talking about his penis, nope now he is an adult and it is funny as shit reading his book. 

Gavin is in love with his best friend, who also happens to be his mom’s best friend's daughter.  Trying to find a way to show and tell her how he feels is how the list is created.  With his perverted friend Tyler’s help he tries to win over Charlotte by working down the “list”.  When show her your penis is an item on the list you know that this shit is going to be hilarious, and I promise you it was.  You get to see the entire gang from the Chocolate Lover’s series, and they all try to help Gavin out in his mission to win Charlotte.  What his grandpa does to him OMG it is so wrong but at the same time one of the funniest things I have ever read.

Charlotte has a list of her own.  She is in love with Gavin too, but she has a boyfriend…or does she?  She doesn’t want to lose Gavin as her best friend but at the same time is tired of waiting for him to make a move on her.  I honestly do not know whose list was more hilarious, Gavin’s or Charlotte’s.

Let me say this, I laughed so hard that not only did I wake my husband up numerous times throughout the night that I think he contemplated murder, but I cried and pissed my pants from laughing my ass off.  Now the pissing my pants part isn’t a hard thing to accomplish right now being 8 ½ months pregnant but I can honestly say it would have happened even if I wasn’t carrying my spawn, I mean my baby.  This book is that funny.  If you are looking for a book that will keep you laughing until the end then Love and Lists is the book for you.  I would suggest reading the Chocolate Lover’s series first just so you get to see Gavin as a little boy and the antics his family pull.

Bio:

Tara Sivec is a wife, mom, chauffeur, cheerleading coach, soccer coach, babysitter, short-order cook, genius and albino squirrel hunter. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two kids. In her spare time she likes read, write and cover things in chocolate. Most of her material comes from real life experiences with family and friends. Lucky for them, the names have been changed to protect the innocent (aka, drunk).

Tara also writes under the pen name T.E. Sivec where she can be serious, suspenseful and not at all funny.

Social Media Links:

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6422281.Tara_Sivec

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TaraSivec.authorpage?ref=hl

Twitter: www.twitter.com/tarasivec

Website: http://www.tarasivec.com

http://www.madisonsays.com/lovelistsbytarasivectourschedule

 

 

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