Author Interview: Tarrah Montgomery

Walnut Springs Press, author, Tarrah Montgomery, recently presented at two conferences for young girls, Time to Blossom and Retreat for Girls. We caught up with her to ask her some questions and find out about her upcoming book, the last in her Princess Chronicles Series, The Princess and the Pesky Pea. She also sent us some photos from the conferences. Read on to find out more about her and to see photos from the conference.

Is there an author or book that has had a profound impact on you or your writing?

I’m one of those authors, which may be a large group of us, who can say the book Twilight helped motivate me to be a writer. It was one of those books that spiked my imagination, and I found myself desperately craving for that feeling of creating characters and fairy tale worlds. I’d written books since I was little, and it was always something I wanted to do, but that is what finally gave me the push. I’d also have to say authors, Marcia Lynn McClure and Jennie James were two authors who not only gave me personal advice but helped me grow as a writer as I dived into reading their books.

Can you share a few things that inspired your newest book?

My most recently published book is the 4th book in my Princess Chronicles Series, titled Beauty and the Teenage Beast, which was a blast to write because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale story. The 5th book in the series is titled The Princess and the Pesky Pea, and is scheduled to come out late this Fall. It’s the beginning to all of the Princess Chronicles books and is going to explain a lot of things. My other book that was published late last fall was my first non-fiction book, The Book of Real Beauty for LDS Girls. It was a dear project, close to my heart, to try and explain in words to young girls of what makes them truly beautiful and that it doesn’t matter what other people (including the world) thinks.

Which of the characters in your Princess Chronicles are you most like?

Great question. I don’t know about other authors, but there’s a little bit of me in each of the main characters I write. It helps me relate to them and understand why they do things. They’re not completely like me, but there are certainly a few small traits that are the same. If I’d have to say which one had the most traits like mine, I guess it would be the new character I’m writing in my book right now, The Princess and the Pesky Pea. The main character’s name is Ivee, and she’s doing her student teaching at a small school in Idaho. I was a teacher, so some of Ivee’s experiences as she’s teaching school are similar to my own.

Which of them was the hardest to write?

It was hard to write the story of Rapunzel. When she was stuck in the tower, there wasn’t much she could do. So, it was hard to write about the monotonous things she did on a daily basis.

What is your favorite part of writing?

My favorite part is brainstorming and planning. I first make a rough outline of how I think the story should go, and then I make a music playlist to match each chapter in the book. I know that may sound strange, but I love music and a lot of my imagination comes from songs. I can listen to a song and get a whole idea of how a character is going to change throughout the course of the book. When I’m driving, I listen to my playlist, and my mind is immersed in my make believe fairy tale land, and I can plan out the rest of the book.

When you present at conferences, what is the message you hope people get from you?

I’ve presented various topics when I speak at conferences. One of my favorite topics is that we have to find our own fairy tale in our own lives. Real life is not about princesses and castles. It’s true that we’ve been promised a happily ever after, but our story may not be how we thought it would be. We have to make it our own fairy tale story. When I’ve been speaking to young girls, I’ve recently been speaking about the importance of discovering their real beauty and not what the world defines as what’s beautiful. We’ve had some great discussions on what is expected and who should be the only one who should care how beautiful we are: Heavenly Father, and he thinks we’re all uniquely beautiful just how we are.

What advice would you give someone who wants to be an author?

The best advice I ever got was from Shannon Hale, New York Times Best Selling Author. She said to be a better writer then you need to write more and read more. Then, write some more and read some more. And then write more and read even more. I thought that was great advice. Reading increases our vocabulary and helps us with the flow of writing a story, sentence and paragraph structure, and where plot lines should be. And, it’s been proved countless times, you can only get better by practicing. I’m still learning with every book I write, and I’m learning every, single day. So, write lots and read lots. ;)