When did you know you wanted to be an author?

My first real memory is of being frustrated that I didn’t know how to write yet, because I couldn’t write down the stories I told my Ojiichan, my Japanese grandpa. Then I ended up learning to write in English first, and I wanted to learn to write Japanese so I could show him.

What inspired you to write Living in the Shallows?

Haha! My favorite boy band had announced they were going on hiatus, and my students and daughter were in a tizzy! So I wanted to write a kind of wish fulfillment tale. The cracks between these guys were beginning to show a bit as well, so I wanted to write about boys who really loved each other, and really loved the heroine. I also find the late teen and early twenties to be beautiful years, and wanted to write about someone experiencing everything for the first time. I wanted to show that coming of age didn’t have to be about a loss of innocence and disillusionment, that it could be lovely and full of beauty and joy.

What is your editing process like?

It’s like a combination of murder and surgery lol, like amputating limbs one inch at a time! There’s a reason writers have to pay someone else to do this. It requires tremendous discipline.

Seriously, I have to leave the manuscript alone for a bit, get feedback from beta readers, and really think about what I want the final product to look like. I have to make sure that, even if plot elements get lost, the feelings I was going for don’t.

What do you find the most challenging about being an author?

Um, maybe not being taken seriously? Even by family members, sometimes, especially in this genre. It doesn’t *look* like a real job unless you’re super successful, you just look like an amanuensis, a data entry person or something, just tapping away, day after day. Very few people start out like Stephen King is now, you know?

Are you working on something now?

No, I still have six others in this series which I’ve completed, but need *significant* editing and rewrites. That’s next for me. A lot of stuff happens to Birdie and her boys before I’m finished with them!

About the Book

Title: Living the Shallows

Author: Tani Hanes

Genre: YA Romance

Aileen Foster, a shy, 22 year old student from LA, thinks she has landed a dream job as an interpreter for some actors making a film in Japan. She gets a surprise when she arrives in Tokyo and finds out that they are UK Crush, the hottest boyband around. She has been orphaned for most of her life, and it’s a shock for her to enter their world of frank physicality. The boys come to love her, and Aileen is forced to look at her life and choices, and decide if she’s ready to be brave and start living.

 

Author Bio

My name is Tani Hanes, and I am a 51 rear old substitute teacher. Im from central California and am a recent transplant to New York City. The most important things to know about me are that I’m punctual, I love grammar and sushi, and I’m very intolerant of intolerance. The least important things to know about me are that I like to knit and I couldn’t spell “acoustic” for 40 years. I’ve wanted to write since I was ten, and I finally did it. If you want to write, don’t wait as long as I did, it’s pointless, and very frustrating!

Links

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