The month of January is all about character interviews. Today, I’m firing questions at Tamzin from Lark Westerly’s latest release Being Tamzin 1, book one in the Being Tamzin series, a fantasy romance.
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1. First off, tell us who you are (age, where you grew up, where you live now, etc.) and what role you play in the novel.
Tamzin: I’m Tamzin. I think I’m eighteen, but I’m not exactly sure. My parents are so odd– every three or so years we move somewhere else. We have new names and I have a new date of birth. The first time this happened (that I remember) was when I was five. I’ve lived in lots of different places. When my parents forced me to leave my boyfriend, Dequan, I ran away to a place you might call Fairyland. The people who live here call it Over Here. I live with a group of families I call The Clan. They’re lovely to me, but there’s trouble ahead. I have two lovely friends. One has married someone else. The other one wants to marry me, but I can’t say yes. I AM going to go home to Dequan as soon as it’s safe.
2. Share with us your hobbies and interests, and why you enjoy them.
Tamzin: When I lived Over There which is what the Clan and I call the human realm, I loved playing my guitar and painting. I’ve been fascinated with elves for as long as I remember. Dequan always says I’m daft and elf obsessed… but he loves me. Now that I live in the grotto, I still love painting and now I have learned to play the violin. These two talents give me the tools I need to make my way in the world when I leave the Clan.
3. Tell us how you feel about being in a novel, and if you are happy with how your author presented you to readers.
Tamzin: I’m glad my author told my story. It’s such a strange one. Even I find it difficult to believe all the things that have happened to me so far. There’s a lot more to come, too. Having someone tell my story helps me to believe in myself.
4. If your author was to create another novel with you in mind, give us a quick blurb of what it would be about. And be sure to give the title.
Tamzin: My author has written six other books about me… Being Tamzin 2-7. At this point I don’t know what will happen, but my author told me I DO go home to see Dequan, but that things won’t turn out the way I think they will. She says I’ll be wonderfully happy though, eventually.
5. Which character in the novel do you like the most, and why?
Tamzin: It’s difficult to answer this. I’ve met wonderful people here in Over Here. Because I’ve lived in two realms, I’ll have to answer for my two favourite people. Dequan Qin is my boyfriend in the human world. He’s my age. He’s musical, like me, and he is the first person I have ever been able to depend on completely. He loves me exactly the way I am. Shay Beech is my favourite person Over Here. He and Cornelius were the first people I met here. Shay is a halfling. He’s shorter than I am, and he has an olive green skin. He’s so happy and he loves life so much! He calls kin with the sunshine. I’m always happy when I’m with him. Now he’s married, but we’ll always be loving friends. I can always depend on him, too.
6. Which character in the novel do you dislike the most, and why?
Tamzin: That’s easy. Shades. He’s the person at the root of all my problems. He’s the one who makes my parents move and change their names. That is… I THINK so. If I didn’t think so, I’d have to hate my parents and I won’t do that.
7. Tell us why we should read the featured novel and what we will find most intriguing about you.
Tamzen: I think you’ll love reading about my friends and my lovers, and my search for identity. Bad things happen, but I have an optimistic and determined nature. Besides, my author has promised faithfully that I’ll have a wonderfully happy life one day.
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Title: Being Tamzin 1
Series: Being Tamzin, Book One
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Author: Lark Westerly
Heat Rating: 3 Flames (open door sex, but no explicit language used)
Length: 45,000 words/164 pages
Release Date: December 17, 2021
Publisher: eXtasy Books
Blurb: Tamzin and Dequan had plans, but Tamzin was whisked away to another life. She accepted a lifeline from a stranger and walked through a cave. Ten years on, another Christmas is coming when someone raises the question: whatever happened to Tamzin all those years ago?
Tamzin’s life is full of new beginnings. Every few years it’s a new town, a new name, and another story to tell. The move when she is seventeen is the worst of all. Along with her name, she loses Dequan Qin and the magical year they were planning after Christmas.
Unable to contact Dequan, Tamzin, now known as Rochelle, accepts a lifeline from a strange elf man. Matin offers a place for her to stay until it’s safe to be Tamzin again. Through the gateway into over there, the newly renamed Thomasine finds love and acceptance in a world of sparkling beauty. Lovers and friends, ever-sailing galleons, music, and magic offer distraction, but she never forgets Dequan.
Ten years after Tamzin’s abrupt departure, Nelis and Xavier are having breakfast with their friend Lucy before they head off for the Christmas Eve orgy at the Pear Tree. Lucy is worried about her cousin Dequan. Ever since his girlfriend, Tamzin, left him without a word, he’s unable to commit to any of his lovers. Lucy is embarking on a new life of her own, but first, she puts the question to her friends: whatever happened to Tamzin Herrick all those years ago?
Purchase at:
Amazon | Apple | eXtasy Books
Tamzin loved the Christmas season, but the morning after the row with Ada and Mister Sinister, she woke up with a sick feeling in her stomach.
Usually when she had a bad day, everything seemed better the next morning. That hadn’t worked for Tamzin today. Instead of being better, everything seemed immeasurably worse. Her mind scurried like a rat in a glass box. Everywhere it darted it came up against a hard wall of denial.
She lay in bed in the room she’d slept in for the past two years. If she’d lived in this house forever, she might have seen remnants of her childhood, with the pony curtains she’d picked when she was nine, or maybe the leadlight lamp she’d found in an all-sorts shop when she was twelve.
Since she’d moved into this room at the advanced age of fifteen-and-a-half, none of the horsiness was represented. Instead, the room was occupied by elves.
Ada thought elves were a symptom of—something or other.
Maybe they were.
Or maybe, Tamzin thought, they were her daftness showing through the paper-thin veneer of being the seventeen-year-old daughter of Guy Herrick and his partner, Adeline Burns who had arrived in Sydney a couple of years before. They hadn’t known anyone in the city. No one had known them. That was still mostly the case.
Dequan called Tamzin daft. She loved that about him. He also classified her as elf-obsessed, but that was fine, because Dequan believed in elves. He’d said so on the last official day of school.
“Of course I do.” He gave her his wide smile and spread his arms as if to embrace the school library they were about to enter.
“You do?” She squinted at him in surprise. “Are you humouring me?”
“Um. Why would I? Doesn’t everyone believe in elves?”
Well, no. Ada and Mister Sinister didn’t, for two. They disbelieved so violently that they’d banned all mention of the subject.
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Lark Westerly has her head in the clouds. She stands with one foot in the rose garden, and one in a bath of warm mud, dreamily absorbing chocolate and plotting erotic adventures. In her spare time, she writes children’s books and fantasy poetry under another name.
Follow Lark: Website | Instagram
Maggie Blackbird 