Ask the Author: Taryn Bashford
Answered Questions (13)
Taryn Bashford
Thanks for your question Tara. The book is dedicated to my brother for good reason - he played professionally and then became a professional coach for people like Marcos Baghdatis and Amelie Mauresmo when they were teenagers. It all gave me a really authentic peek inside the world of professional tennis.
Taryn Bashford
Yes, I do. When I was a teen I was training for the 400m track event in the hope of making the Olympics, while my brother was a tennis player and then became a professional player and coach. Having the mindset of an elite sports person is in my head, I guess, and was part of the reason a character like Harper came into mind. Also the experiences my brother shared were authentic and interesting, and made a good setting for the novel. I also believe that sport can play such a good role in the life of teens - they benefit in so many ways from learning independence, resilience, how to take knock backs, team work, sticking with something, being empowered, setting and achieving goals and so much more, that it seemed like a good topic for a YA novel. I've also always LOVED movies like The Karate Kid, Million Dollar Baby, Rocky, Chariots of Fire, so I guess it's not a surprise I've written this novel in the hope of inspiring readers to go after their dreams because anything is possible if you set your heart and mind to it.
Taryn Bashford
Hi Caryn, and thanks for your question.
While tennis is the setting in the novel, I like to think you could substitute tennis for swimming or athletics or football, or indeed music or art or something else you dream of. It's about never giving up on your dreams, believing in yourself when others don't, and also dreaming big. Harper's dreams were tennis ones, and that came from my brother rather than me. He played the professional tennis circuit after attending a scholarship at a Tennis Academy in Florida where he met people like Andre Agassi. He became a professional coach and coached Amelie Mauresmo when she was a teen - like Harper. I do play sports - well did and do. Right now, I train for triathlons, but back when I was Harper's age, I was a runner, a swimmer and a field hockey player. I love sport as I believe it brings out great qualities in us all, and teaches so much. But being committed to any dream can do that - sport, music, art, academics...whatever you can dream of. Have a fab day, Caryn!
While tennis is the setting in the novel, I like to think you could substitute tennis for swimming or athletics or football, or indeed music or art or something else you dream of. It's about never giving up on your dreams, believing in yourself when others don't, and also dreaming big. Harper's dreams were tennis ones, and that came from my brother rather than me. He played the professional tennis circuit after attending a scholarship at a Tennis Academy in Florida where he met people like Andre Agassi. He became a professional coach and coached Amelie Mauresmo when she was a teen - like Harper. I do play sports - well did and do. Right now, I train for triathlons, but back when I was Harper's age, I was a runner, a swimmer and a field hockey player. I love sport as I believe it brings out great qualities in us all, and teaches so much. But being committed to any dream can do that - sport, music, art, academics...whatever you can dream of. Have a fab day, Caryn!
Taryn Bashford
Lol, you are funny. Thanks for your kind words. I hope you like it. Cover reveal coming on the 13th Nov, so I'm getting quite excited now!
Taryn Bashford
Hi Margaret. And thanks for your question. But no, Harper in The Harper Effect isn't the Prime Minister of Canada - good idea for a book though :) Harper is the 16 year old professional tennis player who learns to win from a boy who has lost everything. That boy is Colt, her doubles partner. But while she's trying to figure him out and the secrets he's hiding, she's making some bad choices in the rest of her life - like betraying her sister. It's a coming of age story, with some exciting insights into the world of professional tennis. Think Rocky or Million Dollar Baby or Karate Kid - but in the world of tennis.
Now I must go and think about this plot about the Canadian Prime Minister...
Now I must go and think about this plot about the Canadian Prime Minister...
Taryn Bashford
Rejection email from a publisher.
Another rejection email.
Another rejection email.
Taryn Bashford
My TBR list is always about 30 books long so it's hard to dwindle this down to a few here. Just talking YA though, Angie Thomas - The Hate You Give, Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas, Just One Day by Gayle Forman and Emery Lord's The Names They Gave Us. I have a long list of 'Want to Reads' on my Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ account too :) I do read a lot of adult novels as well, but I keep my Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ account for YA only. Do you have any suggestions to add to my list?
Taryn Bashford
It doesn't take much - my favorite room is my writing room and I can't wait to get there each day. So being inspired to write isn't a problem. If the question is how do I get inspiration for novels, that's harder to answer. I've had ideas for novels swimming in my head for years. They just seem to jump into my head from maybe a line in a movie, a story someone tells me, a person I meet. I write the ideas down in separate note books and add to them as ideas/thoughts come to me. But as I can't write 10 novels at one time, I just keep adding to those notes until I'm ready to start writing a new novel and then I go through them all and decide on which one I'm going to write next. It usually jumps out at me - like it's a story ready and waiting to be written.
Taryn Bashford
I've never had writer's block, but I have a theory as to why: when I write that first draft I write solidly for 2 or so weeks, 18 hours per day. It's called the vomit draft because I literally type-vomit the words onto the page. By working in this way, approximately 20% of the way through, the characters actually take over the action and I have trouble keeping up with them because I'm just being pulled along, telling their story as fast as possible, as it unfolds itself.
I do then have to spend several months fixing the first draft, but at that point I have the story, the characters, their goals and motivations, the start, middle and end, and 90,000 words to play with. Writer's block be gone!
I do then have to spend several months fixing the first draft, but at that point I have the story, the characters, their goals and motivations, the start, middle and end, and 90,000 words to play with. Writer's block be gone!
Taryn Bashford
Working in my PJ's - often all day :)
Losing myself in the fictional world I'm building and hanging out with characters I miss when I leave my writing room.
Losing myself in the fictional world I'm building and hanging out with characters I miss when I leave my writing room.
Taryn Bashford
1. Read! Then read some more. What you learn by reading and analyzing books then pours into your own writing by osmosis and suddenly getting that structure or characterization or pace right isn't quite so mysteriously hard. You'll also learn the expectations of the genre you're writing in. I aim to read one book per week, and sometimes manage two. Turn off the TV/social media to buy you reading time.
2. Then write every day. Even if it's just for half an hour - although the longer the better. Never stop training your creative brain muscles.
3. Tell people you're a writer. Buy a mug that says something like 'World's Bestest Writer'. Enter WRITER in the occupation box on any forms. Start thinking like a writer and you'll internally gain confidence in yourself and your abilities and it'll come out on the page.
4. Go on writing courses to hone your craft, enter competitions to gain constructive feedback, attend conferences to understand the market and the people in it - put yourself out there and juggle as many plates as you can until they're all spinning in perfect unison and the agent/publisher says YES!
2. Then write every day. Even if it's just for half an hour - although the longer the better. Never stop training your creative brain muscles.
3. Tell people you're a writer. Buy a mug that says something like 'World's Bestest Writer'. Enter WRITER in the occupation box on any forms. Start thinking like a writer and you'll internally gain confidence in yourself and your abilities and it'll come out on the page.
4. Go on writing courses to hone your craft, enter competitions to gain constructive feedback, attend conferences to understand the market and the people in it - put yourself out there and juggle as many plates as you can until they're all spinning in perfect unison and the agent/publisher says YES!
Taryn Bashford
I'm working on the companion novel to The Harper Effect. It's based in the world of music this time (not tennis) and it's about a girl who learns to sing from a guy who thinks singing dishonors the dead.
Taryn Bashford
I wrote the first draft of The Harper Effect when I was 14. I'm afraid it wasn't very good! I had to work on the structure, characters, pace, plot - yes everything - but the kernel of the idea was still good and that's what I used. As my brother was playing on the international tennis circuit when I was a teen, I got an inside look at Wimbledon, what it was like to be a teen on the circuit, and I put all those details into The Harper Effect.
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