Go HERE to read about some music I listened to while writing "What Happens Here."

Check out my interview with Jocelyn over at Teen Book Review. She posted an awesome review of What Happens Here a while back and asked really fun questions for the interview...

Teen Book Review Interview

You may win a copy of "What Happens Here" and some other great books, like "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" and the new Meg Cabot, if you enter this contest!

Elle Girl Giveaway

Check out this cool blog where a bunch of authors of books published by MTV Books, myself included, talk about their books and writing and more!

MTV Books Blog

Hey everybody. Just wanted to post about my husband's band, Dutch Kills. They've just released their first full-length CD, Blissville, and it's awesome. You can check out a bunch of songs

HERE

And don't forget to friend the band while you're there!

As most of you know, I also write fiction as Tara McCarthy and over at my My Space page for my novel Love Will Tear Us Apart, I've just posted a cool interview I did with the author Noria Jabslonski. We both published books that featured conjoined twins and thought it would be fun to ask each other 2 questions..no more, no less..about our work...Check it out here....

Interview with Noria

I now have one.

taltebrando.livejournal.com

Come on by!

So my husband Nick and I went to see the Flaming Lips in concert last night here in NYC. As some of you may know, I reference a Flaming Lips song in "The Pursuit of Happiness." There's a scene in which James plays it for Betsy, when they're on a sort of dramatic drive during this phase when they're realizing they like each other but can't be together.

So I'm a huge fan of the band obviously, or I wouldn't have used the song, but somehow I'd never seen them live before last night.

I've been to a lot of concerts in my life so far. First one was 1977, the Bee Gees at Madison Square Garden. I was seven and very much stayin' alive. I've seen U2 maybe five timeshere in NY, in San Diego, even in Dublin, Ireland... I've seen Britney Spears get rained on on stage, and play with snakes. I saw the Rolling Stones play under the Brooklyn Bridge. I could go on. In fact, I could consult a sort of picture box thingmambob hanging in the other room: every concert ticket that has ever gotten me in to see a band is in there. My point is only that I wasn't walking in last night all starry-eyed, like I'd never been to a rock show or anything.

Okay, so they come on stage and there's confetti everywhere and streamers shooting through the air and then somehowI don't know where they came fromthere were like 50 inflatable blue balls bouncing around on the crowd. Oh, no, wait. I'm getting ahead of myself. Before that, lead singer Wayne Coyne himself was put in a clear bubble (it was inflated around him in front of our eyes) and he rolled and walked over the crowd. No lame stage-diving for him, no siree! So yeah, big balls bouncing around and around in the air. Crazy lights. Confetti all the time. Meanwhile, there's about ten girls dressed as aliensgreen heads, purple minidressesdancing on stage left, holding flashlights and pointing them this way and that. And then on stage right, a bunch of people dressed up as Santa. Also dancing. Also with flashlights. I am not making this up! They are joined a few songs in, by a huge green infatable alien on the one hand and by a huge inflatable Santa on the other. But not just any inflatables. There are actual people inside them, operating them.

There's all sorts of cool video projection stuff going on during songseverything from naked girls dancing to the Teletubbies, oh, and a great clip from Beverly Hills 90210, when the Flamings Lips made a cameo appearance many moons ago. But also, there's a camera right at Wayne's microphone. So his face is HUGE and when he's talking in between songs, you can practically see his fillings!

Now all of this sounds crazy, I know. And Wayne admits as much. But there was all sorts of singing along and FUN going on and Wayne said he can't help but think that sometimes, being in a room like the one we were in last night, even though it's technically not love, it feels like love. He had some amazing political things to saynot that every fan would agree with them and it really doesn't matterbut he also said this: The fact that there were 2500 people in New York City last night (and this was the second sold-out show) who were willing to turn up and bounce balls in the air and laugh and get confetti stuck in their hair, well, it's a good thing. It means that maybe the world isn't as bad off as it sometimes seems. And it's good for us, as humans, to go let off steam in perfectly silly and safe rooms like the room last night, so that we don't let it off in a really negative way elsewhere.

I actually cried during the song I reference in Pursuit, "Do You Realize?"--full-on confetti and streamer launchers--and I thought it had to do with the fact that this was a big year for Pursuit and thus me. But then I saw that the girl in front of me was crying, too. For reasons entirely her own. Flaming Lips is onto something, I tell ya. So the next time they come your way, get your butt down there to feel the love.

Hello!

The lovely and wonderful Little Willow has interviewed a bunch of MTV authors, including yours truly. Check out my interview here:

Slayground Interview

And be sure to check back every day this week for interviews with some other great authors.

Thanks.
Tara

Hey there.
So I recently had a chance to talk with Sarah and Mali for the Living Writers show out at WCBN in Ann Arbor. They interviewed me about The Pursuit of Happiness and my "adult" book Love Will Tear Us Apart at the same time. I only occasionally got REALLY CONFUSED!

They also play some music inspired by LWTUA (Siamese twin pop star songs!), and music that appears in or inspired both books. Check it out at:

Living Writers

On that page, you'll also find interviews with Sarah Dessen, Megan McCafferty, and more.