Author Interview with Tina Gallagher

I love doing interviews with authors who just take my questions and run with them. Sometimes it really is like having a conversation! Let me please introduce you to Tina Gallagher, our latest author interview! She made interviewing easy! So, go buy her books!

Tina Gallagher speaks

How did you know you had this book in you?

After taking pole fitness classes for a couple years, I knew I wanted to write a book about a studio, describing the camaraderie as well as the female empowerment I both witnessed and experienced. I decided to introduce the studio in Foul Pole, making my heroine its owner. This seemed like a great way to combine two of my favorite things…baseball and pole dance fitness. Plus it was a natural lead-in to my next series.

Can you describe your writing process?

I’m definitely what you’d call a “pantser.” I generally get an idea, figure out the black moment, and how the book will end, then the rest comes to me as I write. I also write at night, curled up on my couch. I have a cozy office with an awesome desk that I sit at for Zoom calls and to do admin work, but the words just don’t flow there. As for the “night writing,” generally speaking, I’m a night person, so it makes sense to me that I don’t wake up early to write. Writing at night also helps me balance work/family time. I’m not missing anything during the day because I have to write. Unless I’m on a really tight deadline, I don’t usually start writing until my husband has gone to sleep. Unlike some people, I also edit as I write. I read through the last scene or chapter I wrote before getting started again. It helps me get back into the story, and it also helps me have a pretty clean first draft.

Yeah, I’m not good at all about that. My first drafts are messy, good for you!!

How do you know your piece is ready to be shared/complete?

I write romance novels, so the first draft is complete when the couple gets their happily ever after and all the loose ends are tied up. Once that’s done, it’s time for edits. When I first started writing, I used to edit forever, obsessing over every single word and comma placement. Now, with a little bit more experience, I finish that first draft, have my editor do her thing, then I go through her edits and fix whatever needs fixing. My editor gives it a second read and once she’s done, I go through it one final time, focusing more on the flow and making sure the story is consistent.

This seems like a great routine. It gives you a fresh look too, with that break between while she edits.

Who is your expected audience?

My audience is generally women, thirty and up.

Who has been your strongest supporter?

My whole family…parents, husband, siblings, children…have been super supportive. But if I have to choose one, I’d say my husband. He’s the one who’s been there supporting me every day. When my children were younger, he would take them out for a few hours on the weekends so I’d have uninterrupted time to write. (At the time I was working full time so the “night writing” thing wasn’t very practical. 🙂 ) Now that I’m writing full time and the kids are grown, he still gives me my space. He’s also always willing to listen to my plots and ideas, and also brainstorm ads and marketing. All those things make for great date-night conversation. 🙂

That sounds like fun AND a perfect partnership!

What is your greatest challenge in writing?

My greatest challenge is keeping a consistent schedule so I’m hitting my word count goal every day instead of scrambling to finish a book for a deadline. For years, writing was my side gig and I fit it in around everything else. I started writing full time in May 2020 and for the rest of that year, I wrote nonstop, focusing on finishing as many books as possible. In 2021, I kept that crazy schedule up through mid-year then burned out and had trouble writing. So now, I’m trying to figure out a reasonable schedule that allows me to finish a decent amount of projects without making me crash and burn again.

Is there something in particular, that you found particularly helpful?

Nothing tangible. Aside from my supportive spouse, my author friends have been the most helpful. The indie author community is amazing. Everyone is willing to share their experience and offer encouragement when needed. Anytime I get down on myself or doubt my ability to do this, they also remind me that I’m living my dream right and that I never want to go back to corporate America. 🙂 Writers groups are amazing! So many helpful suggestions and just the right amount of empathy and humor!

What surprised you in the writing process?

I always thought that as I wrote more books and got further in my career, it would get easier. But it doesn’t. I love writing, but there’s a point in every single book where I want to trash the whole idea and move onto something else.

Some research is more fun than others

I know we tend to write what we know, but did you need to do research for this book?

Foul Pole is about a Major League baseball player and a pole dance fitness studio owner. I’m a huge baseball fan…I played the sport for several years and my son played through college…so I have a lot of game knowledge. I’ve been taking pole dance fitness classes for three years so I know the lingo for that as well.

I imagine that pole dancing is quite a workout.

What I had to research were things like:

What kind of training do players do off season?
- Do they take time off to just relax and if so, when do they really start ramping up their workouts for the season?
How pole dance instructors put together a routine for class or a recital.

Hmm, yeah, I never even thought of that. Teaching dance would be far harder than teaching many other skills.

Even though I’ve been doing pole dance for a few years, I’m not very good at freestyling, just moving to the music and making it all flow seamlessly. In the first chapter, the hero spots the heroine dancing and I needed to research moves that flow well together so I could describe them in a way that not only made sense but also wasn’t boring for the reader.

If so, what was the coolest or most surprising thing you learned?

I was surprised at the amount of work pole dance fitness instructors put into preparing for a class. Between figuring out a dance and breaking it down into teachable parts, there’s a lot that goes into it.

What else is important to share about your book?

The heroine of Foul Pole is loosely based on one of my pole dance instructors, who I absolutely adore. It’s set in my hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a city fans of The Office will recognize. 🙂

When can we expect more from you?

Foul Pole is the last book in my Carolina Waves series…for now anyway. I’m currently working on the first book in my next series, Peaches & Pole, which takes place in the pole dance studio readers are introduced to in Foul Pole. It will be released in March.

That’s awesome having the two series related a bit.

Where can we find your book?

Foul Pole is available on Amazon and is in Kindle Unlimited. https://www.amazon.com/Foul-Pole-Sports-Romance-Carolina-ebook/dp/B09KC1HTYJ