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Taryn's Musings

Updates on my writing journey, new and pending releases, thoughts on genre, and more.

  • 5 Excellent Upmarket Novels with Dark Erotic & Romantic Elements

    I was going to make this a list of my favorite dark erotic fiction and/or dark romance novels, but as I perused my Favorites shelf on Goodreads, I realized a

  • Defining Genres: Literary, Upmarket, and Commercial Fiction

    I write upmarket fiction and prefer to read it as well, but it's very much "genre" upmarket fiction. But what distinguishes upmarket fiction from literary fiction and commercial fiction? What

  • A brown stag deer standing among a herd of does

    The Frustration of Having Unpopular Kinks (AKA Female Harems)

    What's funny (read: endlessly frustrating) is that I think my fiction could be very popular if it weren't for one stupid fixation. I find virile, prolific men hot. Virile and

  • One warped long pumpkin among normal-looking pumpkins

    To the Writers of Non-Commercial Fiction

    The author P.J. Fox has taken up a good amount of space in my brain lately. I don't even remember how I got to thinking about her so intensely again,

  • The sun shining through leaves

    Writing Update: I’ve Crawled Out of the Slump!

    After a good week or two of being in a slump, I think I've escaped it. Thank God. I think I'm luckier than most in that I rarely lose my

  • A young Asian woman peeking through a hole into the darkness beyond

    Why I Write Dark Erotic Fiction

    On the surface, I write for the same reason many, if not most, authors write: to create the stories I want to read. But why dark erotic fiction? Why dark

  • A pale maple leaf lying on a road among other fallen leaves

    Writing Update: On Losing the Motivation to Write

    Have you ever struggled with feeling completely unmotivated to write? Not so much butt-in-chair day-to-day motivation, but that bigger motivation that drives you to do all of the hard, thankless,