Second set of AMA answers

Here are the answers to the questions that have come in since the first set. Great questions so far. I hope you folks keep asking them.

Q: Since Tara is your avatar, how does it feel to see her on screen in sometimes quite revealing or explicit situations? Is there, or can there be, a clear disconnect between Tlaero and Tara?

A: I was originally concerned about it. That was the reason I made the Tara Rules in the first place. A few things happened to change my mind. For one thing, we eased into it slowly. It took a relatively long time to break down the Tara Rules.  For another, there's a few layers of abstraction here. "Tlaero" is a character I play on the internet. She's very similar to me, but she's not actually me. And then there's another abstraction layer going from "Tlaero" to "Tara." Tara is similar to Tlaero, but she's not actually her.

The third thing is that I've managed to keep my anonymity intact for so long. So, I don't have to worry about some mentally unstable individual deciding that I'm flirting with him through my games and breaking into my house to kill my family and me. (I swear to god, if my identity is ever revealed, I'm going to immediately burn everything related to "Tlaero" down and never come back.)

That leads us to your next question.

Q: With original Tara’s Rules being effectively gone by now, are there any new Tara’s Rules? A version 2.0, if you will? Besides, I presume, you having a final veto power.

A: Nothing formalized. I'm mostly relying on the veto power. No one's asked for the kinds of things I'd be uncomfortable with, like sexually induced pain or intentional sexual humiliation, etc. So I'm playing it by ear. You all are a great set of fans. You're all so very respectful of me. That lets me feel emotionally safe as Tlaero.

That said, when I started writing the AVN version of Writing with Tara and was putting myself in a position where I was going to have the players self insert in a game where they're trying to convince Tara to have sex with them, it was a bridge too far. That's why I changed WwT from a game to a mostly text short story.

Q: When it comes to Tara, who comes with more ideas for pictures with her? Do you have an idea for a picture that you are keeping to yourself as sort of "magnum opus"? The ultimate Tara depiction?

A: For the weeklies, it's almost always either Mortze or a patron doing a commission. It's rare that I have anything to do with the creation of the weeklies. (Though, I decide which ones to post and when, if ever.) I don't have a weekly in mind that I'm holding in reserve. In my mind, the ultimate Tara depiction is the set of Tara's Tales stories.

Q: My follow up question is now that you feel like you can tell more stories, whose style of writing or type of content do you take inspiration from to then create your own universe?

A: You ask great questions! This is probably going to be a long answer.

I've been writing long enough that I've developed my own style. I'm sure there were many influences over the years, and a few authors from my childhood spring to mind: Alan Dean Foster, Terry Pratchet, and Robert A. Heinlein to name a few. It's been a while since I actually read those books, so I could be misremembering their styles, but I read and enjoyed enough of them that they must have influenced me. And, I fully believe you can learn from bad examples too. (Just do the opposite of what they do...) In high school I had to read a book called "Brideshead Revisited." There was a point in that thing where the author spent three pages describing a vase. <shudders>

I write the way I want to read. And I write the kinds of stories that I want to read. I actually go back and re-read my stories somewhat frequently. After all, I wrote them to appeal to me, and I succeeded at that. My style is kind of the Anti-Brideshead Revisited. I believe that the only details I should give you are relevant ones. Some writers are like, "If I don't tell you the color of the walls and the floral pattern on the lampshades, the readers won't see the room the way I see it in my head." My take is, "If my readers want to see the walls as blue, why should I care?" If I tell you the color of the walls, it must be because they're red, so the detective missed the blood splatter on them. The details have to be relevant for me to spend the narrative time to give them.

These days, I get most of my story inspiration from video games. I'll argue that the best time travel story ever told in any medium was the video game "Quantum Break." And I've got this whole rant about how Malik glassing a planet in the game "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" was much more impactful than the similar scene of Darth Vader blowing up Alderan in the first movie. I definitely drew inspiration from Mass Effect while doing Toro 7, and Xara in the Elsaverse is practically an homage to Halo's Master Chief. (Watch the main trailer for Halo 2 and then go back and replay the opening scene of Royal Guard.)

Q: This is a curiosity question and a simple Yes or No would be fine. Are you of Asian descent Tlaero?

A: Yes

Q: I have always liked the score keeping, such as was used with 'Redemption for Jessika' (I think, my memory may be faulty though). It lets the author tell the story that they want to tell, and insures the players explore the paths to get there. With long games and limited time, the signposts and scorekeeping help guide the players through the game efficiently. Could you put scores back into some of your future games perhaps as an option for players like me? I really am most interested in experiencing the story that you want to tell.

A: I assume you mean "A score that's shown to the player." All games that have the possibility of losing have a "score" of some sort behind the scenes. Even in games where you can't "lose" tend to keep track of something or another. Toro 7 kept track of how many things you did with each LI as well as variables that recorded which one (if any) you've had sex with. I suspect that delivering that information to the player would be more confusing than helpful. But I'll consider doing something like that in a future game.

Q: Did you use an alias when writing your non-erotic sci-fi novels? Just a yes or no answer is sufficient. Keeping anonymity is important.

A: Unfortunately, no I did not. I would have benefitted from Tara's writing seminar.

I'll keep doing this as long as the questions keep coming in.

Tlaero