Tara Benwell (www.tarabenwell.com) is an ESL teacher and materials writer who balances a freelance career with fiction writing and motherhood. Her debut novel, The Proper Order of Things, is available on Amazon (print or Kindle). In 2010, Tara decided to let her agent go and publish her first novel on her own. Reading this editor's comment second-hand through her agent helped Tara decide that after years of writing, revising, and waiting, it was okay to hire an editor and get the job done on her own: "Sorry it's taken me forever to answer you about Tara Benwell's novel. I've really been agonizing over it! What a great book! Crazy characters, really fine writing, good narrative. I loved every minute of reading it! But I've been swamped with exceptional manuscripts. And we can publish only four or five novels per year. After struggling my way to several really difficult decisions, I find myself unfortunately having to say no. Please tell Tara how impressed I am with the novel and her writing and congratulate her. And please do keep me in mind for any of her future projects." Visit Tara's website to read her blog, listen to her podcasts, and find out what she's writing next. You can also check out the discussion forum below to read the first few reviews from Tara's readers. A video reading from Chapter 1 is available on the right of this screen. Listen to Chapter 1-3 on Tara's blog: www.tarabenwell.comFollow Tara on twitter @tarabenwell