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About

My name is Taylor Batts. I reside in Northern Virginia with the loves of my life: my husband, cat, and dog. I've always wanted to tell stories, even though I didn't always know that my best medium would be authoring novels. I studied film and screenwriting at George Mason University and was a coxswain on their novice rowing team. I left school in my sophomore year to combat my struggle with mental illness. I continue to wrestle with these difficulties but find solace in the time I have to write and create stories that I hope will bring joy and entertainment to others.

I started writing with a desire to pen fantasy and love stories, and they gradually turned spicier, slowly inching from my comfort zone in YA to being classified solidly as New Adult Romantasy. The story of 'Selfish Fate' evolved as I wrote it, my characters leading me more often than I led them. I wondered at the premise of having 'the guy the protagonist is supposed to end up with' be a second choice. My characters blossomed in personality and with them, their actions, and my story.

The Inspiration

A BRIEF PERSPECTIVE ON
ORIGINALITY AND THEMES

Love triangles have a bad reputation in modern society and I don't blame anyone for that perspective. Often, love triangles are tedious and come with a host of problems. Why, then, would I write a series that is one inescapable love triangle? Well, I'm a sucker for characters and a sucker for romance, and, occasionally, a sucker for intriguing ideas.

There are very often three types of love triangles:
A: Our protagonist is indecisive, likes the different qualities of both options and has difficulty choosing between two other characters. (a la 'Twilight')
B: The very feisty protagonist is doing their own thing and couldn't care less, and the love interests are more flavor (a la 'Hunger Games')
and
C: We know whom the protagonist is going to end up with, we simply need someone to exhibit how desirable the main character is (a la 'Fifty Shades')

I had the idea: What if we know whom the protagonist ends up with but she prefers the other love interest? How would that be possible?

While reading traditional romance, we generally know who the love interest is, we are just waiting to see how they get together. The mystery is great and the circumstances can seem impossible, but the love interests are seen pining and gravitating toward one another.

I wanted to write a story where one man is the cover love interest and the other is the textual love interest. The reader has the opportunity to be misled and wonder which matters more, the end we suspect or the story we're told.

Love triangles shouldn't be and often aren't about indecision, but about what the protagonist needs or thinks they need. We want to root for someone. There's a reason people take sides.

I think readers want to be able to make decisions about what the protagonist needs based on their perspective of what makes the protagonist who they are.

We don't get one option for love in real life and if we did, well...
Would you choose to believe in fate?

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