Audio Bio: Tanner Olds

This was very, very, important because when the main character, her love interest, was introduced he would be like oh because of the song and she would be like oh my gosh yes because of the song!

So, the boy’s name I’m not really sure. I was thinking maybe Levi or Bentley or, ouuuu, Theo or Ryder. I think Ryder was the one I was going for. This book was definitely a romance. I wanted it to start at a New Year’s Eve party. A friend was throwing this party, she was there, he was there. This is where they meet for the first time. As they get to know each other they find out they don’t live near each other, conflict. So, they figure out that they want to write letters to each other. This was something that would be scattered throughout the book like the letters that they would write to each other and how they would see each other’s lives, through the letters, cause that’s the only way that they communicated. So of course, Taylor Swift references were something that were very, very, important to be incorporated throughout the book. So, some songs that really influenced this were the 1 from folklore, august from folklore and of course a little sad moment, Sad Beautiful Tragic, Taylor’s Version of course. It’s very important to know that as years move on, they would wonder if they would ever actually see each other again. They would have different significant others in the time from the start of the book until it ends, but they were never relationships that lasted. So, I was thinking towards the end of the book, I don’t know if it would be better for her to be in high school graduation, or maybe college, because he’s going to surprise her at one of these graduations and they connect all over again, just like they did like first time they met. Definitely a happily ever after situation, of course.

[transition into soft calming music]

Not too long after those ideas were in my brain and how I thought I was going to write that book, I decided that I hated writing, but I loved getting excited about stories and what they could turn into. I started writing creatively in high school, because I thought that was my only option to have books be part of my future career, but writing led me to discovering the book publishing world and what I was really supposed to do with my life. I read a lot of good books, books that sparked an interest in me that I always thought could lead to something more.

[small pause]

Well, I guess I should probably introduce myself. Hi, my name’s Tanner. I am a hopeless romantic book lover that will find any excuse to intertwine Taylor Swift into each and every book she reads. Ever since my passion for reading [pause] sparked my sophomore year, I knew that I would be doing something with books in my future. This led me to do a little experimenting creatively with writing. This was primarily happening in my phone’s notes app and this notebook that I dedicated solely to my writing ideas. I started writing little lines that I thought could turn into something someday if I ever got around to it, then those little lines turned into poems, [questioning tone] maybe I could write a book…???? My creative juices were flowing, and I thought to myself, this is the next step, right? I was trying to get all the inspiration from my own life and all of the things that I wished and dreamed would happen to me. Every time I had some inspiration, I would write it down anywhere I could, but after a while the inspiration that I once had dwindled away, and it left me looking for something a little more. But I never lost my love to read. Fast forward to when I was a senior in high school and looking for colleges that would complement my love for reading, I still was reading like it was my job, but I had no idea where that would take me. No matter how many books I read and colleges I looked at, I still never thought that I could have a major where I could be creative with books that wasn’t creative writing. My dad was the one who brought the idea of publishing to light for me. He drove me on every college visit and both of my parents helped me to figure out the place that I was meant to be. They allowed me to make each and every decision for myself, which helped me to figure out where I was meant to be, which I found was here, at Susquehanna with my major in publishing and editing. I started loving to read for a reason, I started writing for a reason, but I also stopped for a reason. I found that the major I am in right now is exactly where everything in my life took me.

[music fades out]

Credits:

This audio bio was written, recorded, and edited by Tanner Olds. This episode featured Les-ly by Mini Vandals and Morning by the River, from The YouTube Audio Library and Purple Planet Music, respectively. This audio bio is featured on Susquehanna University’s Podcast called Me/Us/U. Visit me-us-u.org for more.