MAKING IT PERSONAL

Looking back over the 4 books I've written and the 5th book I'm writing, I can tell how my personal life and the people in it have inspired damn near everything. 

Fatal Retribution is a coming of age story about a young woman who lives in a violent, oppressive environment where she witnesses horrible things happen to the people she loves most and will stop at nothing to avenge them. ...Reminds me of my childhood, except I was a powerless little girl where Raina is not powerless or little...

Mortal Sentry is a more mature novel. Raina is forced into a rule where she is directly in charge of the well-being of others, hence the title, Mortal (human) Sentry (guard). It takes place directly after Fatal Retribution, and involves Raina growing up in another way, too. Romantically. But like most first romances, it's like a rush of emotion, no real logic, heat of the moment, brain out the window clusterfuck of lust, want and desperation for love...and then reality sets in and you feel dumb...oh well. It's like a mirror to my life from 13-19, sucks! 

Grave Omen is if anything else a bridge to the fourth book, hence the title, Grave (serious shit) Omen (believed to foretell the future) Not that you can guess what's coming in the next book. Me and M Night Shyamalan have something in common, we like the twists!

 ...Grave Omen definitely reflects my early twenties; raising my little brothers and sisters, giving birth to my own baby girl, suffering from Postpartum Depression and becoming disillusioned with my religion... 

Deadly Encounters is set to be published August 31st 2014 ...So, I can't go into too much detail, but suffice to say Raina experienced something of a rebirth, her world is both larger and smaller, both in chaos and coming together at the same time. This is very much me right now. This is my life currently. We'll see how it turns out...

Toxic Bliss is in the works ...But I can already tell you that this book has a more global feel. It represents my best hope and worst fears for the future of mankind and earth. 

I feel vulnerable knowing how much my life has shaped the books (which was not intentional and was only recently brought to my attention) Small personal parts of me end up in the books, too. Honestly, anyone who reads my books knows me, maybe even better than myself. I'm so gobsmacked when readers point out things, personal things that I never intended to transfer from me to my characters.   

"Raina, an outcast in an outcast world, where she can’t belong even where the belonging don’t belong. "
I didn't intend that for Raina, yet that's how I feel every day...

"...it’s hard to understand how she has still remained with such an undeniably beautiful heart."
Whenever I mention some hardship I've gone through, people give me a wide eyed long stare of disbelief and then ask my why I can be so candid, why I'm still smiling and loving and not psycho at all...

There's more, but some of the things that have been pointed out to me are too personal to mention. You'll just have to read the books to see where my raw heart shows through. You might see it before me.