Monday, June 29, 2015

Diana Graves: DREAM CAST FOR RAINA KIRKLAND MOVIES

Diana Graves: DREAM CAST FOR RAINA KIRKLAND MOVIES: It may very well be every author's dream to one day have their babies made into moving pictures.  I know it's mine.  I made some pr...

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

The Raina Kirkland Series

I feel like I've written a blog similar to this one once a long time ago, but after discussing the ailments of the world with a coworker, which inevitably brought me back to my books, The Raina Kirkland Series, I can't help but marvel at the progress of Raina's story.



In Book One, Fatal Retribution, Raina is very much a naïve young woman. She has a lot of emotional issues, like feeling less than human, and not good enough, never good enough. She's thrown into a fuck storm of chaos and pain, and yes, she cries, but more importantly, she never stops. She's young and sweet, but she's also head strong.






In Book Two, Mortal Sentry, it's only been a couple of months since holy hell came down on her, and tore away any normalcy she had known. She's hiding from a demon and most likely still dealing with the emotional aftermath of having her family torn apart and having killed a man in cold blood...PTSD seriously...But still, throughout the second book Raina puts other's before herself. Mortal Sentry is a serious clusterfuck, a who's who of shitty situations that never get any better until they get as bad as they could possibly get. Again, Raina is forced to either fall apart or rise to the occasion. Her stubborn heart would never let her let down a single soul. She has such a big heart, no matter her troubles.

I feel like Book Three, Grave Omen, is where a lot of readers become disillusioned with Raina. The entire point to Grave Omen is that something is obviously off, something is definitely not right, but Raina can't see that because her state of mind has been so fully altered, her ability to think is almost completely obstructed by her love for the people in her life. She's pregnant, she's feeling guilty because hundreds of people have died and she feels it's her fault. It's been nearly three years since book two, and her life seemed perfect...and then everything she holds dear, every person she's ever loved is in jeopardy because of what she is...And in the end it was a total Admiral Ackbar moment, 'It's a trap!" It was frustrating writing, so I don't blame readers who dislike book three, but it was a necessary evil.


The Forth Book, Deadly Encounters is be far my favorite. I loved writing it, and I love reading it over and over again. It has everything! Serious character development, vampire society, zombies and apocalyptic shit. In the forth book Raina has become exactly what Alistair had hoped for her, what the demon, Raphael had planned for her. The world is on the brink of total inhalation and only Raina can save it...but it's not that simple. It never is. Like in book two, shit has got to get as bad as it could possibly get before it can get better. I just love how this book flows, the drama and the progress and the ending is just so perfect.


Now on to the Fifth Book, Toxic. Washington State is quarantined from the world, because every single person living there has special super human abilities that can be used for good and bad, but because they came from Raina, they're inherently good, because with the powers gain, so gained was Raina's ability to feel the emotions of others as if they were their own...The story is a complex mix of politics, war, religion and the supernatural. My major concern is that with such serious martial that it might come off as heavy handed. And being pregnant myself, as Raina was in book three, my ability to focus is a tad unpredictable... too much emotional chaos.