Guest Author Rinelle Grey (Oct 14th)

Today my guest author is Rinelle Grey, please join me in welcoming her to the blog. Tomorrow you can read my review of her new book.

1) Where is your home town?

Currently I live just outside of Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia. I was  born here, and lived in the area for a large proportion of my life. In fact, I  hadn’t even left the state until after I turned 18! But I’ve moved around a lot,  up and down the coast a bit, especially in my teenage years, so I don’t really  consider any particular place my ‘home town’. Home is where my family is.

2) How long have you been writing?

I’ve always loved writing. As a child, my favourite part of the school day  was when we had time for ‘creative writing’, and could write about whatever we  liked. I started several books as a teenager, but then life got in the way, and  I was busy with university, jobs, and getting married. I picked up writing a  little in my late twenties, and wrote about 6 chapters of a fanfiction story,  before finding out I was pregnant. Writing went out the window again for a  while, then in 2006, when my daughter was about 18 months old, I heard about  NaNoWriMo, and I was hooked. I won that first year, and finished that book at  120k a few months later. Since then, I’ve written more months than not.

3) I see your book “Reckless Rescue” as a sci-fi romance, is this what you  were aiming for?

I wasn’t really aiming for any particular genre. I knew the book was  romance, but the sci-fi elements were just part of the story. I hadn’t actually  heard of sci-fi romance until I friend of mine said that’s what she wrote, and I  realised Reckless Rescue probably fell into that category as well. I still  hesitated for quite a while, because my sci-fi elements are quite soft. You  won’t find any technical details or hard to understand passages in my novels.  But the concepts are most definitely sci-fi, so it’s hard to argue that that’s  where it belongs.

4) Many of the people from your book live in a world without technology,  did it take a lot of research to write these parts of the book?

I’ve always been interested in living without technology. For a portion of  my childhood/early teenage years, we lived on a property without power or  running water, so I do have personal experience to draw on. A lot of Marlee’s  experiences, such as milking goats, gardening, sewing, spinning, bottling etc,  are all things my mother did, and I enjoyed. In fact, learning how people dealt  with snow required a lot more research for me, since that’s something I have no  experience with.

5) Some of the drastic steps that the stranded people took in order to have  children were very harsh emotionally, where did those ideas come from?

I’m not sure exactly where they came from, they just sort of evolved as the  story grew. Some, no doubt, come from an article I read on China’s one child  policy, and the problems that has caused, but I couldn’t say that was the direct  inspiration.

6) By mixing romance and sci-fi I think you are helping to get people to  explore reading new genres, would you say your strength is romance or  sci-fi?

I’d definitely say my strength is in the romance side of things, although I  have watched a lot of sci-fi! I love writing romance, but I like to add in a  little extra, either in the form of sci-fi, or fantasy. I love the extra  interest you can add when you change a few details of the world, and the extra  complications it can cause for the characters is fun! Introducing new people to  the genre is an added bonus.

7) Your book is available on Amazon, I know there are different royalty  payment rates across the world. Do you mind telling our readers the minimum  sales you need in Australian dollars before you get a payment.

Unfortunately, Amazon won’t direct deposit into an Australian bank account,  so payments are done by cheque. The minimum amount you need before they’ll send  you a cheque is $100, which is good, because it costs me $15 to cash one! I have  just opened a payoneer account though, and I’m hoping that will be more  convenient, and involve less fees!

8) You have a sequel to “Reckless Rescue” called “Reckless Rebellion”, can  you give the readers a few hints about what we can expect in this book? When  will it be available to buy?

Reckless Rebellion is due for release on the 18th of October. I don’t want  to give away too much yet, but let’s just say that Marlee and Tyris are going to  find themselves with an even bigger battle to fight once they return to Tyris’s  home planet of Urslat.

9) Can you tell the readers what else you get involved in, I believe you  are involve with a “Fantasy Friday” writing group.

I have been doing a ‘Fantasy Friday’ segment on my blog each Friday, but  it’s just me. I’ve been posting excerpts from some of my fantasy romance  stories, mostly my upcoming Twin Curse, which I hope to have out in  December.

Get a copy here from Amazon.

You can catch up with my review of Reckless Rebellion here on the blog tomorrow.

If you want to read my review of the first book in the series “Reckless Rescue” click here http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-1WI