I have always wanted to be an author, ever since I was about five years old when my parents had given my a "personalized" children's book that featured me as the hero of the story. Seeing my full name in print was where the dream to become an author began. After a career in Radiology and Pre-School Education, two children, and helping my husband maintain a beautiful farm, I finally found the time to write the story that has lived and breathed in me for twelve long years.
When I am not writing, I love to spend my time on the back of a horse, whether with my family or with my friends. There is nothing like feeling the sunlight on your face, the wind in your hair, and the power of the animal beneath you as you enjoy the beautiful scenery. Seeing the world from a saddle is, by far, the best view and the best therapy for a heavy heart or a troubled mind. My therapist's name, or my horse's, rather, is "Statues Suddenly Lucky", a full-blooded Tennessee Walker, and of course, he goes by the name of Lucky for short.
Some of my favorites are:
Braveheart
Tristan and Isolde
Beowulf and Grendel
Troy
Timeline
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Behind The Project
If you want to know where Ræliksen came from, then we should start at the beginning. I had been writing this story for more than 12 years, often putting it on the back burner when things would get busy. Being a mother of two and living on a farm, things tended to go that route more often than not. Come later, when I would go back to writing on it, I seemed to find that I was never pleased with the flow of the story; or that the characters were not being true to themselves that day; or that the plot was just too watery the next time I dabbled at the keyboard. I'd work on it for months at a time, only to - in severe frustration - hit the delete button and start completely over.
One day in April 2005, my beautiful sister, Lindsey, was visiting and I asked her to read the first chapter. She did and I asked her excitedly - yet with some trepidation, as I was placing myself upon the chopping block - "Well? What do you think?". Her reply, and I quote, was "I think you need to finish it." Now at the time, I thought to myself, Well, that was a safe response. And I did not think much more about it, but continued on as I had been, making no real commitment to "finishing it."
A few months later, on a rainy July morning, Lindsey was suddenly killed in a car accident on her way to school. As you can imagine, it devastated our family and left many with an empty chasm in their hearts. It was very hard on all of us, yet I had a place for the pain and the tears, for it was only a few months after her passing that I actually heard her words: "I think you need to finish it" and I began writing like a fiend.
For the first time, the words poured out of me and it was her encouragement that kept me going. Lindsey was truly my inspiration for this book, and without her "safe response" I know this book would never have been written. I am eternally grateful for her and the spark she lit within me.
So finally after three long years, Ræliksen - in its entirety - has emerged and has finally become a reality for me.
But my dream did not stop there...
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Photo above taken by Author Rita Mackin Fox
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On May 7th, 2010, I signed my first book deal with Turquoise Morning Press at the West Baden in French Lick, Indiana at a Career Writer's Network Workshop. It was a three-book deal of my Emerald Isle Trilogy including:
- the re-release of Ræliksen (August 2010)
- Mac Liam (December 2010)
- and The Fall of Rain (December 2011)
Other books contracted are:
- Silent Partner (April 2011)
- The Temperate Warrior (December 2012)
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| Author Maddie James & Renee Vincent |
