Q: In one sentence, tell me something that describes you as a person?
A: Easygoing, family gal.
Q: How many books have you written? How many of those are published?
A:Over the course of my life? Um…Seven books, Two short stories. Four of the books and both of the shorts are published. I have a fifth due out later this year. The others, I wrote growing up, and I have them both stashed in the back of my closet somewhere. (From back when I used to type things out on an old typewriter.)
Q: Do you have an upcoming release? If yes, tell me the title and impending release date.
A: Yes! Should be coming out around Thanksgiving. It’s called, Lucifer’s Game. A sexy supernatural thriller that’s been compared to Twilight in some aspects.
Blurb:
As soon as this prophecy was scratched on the scroll, I started preparing for this. Even as I walked the earth in the ancient days. As I whispered in Judas’ ear, and then shouted taunts as Christ was nailed to the cross. This game has been a long time coming, and the stakes are high.
We’ve been preparing Cora since she was a child, watching and waiting. And now, finally, things are ripe. Her husband has walked out, and she’s desperate and obsessed. Nothing opens the door for me and my cohorts like those two lovely emotions. I’ve got my best man ready and waiting for her, itching to make this separation permanent. What better to break up a couple and prevent the birth of this child than my man, Devin? Lust in the flesh. When he gets between
them, they won’t know what hit them, and this child will never come to pass. This little brat, prophesied to end my rein on this playground they call Earth. I won’t lose, not this time.
Q: Tell me about how you come up with your titles for your stories. Do you create the title before or after you write the book, and does it ever change from the initial title?
A: Some books the title comes before, others I struggle. For me, they seem to show up when they want to, haha. My next book, I’ve drafted and it never had a title. I decided to scrap the draft and start over, still struggling, until one day it finally hit me. It just happens when it happens.
Q: Out of all your characters in all of your books, who/what (sometimes a setting can also be an important “character”)do you think is the most interesting and why?
A: As any writer will tell you, I love all my characters. Honestly, I think Devin, in my upcoming book, Lucifer’s Game, is the winner there. He’s grabbed attention from all my beta readers. He’s the Demon of lust in the flesh. Although a fallen angel, and demon, he seems to discover things about himself in the book that he didn’t know was still there. He’s given the task of destroying the marriage of Emily and Andrew, in order to prevent the birth of a prophetic child. Being lust, he uses his best assets to distract Emily, and therefore he becomes…shall we say…obsessed with making her his and his alone.
Q: If you could “create” your own genre of what you write, what would you call your books?
A:I’m finding myself spread out across all aspects of the thriller genre. Psychological Thrillers, Supernatural Thrillers, and Romantic Thrillers.
Q: Without quoting your back cover synopsis, tell me about the last book you published.
A: Crazy Love. Where to start? Noah, he seems to be the favorite for readers. Millionaire, smart, he loves Emily, and he’s sick. We are talking massive OCD issues, Erotomania, and likely a slew of Others. He sets his sights on a pretty young red head that thinks he’s just a harmless older man with a crush on her.
She couldn’t be more wrong! As she shrugs him off, she runs into an old one night stand, and sparks fly. He’s a cop, and when he hears about Noah his instincts kick in and he realizes that maybe this guy is something that she should be taking more seriously. It’s a fast paced, sexy thriller about a stalker that gets crazier by the day, and scarier by the minute.
Q: Tell me something about yourself that is separate from writing.
A: I’ve been married for 13 years. I have a 4 year old and a 6 month old. (yes, I had a baby at 40, lol.) I struggled with infertility for 9 years and had 3 miscarriages. I’ve been an 911 dispatcher for 11 years, I dispatch Police for a suburb outside of Houston, Texas.
Q: Who is your favorite Author?
A: Ted Dekker all the way. He’s a genius when it comes to storytelling. I’ve never read anyone that compares to the way he can create a world in the pages of his books that’s unlike anything you’ve read before. The Circle series is brilliant. His books are woven together in a way that’s masterful.
Q: What is the last book that you read? (Not counting anything you wrote)
A: The last book I read was Interlude, by Jerrery Martin Botzenhart. You can find the review on my blog, www.RachaelTamayowrites.com I’m currently reading Enshrine by Kay Bennson, a new author.
Q: When writing, do you have a system or something you plan, or do you just write?
A: I can’t plan it, I’ve tried. I tried to outline and it doesn’t work for me. I let the ideas brew for a bit, until my head can’t hold them anymore and I spill them out onto the page. At some point, the story takes on its own life and momentum. It’s the only way I can work.
Q: Why do you write?
A: If I’m deep into it, whenever I can. I can sit and write on my phone if I’m in the mood and I’m not at a computer. I sit with a cup of coffee and nine times out of ten the coffee grows cold because I got lost in a scene and I forgot to drink it, haha! I can write anywhere. The idea’s take over my brain and I can’t think about anything else, I have to get them out on paper.
Q: Do you read your own work a lot? If so, what does it do for you?
A: By the time I’ve written, re-written, polished, edited three times, and proof read, I can’t read it anymore. By then I’ve read it about seven to ten times. So no, I really don’t. Once in a while when the book has been out for a while I’ll sit and thumb through one of my books, but for the most part after that I don’t.
Q: What is your favorite type of music? Is there one genre (or song, band etc...) that brings out your creativeness more than others?
A: I enjoy pop, rock, and country. Music really does inspire me. Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones was what inspired Lucifer’s Game. I can’t listen while I write though. I tend to tune out everything when I write. I listen to music when I’m not writing and find that some songs hit me in just the right way, and it gives me inspiration.
Q: As an author, I find that the hardest thing to write (for me) is the synopsis that will be on the back cover or book’s description. When you write, what is the hardest line to write, the first line, the last line or the synopsis for the book?
A: I find the synopsis (or blurb) comes fairly easy for me. I think the beginning is the hardest, because it has to be perfect. I’ll go back and change it over and over until I feel that it’s gripping. If I can’t grip the reader within a few pages, I’ve likely lost them. My goal is to grab you on page one!
Q: If you could sit down and have a coffee (or whatever beverage) with anyone, living or dead, from any era, any time, who would it be and why? (You can pick up to 3 persons).
A: First would be my Mom. She passed away over a year ago, and I have things that I wish I could tell her.
Second would be my mother in law. She passed away when my husband was sixteen, I never met her. I want to meet her, and talk to her about so many things.
Third would be Jesus Christ. I was raised as a Christian, and I’d love to speak to him and find out the truth about some things compared to what the world has to say about it.
Q: Any final thoughts that you want to give to your fans or even future authors?
A: Future authors, It’s imperative that you let others read your work and get critiques. It’s the only way to grow, change. Find your voice and what needs to be changed. If you don’t’ do this, you will only stagnate, and never improve. No one is so good that they don’t need improvement, and the only way to do that is to listen to those that are reading what you have created. Being an author is about change. And don’t give up. Keep changing, evolving, and learning.
Fans, thank you so, so much for taking time to read the stories that have spilled out of me into these books. I’ll keep them coming!