Writer Wednesday: Rebecca Ryals Russell

Welcome to my Writer Wednesday feature! Each week, I interview one fellow writer, who could be at any stage of their writing career. The aim of this feature is twofold: to showcase a fellow writer and to find out more about him/her, and hopefully to find in their answers some helpful hints to help out with your own writing! The interview questions are the same for everyone, but each interviewee gets a unique Kung Fu KAPOW! Question. Watch out for them, they're doozies!

Introducing today's willing victim…

Rebecca Ryals Russell

Rebecca Ryals Russell writes MG and YA Dark Fantasy and Horror while living with her family in a Victorian house on five acres of North Florida countryside. She also runs a Vacation Rental Log House on the property: Florida Black Bear Cabin.

The daughter of an elementary school principal and secretary, for fourteen years she taught Middle Grades, preferring English and Creative Writing. She had several students' works published in anthologies as well as her own poetry, photography and stories. Her main interests are her four children ages 22, 19, 16, 11 and Irish hubby of 35 years. She enjoys spending her time writing, drawing, going to the movies, reading, and discussing philosophy with her 16-year-old son.

Over the course of the next few years she has several books being published. Her latest book, Zarena, will be released in a couple of days, on July 29th. Look out for it! You can follow her writing exploits on her website RRyalsRussell.com, as well as on Twitter, Facebook and on Goodreads.

When did you start writing?

I began writing around age 8 and continued through high school then took a long break to teach Middle Grades and raise my family. Then I began writing in earnest four years ago and haven't stopped since. I wish every day I'd pushed myself harder and written more when I was younger.

What genres do you write?

I prefer to write for children: Picture Books, Tween or Middle Grades and Young Adult–all Fantasy.

Sum up your current WiP in 10 words or less.

YA Dystopian Romance in futuristic Florida, year 2525.

What's your ultimate goal as a writer?

I must complete my series, Seraphym Wars for YA and Stardust Warriors for MG. I'd also like to get my Tween series published, Masquerade the Scaredy Cat and the Picture Books I have planned. If I knew that my grandchildren could read words I'd written, that would make this all worth the effort.

How close are you to achieving this goal?

I'm nearly half-way on the two series. The rest are still WIPs.

Any quirky writing habits?

None that I'm aware of. But I don't know what is 'normal' and what is 'quirky' because I only know how I produce writing. I could be completely off my rocker and would never know.

Best writing snack?

Sea Salt Mixed Nuts and green tea. Late at night, a Peppermint Patty, slowly nibbled.

Kung Fu KAPOW! Question:

Evil ninjas have stolen your computer, with all your hard work on its hard drive! Have you got a back up? Quick! What do you do?

These days I relax and laugh because I finally wised up and have several backups. I have an external hard-drive, an old desktop computer hooked up and a Drop Box account.

J.C.: Ah, yes, DropBox! What a godsend! It's saved my hide on more than a couple of occasions as well!

Tags: Rebecca Ryals Russell, Writer Wednesday

This entry was posted by J.C. Martin on Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 at 7:54 AM and is filed under Writer Wednesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.