Name: Ricky Pine Title: Red Rain Favorite Authors: J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Ransom Riggs, Veronica Roth, Rick Riordan, Cassandra Clare, Eoin Colfer, Lemony Snicket, James Rollins Bio: I was born and raised almost 22 years ago in a fairly boring NorCal suburb, where I never get out much. But that's okay - I have my stories to get into instead. :) Red Rain What it's about: Heaven and Hell aren't above or below Earth. If you want to find them, you should be looking sideways. Teenage angel Alex Snow has a very weird life - his twin brother Gabe is a demon, he has few friends, he doesn't get out much, his tastes in pop culture are quirky at best...and one of his classmates has just been horribly murdered. Soon, more dead bodies start to pop up in town, and Alex and Gabe soon discover that the killer is someone to whom they are inextricably connected, despite having never met. Target Audience: Age-wise, I shoot for teens and young adults (the content of the book would probably be R-rated for language and violence if directly adapted into a movie, but I think 14-year-olds can handle it just fine.) Others who might be interested in it would be fans of paranormal and/or teen-drama shows, movies, or books (Buffy and Teen Wolf come to mind), those with a strange sense of humor, and those who enjoy a story with an awesome rock-heavy soundtrack. What makes it paranormal: All the characters are angels or demons, and the story is split between Heaven and Hell - although in a loose sense. The story world instead is designed as something of a hybrid of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Pushing Daisies, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. In this way, I take a widely-used set of paranormal beings and make them more human, more down-to-earth.Other genre elements:
There's the obvious - teen fiction, murder-mystery, a touch of romance. But there are also sci-fi elements present as well.
Writing process:
I write every day, and when I'm not writing, I'm constantly thinking about what to add to the story next - even when I should be concentrating on other things in reality, like eating or watching the news or watering the plants. I also don't believe in outlines, but I don't consider myself a total "pantser" - I do have the ending planned in my head in advance. But the journey to get there is typically written largely on the fly. Which explains my characters' predilections for long, humorous tangents far more witty than anything this frequent victim of "esprit d'escalier" could come up with in a real-life conversation.
Challenges:
Since I've had no romantic experience whatsoever (some girls may find that adorable, but I find it depressing), the inevitable love parts of the story are typically the hardest for me to write. Some say I do a great job, but there are quite a few who think I've bungled it (one in particular had such an angry reaction to an intentionally awkward scene that I ended up rewriting it completely - and, in the process, actually made it not only more touching, but also Harsher in Hindsight, as they say on TVTropes.)
The other major challenge for me is character death. I do have to kill characters off - especially since the book's a murder mystery which later evolves into a conspiracy thriller/spy thriller - but I don't want to do it, especially when the good guys bite the dust. I keep telling myself it must happen, or else the story can't progress properly (and the sequels, particularly Book 3, are heavily dependent on certain characters being killed for Alex Snow's own development.) But it still hurts me very much to do so. I often make myself cry when killing a favorite of mine because many of them are fan favorites as well, and I know that my readers will be up in arms and will hate my guts, and will likely take forever to accept my apologies and virtual hugs. :(Writing well:
The first step to being a great writer, I believe, is having a great voice and style. And even if your style might seem cliche - as mine could, with its heavy use of geek references, present tense, and First Person Smartass - there are some styles that, if you'll pardon the pun, never go out of style. Such as the First Person Smartass style, because it matches the internal monologues of so many people already, which helps them connect to the narrator that much more easily.
