Before Dawn Breaks by Rae Lori

We’d like to welcome Rae Lori to our interview blog today. A very talented author, Rae has been with us since 2008. Her works include Uthiel’s Embrace, One Evening in London, and Before Dawn Breaks.

FB: One Evening in London and Before Dawn Breaks are both multicultural romances, but different genres. The first is a contemporary short story while Before Dawn Breaks is a romantic suspense spy story. Do these two books heroines, Angela and Alexandra, have any common traits?

Rae: I’d say they are both skeptical about trusting and giving their heart to someone, but that’s probably where the similarities end. Angela is more comfortable in herself and in what she wants. She knows where she’s been, where she’s going, and how she plans to get their and will definitely voice her opinion if she feels something is wrong or off!

With Alexandra, it’s a little trickier because the life she believes she has lived is a false one. Although she is seemingly confident in her place in life as Camilla, she’s a little nervous about things happening around her. She always feels like something isn’t quite right, almost as if she’s living a lie. It turns out she is because she’s really Alexandra, and her memory is fed to believe she is a girl who just finished college and is a writer named Camilla. Alexandra is completely different because she’s cold and has cut herself off from the world to do her job as an assassin but that person changes once she meets Josh, her love interest.

FB: Who do you think you are more like: Angela or Alexandra? And why?

Rae: Ooh, good question. I’d say I’m more like the Camilla persona of Alexandra. I’m nervous about stepping my foot into things and like to ponder it before hand. I’m also happy just spending some down time writing and kinda get thrown off when things out of the ordinary happen to me. Sort of like what happens to Camilla when she finds out her true identity.

FB: Although both are modern, did either of them require any research?

Rae: Alexandra did more so than Angela. I had to study a bit on government organizations (particularly the Secret Service for Josh) and what entails working in undercover operations. I took some liberty creating my own secret government agent as I can’t know everything (not being in the government myself), but I can use my imagination and news stories to fill in the blanks.

Uthiel’s Embrace by Rae Lori

FB: Now, Uthiel’s Embrace is a completely different genre—a fantasy that is also a sweet romance. I am always intrigued by fantasy stories and what makes their authors write them. Where did the inspiration for this story come from?

Rae: I think this one came out of a challenge. Sometimes I see calls for submissions, and the deadline gives me a goal for someplace to submit by a certain time. Once I check out the guidelines, an idea spurts, and I’m ready to go. The first manuscript didn’t quite fit, but I ended up rewriting it, and it became Uthiel’s Embrace.

I love the idea of faeries, and, normally, I think of small winged creatures like in popular culture. But as I did more research and found the vast array of fae creatures out there, I knew I wanted to explore something different this time around. I love water and wanted to do something like a Selkie, and I ended up coming across Ondines and the Sleep of Ondine myth about a fae woman who was forbidden to mate with a mortal male or else she’ll lose her immortality. I thought, “Perfect! That’s a great inspiration for a story!”

FB: Will we see any of the characters from any of these book in others?

Rae: Maybe. I tossed around the idea of making one of my other works within the universe of One Evening in London only as a romantic suspense, but I’m still thinking about it. I also thought about writing a story based on the secondary characters of Before Dawn Breaks, but nothing really stood out storywise. I guess we’ll see. I have a lot of other ideas to explore for original stories so it’d probably be after I write those.

FB: Do you have a favorite character?

Rae: I like Josh Mayer from Before Dawn Breaks. He’s great.

One Evening in London by Rae Lori

FB: Do you have anything else in the works?

Rae: Yes, I’m taking a little bit of a break from romance after I finish this short story for a print magazine. I’ll be working on a fantasy story for an anthology and then a YA fantasy after that. I miss my speculative fiction origins, so I’m going to dabble in that pool for a while. I may do a romance here and there just to spice things up though.

FB: What about writing life/being an author took you by surprise?

Rae: I’d say the industry. There are a lot of things that as, a regular old reader, I had no idea about concerning the process of getting books from manuscript to book format to bookstore. And I was also surprised at the politics and how cutthroat it can get in some of the communities.

At the same time, it can be a very rewarding and warm place once you connect with the supportive authors, editors and publishers who are going through the same things you’re going through. And, of course who are passionate about books and reading.

Now for some fun questions:

FB: Where did your journey as a writer begin?

Rae: I was 10 years old and I hadn’t thought about writing until I got a particular Disney Adventures magazine in the mail. They were looking for scary short stories for their Halloween issue and I decided to enter just for fun. I didn’t win, but the writing bug did bite me from then on, and I haven’t turned back since. I dabbled in short stories, plays, and screenplays anytime an idea hit me. It was fun learning, and I’ve corresponded with many editors over the years who gave me wonderful advice.

FB: If you could be any man, living or dead, who would you want to be? Why?

Rae: That’d be difficult because everyone has trials, and, if I were someone in the past, I know I’d be a wuss cause I’m so used to electricity and all the modern conveniences. So I’ll just say myself because I know me. LOL.

FB: Whoopi Goldberg, Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, or Miley Cyrus? Which these famous people do you share the most characteristics with? What characteristics do you share with them?

Rae: Wow, that’s a good question. I’d say Whoopi not only for obvious certain physical characteristics but because she has this attitude of being carefree. She’ll love who she wants, no matter how different he may appear, she’ll say something if it’s wrong, and she’s comfortable in her own skin. I love that and I try to remember that myself.

Cleopatra and Marie Antoinette had a bit of that, too, and although they had their faults (as most politicians do with lots of power), they were pretty strong women. Their downfalls are probably a good reminder for me that you can’t get too big for your britches over people because everyone has their downfall with hubris.

I’m not too much of a Miley Cyrus fan, but she seems to be a carefree, fun kid. Perhaps her childlike innocence and wide-eyed wonder about the world is what I’d like to have a little more of. I tend to lean a bit cynical (I blame my love for dystopia sci-fi).

FB: Any last words? Um, for the interview, that is. (grin)

This was a really fun interview, and I’m so jazzed to be apart of Freya’s Bower. I’ve had such a great experience here and I have to say I’m a bit of a fan (reader wise) because I love the romances and authors coming out of this house and WCPs. Thanks for the interview, I had a blast!

You can find out more about Rae Lori by visiting her website.

Books by Rae Lori at Freya’s Bower:

Before Dawn Breaks by Rae Lori

One Evening in London by Rae Lori

Uthiel’s Embrace by Rae Lori

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 11:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.