Hi! I’m Renee. I’m a happily married mother of seven, so my life is pretty normal… Well… Maybe not.
I grew up around the theater, which would explain why there are actors and performers in so many books of mine. I ran Showtime Performers, a local drama group that did original musical theater productions for twenty years. I developed the stories, directed, choreographed, and even composed music for many of the shows. Dancing used to be a passion of mine. I taught drama for eight years. I also was a professional performer at the Carolina Renaissance Festival for four or five seasons. For a short while, I was part of a performance group that I learned Fire Poi for. I love fire arts, which is why several of the characters in my books do them as hobbies. Most people in my family do some fire art.
Mostly I have been a stay at home mom, but I did work a few years teaching high school and a few years teaching college.
I have a master’s degree in mathematics. This may explain my interest in the technical side of my writing. Yes, I enjoy studying wormholes, other dimensions, and game theory, which is why at times they show up in books. I have a particular interest in combinatorics, which doesn’t really show up in my books. Despite being good at math, I’m not that great at science, so I often get help from my husband, Doug, and son, Michael, to figure out accurate physics or things like what a planet orbiting a red dwarf is like.
I am a Christian and very active in my church. Hopefully that shows in my writing. The Seeker series is a religious allegory, although most of my books aren’t. I never intend to preach in a book. Yet, my values are always underlying in stories. I believe that heroes in stories should be good role models and true heroes. You will never find a book of mine that glamorizes immorality or encourages bad behaviors.
I began writing almost twenty years ago. I homeschool my children, and I wanted to do a unit on short stories, so I decided to write a short story so I would know what to teach them. Forty pages into it, I realized it was not going to be short. Pretty soon my husband and children were all asking what I was typing and began reading it. It got to the point where they would cook dinner so I could type, clean so I could type, or do whatever they could so I could type. I came home once to a note on the front door that said, “Mom, type!” I had a great amount to learn as a writer and sought advice from everyone I could. It took several years to polish my first books, but the short story turned into the Heroes Trilogy.
Writing has been a fun activity for my family. I type and we read what I have typed as a family at night. Often, my family plays an active role in the development of the stories. The Eubos System Trilogy was developed by having everyone create a character and discuss what their character would do. I would give the situation and then sit back, listen, and take notes, telling what the villain did. It wasn’t role played like D&D. I love D&D. I used to play, but their adventures don’t usually write as well as stories. Here, the players gave input, I’d write a few chapters, tell them what happened, and then see what they did next, always allowing myself the liberty to change anything as the author to keep integrity in the story. The FaeBorn series was my daughter, Heather’s, idea, but she had each of us develop different cities and the war mage teams for them. The Crown Series also had different family members create the different kingdoms. My children, particularly Heather and Daniel, are responsible for the ideas of many of my books. Michael comes up with interesting ideas too and is wrote the Woodcreek Academy Series. I love writing. I do it for fun. I’d love to spread reading as a family to many families, as it’s a great bonding activity. I try to write books that all ages can enjoy, making sure that any more adult topics are written such that they will be appropriate for younger family members to read or hear.
So, that’s me in a nutshell. In the back of each book, I put a prompt to message me with. Feel free to. I’d love to hear from you.
A quick interview with me:
Q: Isn't it odd to have a mathematician who also writes? Don't technical and artistic skills not go together?
A: Actually, many mathematicians have a creative outlet. Most mathematicians I know play piano, or do art, or something creative. Obviously, I've been big into theater. Yet, my passion for writing is greater than my passion for math.
Q: What is your dream in life?
A: My realistic dream is to have a happy home, a dream I usually live. My unrealistic dream is to have my books made into movies. Unfortunately, that takes money or connections, and I have neither. Yet, I dream of having my books become as big of a franchise as the Marvel Universe superhero movies. I sure have enough books that would make great movies.
Q: Are you an avid reader? Who has been your biggest inspirations in writing?
A: Honestly, I'm not an overly avid reader of other authors anymore, as I mostly write my own books and keep reading them. I am very much like Mark Twain, who I avidly read as a teenager. He read mostly his own books too. Yet, I've still read J.R.R. Tolkien and love the Lord of the Rings. I've read the Harry Potter Series. Honestly, I have a writing style that is very straight forward like J.K. Rowlings. I love that she doesn't spend so much time in flowery words that it distracts from the story. Yet, I've enjoyed more flowery authors like David Eddings or the Baroness Orczy, the author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, one of my favorite stories ever. One of my all time favorite series is Artemis Fowl. I love Eoin Colifer's creative metaphors. I tend to write complex plots like Brandon Sanderson. C.S. Lewis I think has also influenced me, as the Screwtape Letters really helped me understand villains better. Richard Paul Evans and his Michael Vey series was influential in helping me understand more about how villains think too. Many in my family are fans of that series. When I started writing, I bought a book by Orson Scott Card on writing fantasy and science fiction, which was incredibly helpful. In person, he is very witty and entertaining to talk to, so I figured his advice would be good. I also love Rick Riordon and his Percy Jackson series.
Q: What is your favorite genre to write? Do you have a least favorite?
A: Oh, that's a hard question. I really love writing almost all genres. It is surprising to me how much I enjoy writing dystopias. I don't write as dark as Suzanne Collins. I love Divergent. If you like Veronica Roth, you'll love some of my dystopias. I will guarantee happier endings than George Orwell. I think 1984 and Animal Farm are must reads for their political commentary, but I'm not writing to make political statements. I'm writing to make good stories, hopefully stories that will help encourage people. It surprises people who know me and read my books that they are as intense as they are, particularly the dystopias, as my personality wouldn't make people guess I would write so intense. I love writing fantasy, science fiction, swashbucklers, and about every other genre, which is why I write so many different kinds. The genres I don't like are those that are inappropriate for a teenager to read. It's easy to tell my favorite genres just by looking at my books.
Q: You said you don't write to make political statements. What do you hope people take out of your books?
A: I try to make my heroes true heroes, good role models for the reader. Good role models are important. There are many "heroes" who if my son said, "I want to be like him," I would say no. Yet, if my son comes to me and says, "I want to be like Phineas and Ferb," I'd say, "Fine, start studying." Where my books are intense, not cartoons, I still want good role models. I don't want to teach that it's fine to lie, cheat, steal, etc. I don't want to teach people that the end justifies the means or encourage someone to be a vigilante. I always make sure that my heroes are heroes. Some may have to change, and that's fine. I believe in repentance, but I want the reader to finish reading one of my books and want to be more and to be encouraged that he/she can be. I have seen this happen. I have used my books to help teenagers in making life changes they needed to make. This is what I'd really like to do -- help people be better! Yet, I don't preach in my books. Good books can change lives. I'd love to influence people to be better, to do better, to have good role models, and to not just read, but to read as families, bonding families together through a wholesome activity.
Q: Besides novels, young reader books, and children's books, you've written a few non-fiction books. Why?
A: Mostly from request. I have had quite a few people tell me I should write a book on how to write, as there are many people who want to write but don't know how to get it down. I take a different approach than most people, as I don't want any plot devices forcing characters into pre-conceived paths. I wrote a workbook to really help them develop their idea and step through the writing process. It was interesting writing this book because it really made me analyze how I write. It was fun to write. I wrote my book on the 8 rules to lose weight because I have had so many people ask me how I do it, how I stay so thin. After all, I'm over fifty and have seven children. It became easier to send a book then do all the explaining. As far as my logic book, I wrote that to teach logic to my boys. I could not find a book that did what I wanted, and approach from the different angles. I didn't just want fallacies, or only symbolic logic. I wanted those, plus the practical application of it using Gottman's four horsement of the apocalypse and negotiation principles. Since I couldn't find a book, I wrote one.
Q: You are such a prolific writer. How do you do so many books in the time you do?
A: First, I couldn't if I didn't have family giving me good ideas to write about, but second, I have a super-obsessive personality. Once the idea really clicks, I obsess. I neglect everything else and write. I wrote all three FaeBorn books in four weeks. I did nothing else. I was entirely immersed in the story. My obsession on projects can be annoying at times, but at other times, it really pays off.
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