Rhiannon Paille has joined us again. If you recall, she teased us a bit on Tuesday with her latest release. Today, she’s going to let us pick her brain.

Tell us about your most recent publication.

FLAME of SURRENDER is my YA DEBUT.

It’s about the boy who follows death falling in love with a girl who could cause the apocalypse.

They have a whirlwind romance which distracts him from who he is and gives him a form of temporary happiness.

And like most things, their romance is doomed. The ferryman dies, the boy has to become the next and when he denies his destiny, the ones searching for the girl find her.

Being a weapon she’s rather important to the villainous types and so they come for her, they need her to complete their evil plans.

And she’s not really strong enough to fight them, neither is the boy, but she has to be the one to choose whether or not she faces them, hides, or awakens the flame inside of her and potentially destroys herself.

How do you come up with your cover art?

That was all Sam, I explained this on my blog in a longer answer, but basically in 2010 I asked Sam to cosplay Kaliel and she did. We shot a short from the book called “Journey to the Great Oak” which is kind of a pivotal scene in the book. We also took some stills during the shoot and one of those stills because the book cover. I had Rachel over at Parajunkee make it look pretty and all, but otherwise it was all Sam.

 Which of your characters do you relate to most?

I relate to both Kaliel and Krishani equally. I’m not a good person to ask this because I’m a psychic so really, when someone else is in my head, I relate to them. I understand people on a deeper level so I can’t say that I don’t understand something when I can feel how they feel and see the things they see and hear their thoughts. I have my own personality of course which remains separate, but I am very good at relating to people in general. When it comes to my characters though from all the WIPs I have on the go, Kaliel and Krishani have always been my favorites. They’re the ones I want to share with the world, I mean they’ve been stuck in my head so long it’ll be nice for them to infect other people with their personalities and their hardships for a change.

What about Ferrymen do you find so sexy?

I should clarify that I find Krishani sexy. I mean he’s not really your garden variety death walker, he’s a lot more intricate than that. The biggest thing I find sexy is that Ferrymen aren’t actually the enemy. They’re the hero, they save souls, preventing them from being devoured by soul eaters that would destroy them. Yes we have a macabre image of them being the harbingers of death but that’s not the entire truth. They can pass souls by using the boat, or they do it on the white horse, or they can do it the way the Valkyries do it and fly. There’s plenty of avenues to death, the Ferryman is just a messenger. I also find their story is one that is mostly untold, like they’re never the main focal point of a story, neither are the flames for that matter, and I thought it was high time to give them the spotlight, in particular, Krishani and Kaliel, the Ferryman and the Flame that were in love, and all the tragedy and mayhem that happened because of it.

Also, Orlando Bloom. In POTC his character Will Turner took over for Davy Jones. And you can’t tell me that he wasn’t sexy.

No objections here. I could certainly think up a few erotic scenes for him.

What are you working on now?

FLAME of the BEGINNING, it’s a novella that tells the story of the first age, the first time The Ferryman and The Flame met. I have an outline I just need to find the time to get it out there.

Give us a brief description of a story you have hidden in your skeleton closet? And will it ever see the light of day?

The first story I ever wrote was called The New Doll. It was about a doll that was possessed by a spirit that would never go away. It traveled between a set of twins, and eventually switched bodies and somehow the twins managed to find a happy ending.

I’ve begun rewriting it and my inspiration for it is Ellen Paige. I think about movies like Whip It and Juno and Scott Pilgrim. It’s all Indie Rock, and Osborne Village and small town living and stuff. The twins have some interesting quirks. Wish Waters is allergic to everything, afraid of everything and beyond shy. She’s very prone to panic attacks. Her twin sister Blush Waters is the exact opposite, she’s been dissecting squirrels since she was eight, she’s a genius, total scientific mind, and likes to rebuild cars, make model rockets for fun and otherwise be a pain in the ass for her teachers.

And the doll is still in there somewhere I promise . . . but it’s become something more.

I might put it out there just for the people that might like it, but I mean, I have lots of other things up my sleeve.

When did you first decide you wanted to be a writer?

When I had a story to tell. I otherwise wouldn’t have resumed my love of writing.

What about your Psychic Ability? Does it influence your writing and/or direction of your writing career?

Yes it does obviously! There are a few ways it influences me. For one, I read minds, and I find when I “create” a character, I’m not so much creating them as I am pulling them from the universe. My best characters are always real people, I just use my fictional skills to bring out the best in their personalities. I “listen” a lot to my characters and that helps me find their voice. Most of them are obviously “spirit guides” or “on the other side” now, or they’re going through a reincarnation cycle or they’re timeless like most of the Elders. Actually, most of the elders in the book are spirit guides who have guided me on my path in metaphysics.

The second nifty thing I can do is retro project. Unlike astral projection I project myself into the past, and that helps me get more of a feel for the history of a place. I don’t use it for technical details as I like to bend the rules a bit, but for tone, attitude, and feel, I do try to go back to when I’m writing about and write from then.

Third, I learned how to do meditation, trance and immramma when I was studying Druidism at the Grove of Dana College, and immramma allows me to travel to the otherworlds. I’ve astral traveled to many places, including to the other world I created Avristar after.

Really, this book wouldn’t exist without my abilities as they really helped me form the way the traditions, the magic, the metaphysics, the characters and the world works. There isn’t anything about this book that my abilities didn’t affect.

I love your education and credentials. For a muggle like me, I find them fascinating.Will you share with us a little about when you realized you could use your abilities toward a career path?

A lot of bad stuff happened to me when I was growing up and learning about my abilities. I actually tell people that my life is an urban fantasy complete with the psychics, the witches, the vampires, the shapeshifters and all the other scary stuff out there.

I didn’t turn it into a career until I was 20 and I was by the seat of my pants getting out there and reading professionally while also studying. I had practiced my craft for 2 years before doing it professionally, and I used to write my techniques down so that I knew what I was doing and when. From there I developed a lot of political views about metaphysics and how it’s so separate from religion and it’s so useful as a form of therapy. In terms of what I do, I’m a therapist that really uses my gift to help people in whatever way they need. It’s an interesting job, but it’s nice to be able to know things about people without them telling me and to be able to tell them things they don’t know but need to be aware of.

What’s the hardest part of the writing process?

Vocabulary. I don’t know what happened, but in elementary school I was expanding my vocabulary and then teachers said I was an awesome writer and I just stopped growing. I never learned all the small four and five letter words that I should have, like gait, taut, carom, and others. I suppose as a writer I’m attached to my thesaurus like glue, always looking for a new interesting word.

And yep, I’m the type to read a book and remember the cool words the authors used.

And the easiest?

Imagining. I don’t have a problem with watching the stories in my head and I usually watch the story over and over again before I write it out. I like to let it live and grow in my subconscious for awhile before putting it on paper. Some of the best scene

With hindsight being 20/20, is there anything you would have changed with your publishing journey?

Not a thing. I’m a lucky girl in a lot of ways because for me it wasn’t just finding a publisher that was special. It was finding a group of cosplayers / film students / photographers / musicians / cgi special effects designers that made it special. I found people who took my vision for the story, stood by me and turned it into reality long before I ever had interest from an editor. I’ve never had interest from literary agents, which is fine with me, but I did get to work with Jennifer Laughran who critiqued this manuscript and I still think she’s great even if she doesn’t represent me.

In the end, I can’t say that my journey has been like anyone else’s, it’s been VERY unique, and it’s only just beginning.

This is one instance in which I don’t know the future

Who would you say is your biggest fan in your writing career?

I don’t even know . . . there’s Sammie Spencer who was the first Beta Reader to love the book, but there’s also Samantha Wiebe who cosplayed Kaliel first and got the character down after reading five pages of the book. Then there’s also Jello (yep, that’s her nickname) and she’s just interested in the world, and the characters and loves being involved in my film projects that have to do with the book.

Who is your favorite author and why?

I have two of them who run neck and neck with me. Cassandra Clare and Maggie Stiefvater. I love Stiefvater for her prose and I love Clare for her writing style and her dirty sexy scenes. I love them both for the characters they create.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Write a crappy story first. Honestly, take your worst idea and do it first. Save all the golden nuggets of ideas for when you’ve found your voice as a writer, worked out all the kinks in your prose, your POV preferences, your adverbs and your sentence structure.

Once you’ve mastered all of that, there’s only two things you need to do, OUTLINE, and WRITE LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER.

 How about some quickies!

Pencil or Pen: Pen

Print or Cursive: Print

Pantser or Plotter: Plotter

Favorite Candy: Swedish Berries

Worst habit: Nail biting