I shopped a round for a year and a half for a traditional publisher. While I was waiting for that all too coveted publishing contract I did a lot of research into the pros and cons of traditional publishing vs. Indie publishing. I attended The Art Institute and have always wanted to illustrate and design my own books and covers. When I learned that most traditionally published authors have little to no say in their cove art I was heartbroken. When I learned that traditional authors get less than 20% of the royalties of their books I was flabbergasted. So after getting one publication offer with a less than reputable small press and waiting over a year and a half I decided it was time to dive in and do it myself. I'm really glad I did. I enjoy the freedom of being my own publisher. I love designing my own covers and doing all the chapter illustrations. Those do not appear in the ebook, just the print one. They can be found on my website www.rjcraddock.com

World building! I write fiction and fantasy because I love to play god! Creating my own civilizations, languages and worlds is just the coolest most creative thing ever!

Next is book three in The Children of Cain series The Coven.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Dickens, Robert Jordan, Dianna Galbeldon, Anne Bishop, Cassandra Clare, V.C. Andrews, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte.

Chocolate and Books. That and my kids need someone to feed dress and love them. Thats my job.

Obsessively watching movies and quoting them. Singing/Song Writing with my husband, drawing, reading and horsing around with my three sons.

Yes it was in second grade about aliens landing in the park next to my elementary school and sucking up all the kids I didn't like and taking them away never to return again. Needless to say my teacher thought I was disturbed. Muhahaha!

I daydream a lot. So I live out the whole story in my head before writing a brief outline that I promptly never look at again. Then I just sit down and go at it. I use to be a crazy revisionist but I found I never got past the first couple chapters. Nothing was ever good enough and I couldn't move on to the rest of the book. Then my husband convinced me that I had to just write the whole book straight through without looking back until the first draft was done. This made it possible for me to finally finish a novel.

I believe it was Little Bear, the one where he makes himself a space helmet and tells his mother he's going off to fly to the moon. In the story he climbs a tree on a hill closes his eyes and jumps to the moon. Only he just falls down. When he opens his eyes he thinks he's landed on the Moon and marvels at how much like Earth it is. For some reason that story caught my imagination and I now read it to my kids.

My father is a former art teacher, my mother an interior designer, so it's not surprising I'm an artist too. I went to The Art Institute of Phoenix for Animation, Media Art and Design. So when I decided to design my own covers I had a lot of know how under my belt. I like graphic eye catching covers. Also I wanted something that stood out from others. So I came up with the black and white silhouettes, to catch the eye and to symbolize the good and evil elements of my main character Gwenevere. I love doing my own covers and the illustration at the head of every chapter (in the print books only) It's been a great and rewarding experience for me.

The Great Gatsby. The Wheel of Time. Daughter of the Blood. City of Bones. The Outlander.