Author Interview: Rachael Richey

I’m really happy to welcome Rachael Richey to the Nut Press. Rachael is a member of an online writing group I belong to and her debut novel, Storm Rising, is out today! She’s very kindly agreed to give an author interview but first, here’s what Storm Rising is all about:

Frontman of the grunge rock band NightHawk, Gideon Hawk has had enough of the rock star life.  He is jaded, disillusioned, and haunted by the memory of an unresolved heartbreak.  On a whim, he leaves the band in New York and heads to England in search of answers.

After attending the funeral of her estranged mother, Abigail Thomson makes a shocking discovery in her parents’ attic.  The still-raw memories that surface, along with even more startling discoveries, force Abi to face a devastating truth that leads to a series of life-changing events. She and Gideon must race against time to reclaim the life stolen from them a decade before.

So Rachael, can you tell us any more about the story? From the blurb it sounds as if Abi and Gideon have history together.
Yes. Without giving too much away, Abi and Gideon met and fell in love as teenagers. This is revealed throughout the book in flashbacks.

Gideon is a grunge musician. Is this what you would have been, if you hadn’t become a writer?
Definitely not! I’m practically tone deaf. No, I’m more likely to have followed Abi’s career of artist, or something in the art world.

Did you have a playlist while writing Storm Rising? If so, what was on it?
Not an actual playlist but there are a couple of songs that I listened to a lot while I was writing it, and now feel they have a connection to the book. One is Your Decision by Alice in Chains and the other is First Snow on Brooklyn by Jethro Tull. Neither is really relevant to the story, but whenever I hear them I find myself thinking of Abi and Gideon.

What is Gideon’s favourite band or track? What about Abi? Who does she listen to? 
Gideon hasn’t actually told me who his favourite band is, but Abi’s musical hero (apart from Gideon of course) is Kurt Cobain. She has a huge portrait of him on her bedroom wall that she painted for her GCSE Art exam.

What triggered the story behind Storm Rising? 
Storm Rising was triggered by one particular scene that kept playing in my head. It was of a very angry mother forcing her anguished teenage daughter to do something abhorrent to her. That exact scene never made it into the book, but that was what started the story off.

Storm Rising is the first of four books in the NightHawk series. Is this what you had in mind when writing it or did the idea for a series come later? And does this mean we follow the same characters through all four books?
When I first started writing Storm Rising I thought it was just a one off. I thought it would tell all of Abi and Gideon’s story and that would be that. But as I neared the end I found I couldn’t bear to leave the characters. I’d grown to love them so much and realised they had more stories to tell. The second book presented itself when I was about three quarters of the way through Storm Rising and realised there was a backstory for Abi’s mother, explaining the reason why she had behaved the way she did. Abi and Gideon are in all four books (and possibly a fifth), and each one also has a separate, related, flash-back story running through it.

How do you want readers to feel after they finish reading Storm Rising? 
I would love for the readers to be hungry for more. Satisfied with the way the story has gone, but keen to find out more. I really hope they can relate to the characters.

Did you have a particular writing routine when writing Storm Rising? 
No particular routine really. I can write pretty much anywhere, anytime if the mood takes me. It’s stopping to go to bed that’s the problem. I did find I wrote really well in the early hours of the morning, and in fact one night I wrote the whole of Chapter 17 – the longest chapter in the book, and the most emotional – between the hours of midnight and 4 am.

And finally, the title Storm Rising is a great one on many levels. You live in Cornwall. What do you do when there’s a storm? Run outside and dance in the rain or huddle up inside by a cosy fire with a hot drink or a glass of wine?
Funny you should ask that actually, because tonight was really stormy and we got caught in the worst hailstorm I’ve ever seen. Sometimes it’s fun to dress up in waterproofs and wellies and tramp across the headland, but most often the idea of curling up with a glass of wine and some chocolate, and watching it through the double glazing is more appealing!

Happy Publication Day to you, Rachael, and thanks so much for taking time in what’s been a busy week for you to be interviewed! Nut Press wishes you every success with Storm Rising. You can read a great review of Rachael’s novel over on Sharon Adetoro’s lovely blog here: Storm Rising Book Review.

Storm Rising is Rachael Richey’s debut novel and is out today. It’s the first in the four-book NightHawk series, the second of which is due for publication later this year. Storm Rising is published by Wild Rose Press as both an ebook and in paperback and is also available from Amazon US and as an ebook from Amazon UK and Barnes & Noble. Read an extract here.

Rachael lives in Cornwall with her husband and two children. She now writes Women’s Fiction but has been writing stories since she was seven. She lived in the Hebrides for nearly fourteen years before moving to Cornwall at the end of 2000. You can find out more about Rachael and her books on her Author Website, her Facebook page or you can Follow Rachael on Twitter.