Hello Everyone! Give a great big Welcome to Rachel Rossano.
I’ll leave the links showing this week. Our guest has provided enough to invite error on my part if I made them all embedded.
Blog ~ http://rachel-rossano.blogspot.com/
Website ~ http://anavrea.webs.com/
Twitter ~ http://twitter.com/#!/RachelRossano
Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-Rossanos-Rambles/240421865704
YouTube ~ http://www.youtube.com/anavrea
My Website – http://anavrea.webs.com
Buy link – http://www.amazon.com/Exchange-ebook/dp/B005PTXWDI
Bio
As a mother of three small children, Rachel Rossano dreams of new stories among the chaos of diapers and sippy cups. Then she writes as fast as she can during naptimes and after the little ones are tucked in for the night. She draws from a long history as an avid reader and lover of books. Usually she writes fantasy novels that masquerade as historical, but she recently spent time in the science and speculative fiction genres.
Blurb
Isolated on a distant planet, she is incarcerated for a crime she doesn’t recall. She has no name, no idea where she came from, or why she is injected with drugs daily to hold these vital facts from her grasp. Despite small rebellions, she wastes away, worn and losing hope of ever being whole again.
Then he arrives, claiming to hold the answers burned daily from her brain. He offers her a way out, but at what cost?
Excerpt
Darkness enveloped me completely. I breathed stuffy blackness in labored pants, struggling to tolerate the closeness. Cottony, the warmth threatened to suffocate me in a billowing blanket of malevolence.
I hated when I woke early.
The sensors glued to my forehead and scalp screamed to be scratched, but the arm bands made that impossible. I mentally clawed for something to fixate on, anything other than the inching six walls trapping me.
Why they called the box a dream suite I don’t know. I never dreamed, and it only barely contained me. Six by three by two feet, built to contain one average sized human, it was one of thirty stacked drawers in one wall of the ward. I suppose I should have been thankful I was a below-average-sized humanoid. Sometimes I managed to ignore the walls because I wasn’t constantly in contact with them, only the padded pseudo-bed beneath my back. However, no matter how I strained, I couldn’t truly believe they didn’t exist.
With a soft hiss, jets of cold air bombarded my naked feet signaling the waking time. The weight on my chest dissipated slightly in the cooler air, but in its place nagged the raw instinct to tuck my freezing feet closer to my body. I couldn’t bend my legs far enough. The knowledge degenerated into panic. Hysteria edged in just as a hum and jolt warned me to check that my eyes stayed closed.
Another whirling hum, jolt, and sucking whoosh later, piercing blue light assaulted my face as my chamber slid out of the wall into the ward. Arm restraints retracted into the sides.
“Down, female, 7682R.”
The droid’s grating mechanical voice invaded the borders of my mind, setting my teeth hard against each other. A final blast of icy air from the suite’s jets, meant to encourage me to move faster, did the exact opposite.
The rebel in me wanted to defy the automaton until a humanoid showed her face. However, the penalty wasn’t worth the temporary high of asserting my own will. My skin crawled at the memory of the waspmice. Dark pock-like scars still marred my legs from last time. I clamored out of the DS and padded barefoot across the slick floor to the cleansing stations on the far side of the room.
The android, a bulky P-73, stalked behind, whining through its exhaust hose. It probably worried I would throw another fit or fall into hysterics. I was allowed to remember a few bits from day to day, like incidents of rebellion and the resulting punishments. With drugs and therapy, they attempted to erase the rest.
My skin crawled. I concentrated on unlatching the sealed door on the cleanser and climbing inside the chamber. A deep breath to brace myself and I pulled the panel closed. Alternating jets of tepid and steaming water blasted me from all angles. I ripped the rubber suction cells off my skin and threw them in the refuse slot. My temples throbbed where the probes had recently entered my skull. A light touch of my fingertips brought away blood. I wondered, how many times had I stood here. I didn’t know. It was disconcerting, to never remember one day to the next.
A pathetic sputter of water-flecked air constituted the cleanser’s attempt at drying my abused skin before a panel popped open with a belch of perfumed air. I coughed as I reached for the two-piece jumpsuit contained within. My arms executed the complicated movements of dressing myself without much direction from my thoughts. I knew I had been here long enough for this routine to become rote, unless, of course, I had worn clothing just like this before I came here. Or maybe I had always been here?
Interview
1. In three days, all power will go off, everywhere for a very long time. What will you include in your author survival kit?
I shall assume all the basics necessities of life are covered. My writing survival kit would include a generator with enough gasoline to last through the blackout, a box of long lasting laptop batteries, my Kindle with accessories and fully stocked with books (research and recreational), a dictionary, a thesaurus, a wind-up (because they last longer than battery powered) lantern to read by at night, notebooks and gel ink pens, and a stash of junk food (chocolate in various forms, mint candy, Utz sour cream and onion chips, and Coca-Cola).
2. Where did the idea for the work you are promoting arise?
Years ago, I dreamed a strange dream about being stuck in a small box in the dark. I think it would qualify as a nightmare since I am a bit claustrophobic. Ever since then, I wanted to write a story about a woman in a similar situation. Why was she there? Who held her there? What did they want from her?
After a few failed attempts to write the story, I set it aside.
This past spring, when my father was having heart surgery, I needed something to distract me. An opportunity to write a science fiction short story for a small publisher landed in my lap. I pulled out the story idea again. This time everything clicked and it flowed onto the page. I wrote the whole first draft in about two weeks.
3. What do you like to read?
I read a wide variety, but I have been focusing mostly on romance or research lately. It is mainly out of necessity because of the job. I need to keep up with what is out on the market.
4. Tell us about the most exciting place you have ever visited?
Germany and Switzerland are probably the most exciting destinations I have visited. I loved the architecture and the history. I thrilled in walking cobblestone streets and visiting historic churches and places that have been standing for hundreds of years. I loved the black forest area, especially. The deep forests and ancient trees evoked Grimm’s fairy tales and other stories of yore. The town we stayed in was celebrating its founding with a medieval festival. Everyone dressed up and joined in the fun.
5. What is the most mundane, day to day, thing you can share about yourself?
I am really skilled at keeping up with my kids. I have three (a four-year-old and two twenty-month-olds). My life is never dull. However, I do look forward to naptime.
6. What scares you the most?
The thought of losing my family frightens me.
7. Tell us anything but keep it G rated.
I am love watching movies, rated PG-13 and below, and especially BBC costume dramas. Yeah, I am a bit addicted to those. North and South, Jane Eyre, Wives and Daughters, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility … well, you get the picture.
Keywords:
Exchange, Rachel Rossano, science fiction, short story, sci-fi, romance, clean, sweet, Publishing by Rebecca Vickery, prison break, memory loss
I am in the throws of editing Milk Carton People… well, Kim is editing and I am coping. Honestly, it has been a harrowing adventure and I’m half terrified and filled with last minute doubts about my abilities. I just hope Kim can put up with me during these last weeks before the book comes out.
Rachel Rossano has been a very good guest and I hope she’ll come back when her next book comes out!
Blog ~ http://rachel-rossano.blogspot.com/
Website ~ http://anavrea.webs.com/
Twitter ~ http://twitter.com/#!/RachelRossano
Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-Rossanos-Rambles/240421865704
YouTube ~ http://www.youtube.com/anavrea
My Website – http://anavrea.webs.com
Buy link – http://www.amazon.com/Exchange-ebook/dp/B005PTXWDI
Next Week Writerly Wednesday will Welcome Lm Preston.
Drop by on Friday for a new post on If Walls Could Talk and don’t touch anything sharp!