I have Friends! With Renee N. Meland

​Yeah, how about that?

My new Author BFF Renee Meland asked if I would be interested in interviewing her (and, she me) for a blog post. "Oh hell yeah!" I said.

Renee wrote the book, The Extraction List - which I now own (yay for supporting indie authors!) but have not yet read (fail on my part).(I READ IT AND LOVED IT READ MY REVIEW HERE!)  So I will have to pull from the website blurb to tell you about it:

When fifteen-year-old Riley Crane figures out her best friend Olivia is being abused at home, she knows just who to turn to: her mother Claire, writer and spokesperson of President Gray’’s Parental Morality Law. Under this law, Taskforce Officers remove children from their homes if their parents do not meet certain guidelines, taking them to government-run boarding schools where supervisors rehabilitate them, turning them into productive members of society. Or at least that is how it was supposed to work……

Now, after a government official threatens to make Riley the law’’s latest victim, Riley and Claire must rely on Cain Foley, a gifted killer with a tongue as sharp as the knives he carries, to get them out of America alive. Though he slices through men’’s necks as if they are warm butter, Riley can’’t seem to keep her cheeks from flushing every time he speaks. But when they stumble upon a deserted boarding school, Riley sees that escaping the country is only part of their problem. Together, Riley and Cain figure out that a killer can save a life, and a mother can damn a nation.

Sounds totally bonkers, right?

Anyways, I ginned up (and by ginned, I mean googled) a few thought-provoking questions and she provided me her thought-provoking responses. Enjoy!

(You can check out my answers to her questions here)

S: Why did you start writing?

Renee: I think I started writing because I wanted to find a way to play pretend as an adult. It was my favorite thing to do when I was little, and I just didn't want to let it go.

S: What was the first book-like-thing you ever wrote?

Renee: I wrote a story called Yendor about some sort of fantasy land in first grade. We got to make a cover for our stories out of cardboard and wallpaper, and I remember holding it in my hands and thinking it was the neatest thing in the world.

S: Describe your writing style in 5 words

Renee: neurotic, obsessive, passionate, sporadic, adrenaline

S: Tell me about a scene you wrote (published or unpublished) that has stuck with you

Renee: There's a scene in The Extraction List that makes me cry every time I read it. Can't tell you why because it will spoil the surprise, but it gets to me every time.

S: Tell me about your favorite character from your work and why you love him/her

Renee: Cain Foley is a fugitive, a fighter, a lover, and a revolutionary in The Extraction List Series. I love him because he's the imperfect hero, the guy that makes the hard decisions and does the things that everyone knows needs to be done but no one wants to do themselves.

S: If you had to do it all over again, what would you change in your latest book?

Renee: I would have written my series in a different order. What is now the prequel (Between the Cracks and Burning Doors) would have been officially book one, and book one would be book two. I had never intended The Extraction List to be a series, but after I wrote it I realized that I wasn't done with the characters and there were a million more directions to take them. The story just wasn't over. But writing a series out of order can be a real pain in the...neck.

S: What is the hardest part about writing?

Renee: The hardest part is making yourself do it even when you want to do something else.

S: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Renee: I would say the message is that the world cannot be categorized into neat little boxes. Claire, one of the main characters in The Extraction List learns this the hard way.

S: Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

Renee: Next time I write a book, even if I intend it to be a one-shot deal, I will think of different ways I could continue the story from the get-go, just in case I change my mind.

S: Where do you see yourself in five years?

Renee: Hopefully with several more books out!

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And I believe Renee has a prequel coming out soon to her book, so stay tuned!