About Author

RJ Blain

RJ Blain
  • Genre:

    Paranormal Romance Fantasy
  • Country: United States
  • Books: 4
  • Profession: Author
  • Member Since: Jun 2017
  • Profile Views: 35,604
  • Followers: 213
  • VISIT AUTHOR: Website, Facebook, Twitter,
BIOGRAPHY

RJ Blain suffers from a Moleskine journal obsession, a pen fixation, and a terrible tendency to pun without warning.

When she isn't playing pretend, she likes to think she's a cartographer and a sumi-e painter.

In her spare time, she daydreams about being a spy. Should that fail, her contingency plan involves tying her best of enemies to spinning wheels and quoting James Bond villains until she is satisfied.

RJ Blain's Books

Stay in the loop on books by RJ Blain. See upcoming and best-selling books by the author here. You'll also find the deals on books by RJ Blain.
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Book
Booked for Kidnapping (Vigilante Magical Librarians Book 2)
$5.99 kindleeBook,
Catnapped: A Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count)
$5.99 kindleeBook,
Catnapped: A Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count)by R.J. BlainPublish: May 11, 2021Series: A Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count)
Plaidypus
$5.99 kindleeBook,
Plaidypusby R.J. BlainPublish: Dec 21, 2021Supernatural Suspense Paranormal Romance
Outfoxed
$5.99 kindleeBook, Paperback,
Outfoxedby R.J. BlainPublish: Nov 03, 2020Series: The Fox WitchSupernatural Suspense

RJ Blain's Series in Order

It's exciting to find a book series to follow! Discover the whole new world of book series created by RJ Blain.
** Also, there might be other book series by RJ Blain not listed on AllAuthor.

  • A Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count)

    1 Catnapped: A Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) - Published on May, 2021
  • The Fox Witch

    1 Outfoxed - Published on Nov, 2020

RJ Blain's Awards and Achievements

    RJ Blain has earned excellence awards over time. Here is the glimpse of the accolades clinched by the author.

  • IAN Book of the Year Awards
    2019 award
  • Readers' Favorite Awards
    2019 award
  • USA Today Best Seller List
    2019 achievement
  • Readers' Favorite Awards
    2018 award

RJ Blain Interview On 12, Dec 2019

"RJ Blain is a world builder. Her characters are more realistic in a fantasy world. Blain’s magical rom-com world has been well developed over several books. She likes chasing the happily ever after because there’s enough unhappiness in the world as it is. She is currently working on Steel Heart, the second Jesse Alexander novel. RJ breathes new life into the Urban Fantasy genre with every book she writes."
What were you like as a child? Whom was your role model growing up?

I came out of the box as a little sports-loving hellion. The sports-loving part was nurtured to the point I was functionally illiterate (I could sound out words, badly) until grade four. Everybody just valued that sort of thing more in the community I lived.

As for role models, I didn’t really have any that I can recall, not until fourth grade and a teacher figured out how to make me like reading. I have a mental shrine for that teacher. (Just don’t ask me her name. I’m not sure I remember. But I sure do remember her influence and ability to think outside the box and give me a book I’d actually enjoy.)

Do you remember the first book you ever read? What was it about?

Madeline L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time. (Yeah. So, about that functionally illiterate thing. This is the book that got me reading, and I had to sound everything out and use a dictionary to understand the book. Apparently, I’m stubborn and possibly too stupid to quit. I’m glad I’m stubborn and too stupid to quit, as I wouldn’t be where I’m at now without those traits.

A Wrinkle in Time is a fantasy adventure novel, and it’s definitely on my ‘at least try to read it once in your life’ list. The second book I read was Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. It definitely made me a huge fan of books about people stranded on islands. (That lead me to The Black Stallion, which is also another one of my favorite books.)

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Honestly, I was an adult before I really started to appreciate the power of words, in part because of how I learned to read. I never got the childhood magic of reading; my parents never read to me or anything like that, and language just hadn’t been cultivated as something important. It was a necessary tool for school and useful to gaining access to books. (And young me really liked the books, but I never viewed it as at all powerful.)

As an adult, I appreciated books were magical—much more than I did as a child. Books were entertainment and escape, but it never really clicked that was powerful until I got to see the real world and walk in it on my own for a while.

I think young me just had no real comprehension of how amazing books actually were despite reading them all the time.

Why did you begin writing paranormal romance? How difficult it is to write a paranormal romance?

I began writing it because an author friend of mine, Diana Pharaoh Francis, was having a bit of a rough time, so I wanted to write something funny and romantic with a happy ending and a great deal of absurdity tossed in. Every day, I’d send her a new scene of Playing with Fire: a Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count.) She liked it, and after revisions and edits and all that fun stuff, I kicked it out into the world. Turned out I really liked writing that sort of thing, so I kept doing it.

I like chasing the happily ever afters, because there’s enough unhappiness in the world as it is.

What are some things that haven't been done in the romance genre that you hope to introduce through your books?

Honestly, I don’t really think I bring much new to the romance genre. I’m there to have fun, be whacky, and chase those little plot bunnies and make people laugh while doing it. If I had to pick anything, I would have to pick the fire-breathing unicorn who enjoys napalm benders. She’s really bad at being romantic, though.

I just want to have fun, and I want my readers to have fun with me.

Have you ever edited a character or a scene from one of your books? How do you know what stories should stay and what should remain out?

Once, I went to remove a scene and ultimately had to rewrite the entire book. Turns out the scene was kind of important, but didn’t fit in the book I had been trying to tell. Except that scene? Was the heart and soul… of the wrong book.

I’m a fairly logical creature, but truth be told? Sometimes, it’s just a gut feeling that something isn’t right. So, I fix it until that gut feeling goes away or I’ve identified the problem bugging me.

"No Kitten Around" is hilarious, snarky, imaginative & original story with strong female characters. How did you come up with the plot of the story?

This is going to sound a little weird, but I was in a super bad mood, Reed had my number, and I just really wanted to be mean to him. So, I gave him a kitten of pure evil, an ex who would turn his world upside down, and some other women who could put him in his place.

Thus, rather by accident, I created the most often requested side character. “Can we have a story about that elf?!”

Usually, the answer is no, because the thought of trying to write an entire novel with that elf is absolutely terrifying. She’s a challenge to write, because she’s just so different from me… and enjoys eating anything that moves. That definitely colors the relationship a little.

But mostly, I wrote Reed when I was in a super bad mood and wanted to torture a character a little, but then I felt kinda bad about how mean I was to him.

Kitten, Destroyer of World’s litter box usage is a slice of life, as her odiferous ways are modeled from my tortoiseshell, Princess. Princess can clear the entire apartment and send the humans running while gagging after using the litter box.

Who inspired the character of Dakota in "Hearth, Home, and Havoc"? How do you come up with names for your characters?

I had signed up to participate in a fun anthology featuring folklore and legend, and I needed a character who was fairly normal with a twist and a lot of myth, legend, and lore in her life. I’d given myself an opening for normal women having divine children, so I decided that was how I’d handle it. Then I wanted to take a goddess who usually gets the short end of the stick and make her fun.

Add in a bad ex, and there’s a fun little romp in the Magical Romantic Comedy world.

I really had a fun time with that story.

How challenging it was to write eleven books in the "A Magical Romantic Comedy" series?

The hardest part is making sure I keep everything straight while I work on the latest book in the series. There is so much worldbuilding involved, which can be a challenge to get right, especially as some of the rules gradually change as the levels of magic increase. (For example, in Whatever for Hire, magic levels in the background have risen sufficiently for new magic and critters to come out to play… and that changes how everything works.)

It can become very complicated very quickly.

Fortunately, I love the world and characters, so I keep coming back for more. What I particularly like is that because the stories are generally standalone, I can chase whatever interesting thing catches my attention at any given moment. That makes the writing fun for me.

But it’s complicated. The more books I add, the more work is involved making sure I don’t break my own worldbuilding.

How did you come up with the character of Layla, a recovering drug addict in "Double Trouble"?

I wanted to do something new and interesting. I also wanted to illustrate how inherently good people can make bad choices, and that they are still good people at heart despite their bad choices.

I also wanted a character who was absolutely nothing like she appeared. Layla is all that and more. I love everything about Layla, honestly, although I often found her to be a very, very difficult character to write.

Everything I take for granted needed to become new to her—and it’s hard to find and see the wonders of the world through amazed eyes.

That book did a good job of reminding me that sometimes the little things can be really, really magical.

What is your ideal setting to write?

There is a tea parlor called Happy Lemon near me. It has this lemon tea I absolutely freaking love. Ten minutes in there with my laptop is nirvana. But… I can write almost anywhere. But I do love me a trip to a tea parlor to have a nice cup and some time outside of my apartment.

How do you feel about the rise in digital books in recent years?

I love it. Thanks to a spinal issue, holding the heavier paperbacks is problematic and can trigger awful migraines. I also have vision issues, so having control over font size and lighting makes it so I can keep reading. While I love the occasional paperback, nowadays, paperback and hardbacks are collectors items for me and part of my house décor. I love them very much, but it usually hurts too much to read paperbacks.

Plus my e-readers can take baths. Paperbacks can’t. And yes, I have tested the waterproof features of the newer e-readers, and I’m pleased to report they do not object to submersion in a bubble bath. They do question their new scents following such a plunge, but they do so with minimal fuss. (You just have to dry the screen after so it won’t weirdly skip pages on you.)

If you could be a part of anyone of your stories for a day, which one would it be and why?

I would have to say I’d want to take a ride in one of my contemporary romantic comedy stories. It would be relatively safe, amusing, and full of happiness at the end of the day. The rest of my books are terrifying and I would want to go find somewhere quiet with a book and a cup of tea.

I really do not want to be any of my characters. No. They often go through my version of hell! Yuck!

While I do have a lot of snark and sass in real life, and how I phrase things is definitely contributions from me, I tend to not want to be part of my own stories. I wouldn’t really want to be any one of my characters, either.

But, I do tend to give my characters cars I’d like. And then I often blow them up, because characters shouldn’t have nice things for long. The contemporary romance pen name, Bernadette Franklin, is the only one so far that gets the cars without the cars being blown up.

That possibly factors in with my choice to dive into one of those books if I absolutely had to choose.

Except the one with the spiders. I’d meet one of the spiders and be found, probably a week later, decomposing in whatever hiding place I’d gone to escape the spider.

(Alas, a lot of readers assume I really, really love spiders since I wrote Shammed, when in reality, I’m petrified of them…)

Which is the next book you are writing? When is it due for release?

I’m currently working on Steel Heart, the second Jesse Alexander novel. It releases Christmas 2019. It is feral. It has bitten. It will bite again. I may have contracted rabies from this book.

(Send help, possibly chocolate.)

How has your experience with AllAuthor been?

It’s been interesting so far! I really enjoy the cover contests, as there are always nice covers out there, and it’s a fun way to connect with my readers once a month! It’s also a good way to potentially find new books to read, which I do enjoy. When I have time. I rarely have the time I want to read… but then again, if I could, I’d probably spend my entire day just reading.

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