Q & A with Author Rachel A. Brune

Cold Run
by Rachel A. Brune 

It is amazing how quickly a phone call can interrupt your life, even when you're a werewolf. Rick Keller hangs up from the unwanted call, but the shadowy organization he once belonged to doesn't take such an answer lightly. Waking up collared and caged by MONIKER is a quick way to learn retirement isn't always permanent. Death will be if he doesn't accept their assignment.

Keller and his new team follow a group of human traffickers on a thin trail across the globe. Their only hope is in a man who hasn't had much practice being a werewolf in a really long time, a sadistic agent who loves making dog jokes, and a beautiful operative who is better with guns than relationships.
If being forced back into service wasn't bad enough, he quickly discovers they have many new experiments to try out on their pet wolf. Even worse, MONIKER now isn't the only one who knows his secret. 

Hopefully an old dog can learn some new tricks, especially if he wants to stay alive.

ebook, 236 pages
Published August 2nd 2014 by Untold Press

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Read It & Reap Date:  August 4, 2015

Rachel A. Brune graduated from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts in May 2000, and was immediately plunged into the low-stakes world of entry-level executive assistant-ship. Her unexpected journey out of that world and into the military is chronicled in her self-published book Echoes and Premonitions.

Rachel served five years as a combat journalist, including two tours in Iraq, and a brief stint as a columnist for her hometown newspaper. After her second tour, she attended graduate school at the University at Albany in NY, where she earned her MA in Political Communication, and her commission as a second lieutenant in the military police corps.

Although her day job has taken in her in many strange, often twisted directions, Rachel continues to write and publish short fiction. She released her first novel, Soft Target, in early 2013. In addition to writing for the online military interest zine "Task & Purpose," she blogs her thoughts about reading and the writing life at The Infamous Scribbler. You can also follow her on Twitter, where she goes by the handle @rachelabrune. 

Goodreads:   https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5414042.Rachel_A_Brune

Website:  http://infamous-scribbler.com/blog/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/rachelabrune

Q & A with Rachel A. Brune

Q:  Tell us a little bit about your main characters.
A:  Rick Keller, Karen Willet, and John Tell are a team of agents sent out by covert organization, MONIKER, to combat a human trafficking pipeline. Rick is a semi-retired werewolf, currently living a quiet life in upstate Vermont, who really would prefer to stay retired. Karen, who holds a PhD in linguistics, is a legacy agent of the organization, equally as comfortable with an M4 as she is uncomfortable talking about her feelings. John is … well, Rick sees him as a gray-suited company man and a bit of a jerk. But he’s worked with that sort of agent before.  

Q:  Who designs the covers for your books and what is that process like for you as an author?
A:  For Cold Run, my publisher asked what I was thinking in regards to the cover, then created and designed it and sent it to me for final approval. This was a change from Soft Target, where I hired a graphic designer and paid out of pocket to get that professional look. In both instances, though, I was able to talk with someone who had expertise that I really don’t have – namely in creating something eye-catching and professional that might convince a reader to pick my book out of a lineup.  

Q:  Describe your ideal writing spot.
A:  A clean desk, lots of sunshine, fresh breeze coming through the room … and my baby girl taking a nap!  

Q:  What is the best advice you have been given?
A:  Don’t take any wooden nickels.

Seriously, though, the best piece of writing advice I’ve received was: “Find what works for you.” Because there are a lot of people out there who want to sell you on what works for them – and that’s fine to try it out – but if it doesn’t work for you, you can’t force it.  

Q:  As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A:  I wanted to be an astronaut, a soldier, a police officer, and a journalist. Three out of four ain’t bad.  

Q:  Which do you prefer: hard/paperbacks or ebooks?
A:  For fiction, I’m bi-literature. But for non-fiction, I really need to have that hardcover or paperback to read through slowly and leisurely, and to be able to flip back and forth through the book for easy reference.  

Q:  If you could have any superpower, what would you choose and why?
A:  Flying. I’m incredibly scared of heights, but I think that being able to fly under my own power would be awesome. Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane is the closest I’ve come, but I still have dreams where I’m just walking along and suddenly I can fly, and they are wonderful dreams.  

Q:  What book are you reading now?
A:  I’m reading a few. I just started Wave Links: Powers Meant for Gods, by Randall Boleyn, which I got through the Read It & Reap program, and am finishing up Windblown World, which is comprised of selections of Jack Kerouac’s work journals, edited by Douglas G. Brinkley. I typically have a number of books going at once, often a mixture of fiction and non-fiction; my “To Be Read” pile consists of a large, five-shelf bookcase, a couple of re-usable grocery bags full of books, and approximately 20 to 25 titles on my Kindle.