Interview with RONIE KENDIG!

Please join us in welcoming the amazing Ronie Kendig!

And she's giving away a copy of RAPTOR 6! You don't want to miss this gripping read. To enter the drawing, comment below and leave your contact information (US entries only).

Ronie Kendig is an award-winning, bestselling author who grew up an Army brat. After twenty-plus years of marriage, she and her hunky hero husband have a full life with four children, a Maltese Menace and a retired military working dog  in Northern Virginia. Author and speaker, Ronie loves engaging readers through her Rapid-Fire Fiction novels. Ronie can be found at www.roniekendig.com, on Facebook (www.facebook.com/rapidfirefiction), Twitter (@roniekendig), and Goodreads (www.goodreads.com/RonieK).

SS: How long have you been writing?

My earliest recollection of writing goes back to high school when I kept a spiral-bound notebook and wrote notes and dialogue. After I got married (I married young), my husband bought me a word processor that had a flip-up screen and 3-inch disks that recorded—I wrote my first full-length book on that at 21 years of age. 

SS: Do you write full time? If the answer is no, what else do you do? If you are a full time author, what other jobs did you have in the past?

Writing is my only career right now, but I am also a homeschooling mom of three teens (a fourth is in college). In the past, I have been an assistant music buyer for a now-defunct national Christian bookstore chain. I’ve also been a secretary, admin assistant, kindergarten teacher, and a master teacher at a daycare. 

SS: Tell us about the moment you finally felt like a “real author”?

Honestly, there are days where I think it still hasn’t settled in. It’s overwhelming to hold each book, knowing “I did it!,” but that first book—Dead Reckoning, a spy thriller—is what probably clinched it for me. Seeing that beauty in all her glorious colors and with that “sexy” spine—wow! I went numb!

SS: Who has been your greatest supporter as an author? 

Indisputably—my husband, Brian. If it were not for Brian championing and encouraging me to try to get published, I’d probably be holed up still in some space pounding out story after story for my own pleasure. Brian encouraged me to take the daunting risk (it was to me!) of trying to get published. To this day, he is my champion and strongest encourager/supporter.

SS:  Why suspense? Do you write in any other genres? If so, what?

It’s suspense for me because I bore easily, and I need the intensity and threat of danger to keep me reading. Suspense comes into all my writing, whether one of my military-themed novels or speculative fiction, my other true love.

SS: How does your faith play into your writing?

Faith is integral to my writing because it’s integral to me. Readers will detect where my loyalty lies—to Christ—simply by reading my stories. Although I do not write religious threads with a heavy hand, some books have stronger “religious” threads than others. It just depends on the story.

SS: If you couldn’t write, what else would you want to do?

Pace a padded room wearing a straightjacket. Seriously. I think I’d go crazy if I couldn’t write. It’s my release, my ticket to sanity. Occasionally, I get to play with the Normals.

SS:  Tell us about your current release.

I’m so excited to finally share this series with readers. The three-book Quiet Professionals series features the team ODA452 that readers met previously in the A Breed Apart books. The men of Raptor team are Special Forces operators, who step off the grid to do more black ops.

Captain Dean Watters keeps his mission and his team in the forefront of his laser-like focus. So when Dean’s mission and team are threatened, his Special Forces training kicks into high gear. Failing to stop hackers from stealing national security secrets from the military’s secure computers and networks isn’t an option. Zahrah Zarrick is a missionary teacher to Afghan children in Mazar-e Sharif. And a target. When Zahrah is captured because of her expertise in quantum cryptology, compromising the US military, Dean is forced to crack the lockbox around his heart—a move that might come at the highest cost.

 

SS: Where did you get your inspiration for this book?

I’ve long had a deep and strong respect for our military members and veterans, so continuing with my brand of Rapid-Fire Fiction with these heroes was an easy step. A central theme and plot point focuses on a cyber security threat to our military establishment. I’d just finished Raptor 6 when stories splattered the media about this very thing happening.

 

SS: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from your story?

Hope—there is always hope in Christ, even when things are sliding off the planet into a pit of doom, THERE. IS. HOPE. Things happen all the time that we can’t understand, but that does not change the love and mercy of God.

SS: Who is your least favorite character in this book? Why?

Seriously, there isn’t one. Just like with all my friends, there’s something unique I love about them. We have multiple heroes and villains, so it’s a twisting tale of torture to narrow down a least favorite. :-D

SS: What are you working on now?

Right now, I’m working on a serialization project with my publisher called OPERATION ZULU: REDEMPTION. I’m writing 15k words each week. Over the course of 5 weeks (approximately) starting at the end of May, an “episode” will release. This will contain about 45k words, the length of a novella. This project has been very tough and challenging, but also such a delight to attempt. It’s challenged me in ways I didn’t think possible, yet I am in love with the story’s concept and characters.

SS: A tough question: Where do you want to be career-wise in five years? Ten years? 

In five—and even ten—years, I want to be writing and producing work, but I also want to be giving back to the writing community in a bigger way. I did not get here on my own, and I would like to help others on their journey just as others helped me. If I can also manage to hit some best-seller lists and win more awards, that’s just gravy on the mashed potatoes (you knew I was Irish, right?).

SS:  Now let’s get a little personal. Name two things on your “bucket list” that you haven’t done yet.   

I want to visit Israel to walk where my Savior walked, see what he saw (well, mostly—a couple of centuries makes a difference in landscape. . .).

I think it’d be fun to learn to fly (says the person who is afraid of heights).

SS:  What is the silliest thing you have ever done? 

A few years ago, we went to DisneyWorld with our daughters (the twins weren’t born yet), and we were at the back of Cinderella’s castle as the cosplaying characters came offstage. Totally caught up in the excitement as Belle and the Beast exited, I shouted, “We love you, Belle!” For my daughter. Of course.

 

SS: What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

The hardest thing I’ve ever done is bury my mother. Losing her completely devastated me. Abused as a child, I viewed her as my “life saver” because when she was home, I was safe. She and I were incredibly close, and when my parents divorced when I was 15, she became my confidant and best friend. When she died, I realized a lot of my dreams died with her—I had plans to do special things for my Irish mother who had a pretty tough life herself. I miss her terribly to this day, and think of her often.

SS: Where can readers find you on the internet?

Ronie can be found at www.roniekendig.com, on Facebook (www.facebook.com/rapidfirefiction), Twitter (@roniekendig), and GoodReads.

Here's the book blurb for RAPTOR 6:

Captain Dean Watters keeps his mission and his team in the forefront of his laser-like focus. So when Dean’s mission and team are threatened, his Special Forces training kicks into high gear. Failing to stop hackers from stealing national security secrets from the military’s secure computers and networks isn’t an option. Zahrah Zarrick is a missionary teacher to Afghan children in Mazar-e Sharif. And a target. When Zahrah is captured because of her expertise in quantum cryptology, compromising the US military, Dean is forced to crack the lockbox around his heart—a move that might come at the highest cost.

Don't forget to enter the drawing for RAPTOR 6. Comment below and leave your contact information.

 

Thank you for joining us.