Introducing Author Rula Sinara, After The Silence #Giveaways

This week's Intro to Author is on Rula Sinara and her latest release novel After The Silence. And there is a Giveaway! 

Intro- I'm the author of...

Hi! I’m Rula Sinara and I’m the author of After the Silence, the second book in my ‘From Kenya, With Love’ series for Harlequin Heartwarming. It just released in North America on March 1^, 2015…soon to be followed by its UK/Aus release on April 1^st. The first book in the series was The Promise of Rain (Jan 2014). As you might have guessed from the series name, these stories are set in both Kenya and the US. I’m currently working on the third book in the series!

My Life- (short bio)

I had the incredible opportunity to spend much of my childhood in North Africa. My family traveled a lot when I was young, but we returned ‘permanently’ to the US when I began the eighth grade. I spent the rest of my ‘growing up’ years and college in Texas. I currently call Virginia home and am the mother of three boys, two dogs, four cats (one feral who has adopted me), seven fish, a snail, fifteen hens and eleven baby chicks (soon to be seventeen). As you can see, I love animals and nature/wildlife as a whole, so you’ll typically find them making appearances in my stories J.

Influences-

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I’m not talking about mandatory school assignments! Once I began reading as a child, I was hooked. I devoured books and loved going to the library. I think my love of writing stemmed from that love of books and storytelling. Even as young as first or second grade, I’d write poems in my free time. By the age of ten, writing poems and descriptive passages was a hobby of mine. I’d sit on our bungalow wall in Africa and write as the sun set over the Mediterranean. I think, as is true for most authors, all of my life experiences—including my love of nature—along with all the authors whose books I’ve had the privilege of reading, have influenced my style of writing.

How I write-

I’m a dreamer by nature, so I tend to write in my head before the words every hit paper or the keyboard. I have a home office to work in, but I love to sit in my atrium, surrounded by windows that overlook the wooded creek on our property, and dream or visualize the characters and scenes unfolding in my head. Once I have a strong feel for the key elements of the story, I grab a pad of paper and a pen and begin to brainstorm or at least put notes down so that I don’t forget what I’ve dreamed up. Writing on paper also helps me to piece together the puzzle of a story and unlock more of my thought processes. Eventually, I find the courage to start chapter one on my laptop, but whenever I get stuck, there’s just something about good old fashioned pen and paper that works for me.

Motivation- (why you write?)

Why do we breathe? Or eat? I can’t not write. It’s in my cells, genetic programming, one of my instincts or however you’d like to describe it. I think that’s why I was drawn to writing even as a young child who wasn’t being forced to do it…but I did anyway. It makes me happy and whole.

My brain is wired to write and my soul is nurtured by doing so.

Your Book- (blurb)

After the Silence by Rula Sinara

Book 2 in the From Kenya, With Love series
Harlequin Heartwarming
March 1, 2015

Does following her passion mean losing her way?

Marine Ben Corallis is an expert at facing death, but nothing comes close to the terror that grounds him when his wife is killed in a car accident the day he returns from duty. He's left to raise an infant, a toddler and a ten-year-old girl who hasn't uttered a word since her mother's death. 

It's hard not to care for the widowed marine with three young children. Yet he's still grieving, too burdened with guilt to fall in love again. And Hope Alwanga's future as a doctor awaits her on the other side of the world, in Nairobi. If two such opposites can't agree on a common country, how can they ever create a safe place to call home?

ebook available at:
Harlequin
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
...and anywhere ebooks are sold!

Print copies available at:
Harlequin

Find it on GoodReads

Author Bio:

After a childhood enriched with exotic travels and adventures (both in books and real life), Rula Sinara is now settled in rural Virginia with her husband, three boys and crazy but endearing pets. When she's not writing, she's busy attracting wildlife to her yard, watching romantic movies (despite male protests) or researching trees on her garden wish list. According to her kids, she's obsessed with anything that grows, including the seed of a story idea and the love between unlikely characters. 

Rula also enjoys interviewing fellow authors and is a Special Contributor for USA Today's Happy Ever After blog. Find links to her interviews and discover more about Rula at www.rulasinara.com or www.awritersrush.blogspot.com. Follow her on Twitter @RulaSinara.

 A Kindle copy giveaway of After The Silence to one commenter!