Nice to meet you!
My name is Rena.
I am a fantasy author with a love for deeply flawed characters, hard magic systems, and dry humor. My debut hit the shelves in October of 2025!
When not writing, you can find me reading, gaming, drawing, dungeoning dragons, and stressing about writing.
Where it all started...
My story starts the same as many: a childhood passion for the arts. I have been drawing since I could hold a crayon and telling stories long before they were coherent. There was always time for another story in my parents' house. My family is full of storytellers and self-proclaimed comedians and maybe a few musicians. All artists in their own right. No one else was a writer officially, but my style is a direct result of countless hours caught in the cycle of "this one time when..."
Stories are at my core. But I was a pragmatic kid (or maybe just anxious, who knows). Sure, I had dozens of notebooks with handwritten chapters, and yeah, no corner of paper was doodle-proof, but I never believed either creative outlet would amount to more than a hobby. So I followed the path toward promised stability. I applied for scholarships, went to university, refused to give up, and graduated with a professional degree. I found my dream job, and that was the end of it, right?
Well, maybe.
Finding a Community
In the summer of 2020, amid a series of -- let’s call them “complications,” I picked up my oldest and most stubborn story. This is a little diddy with the working title “Tales of Drynic,” and you can see more about her on my Stories page. But this book plays a big role in the topic at hand. Drynic has been with me for longer than I can remember. The oldest digital copy I can access was completed in October of 2016, but I have handwritten notes dating back to 2009. She’s pretty damn old.
So with my story in hand, I ventured out in search of a community of writers that might accept me into their ranks. I made a lot of friends, learned more about publishing, and got excited for the future. In July of 2021, after another full rewrite and my first foray into critique partners, I scrapped Drynic… again. At this point, I’d written “The End” five different times, and still hated the result. Months passed, (along with three more restarts and at least one period of sulky recovery) until January of 2023 when I started over
ONE MORE TIME with a secret weapon:
A. Feckin. Outline.
Wow, incredible. Character growth. This version of Drynic, lovingly called “Draft 3a,” took fourteen months to write. But… something was different. No one knows what. But it worked. It was a story I was proud of. And then, the magic began. Turns out, editing is this incredible thing where you don’t restart your life’s work over and over again until you die. Yes, edits are difficult in other ways. But, y’all, I was so free. In November of 2024, I completed “Draft 3d” and sent it off to beta readers.
And then… I put it away indefinitely.
What? Why? This was a huge breakthrough? All that to just give up?
No, not giving up. Not in the slightest. But I came to a realization somewhere in the process. Drynic is a four-book storyline with something like sixteen distinct points-of-view. A story that I’m deeply attached to. One that will take me a very long time to write.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have some standalones for readers who enjoy my style to pick up while waiting for the next Drynic release? Maybe help me stay relevant. Maybe teach me the ropes of the technical elements of publishing. Maybe give me time to hone my craft so Drynic could continue to be something I’m proud of.
And that’s when Kepstadur was born.
First Publication
Something about me: for most of my adult life, I believed Drynic was the only story I'd ever publish. No more ideas. A real one-hit wonder. But realizing that Drynic couldn't be my first release unstoppered that restrictive part of my brain. I wanted to write short stories and roll dice to generate prompts. There are more ideas than I knew what to do with.
But the idea for Kepstadur struck at just the perfect time. When I say it took over my mind, it's far from an exaggeration. The outline was written, critiqued by alpha readers, written again, and polished in less than a month. The first draft took 92 days to write. It was the most incredible feeling, having such a clear image and the right circumstances to execute.
Kepstadur Keep went out to beta readers in March after a few rounds of self-edits and the developmental editor in June. My first professional edit. It was unreal. July saw the copy editor, and August the proofreader. With a sensitivity reader rounding out the set (a bit late in the game, but you live and learn), Kepstadur made it through four rounds of professional edits. I was glowing.
I gathered ARC readers, got cold feet, found a second wave of confidence, and plunged in.
The rest is yet to be told.
Closing Thoughts
I still work full-time using that old professional degree and don't know if I'll ever feel secure enough to change. The leap into "full-time author" is a big one with a lot of unknowns. A lot of pressure on the success of each book as a “product” rather than telling stories that matter. Is there a threshold of sales that would justify making changes to my working conditions? Would I ever meet those numbers? I don't know.
But I know I have too many stories to tell. They're too big to keep inside anymore. I've got spreadsheets filled with plans and outlines, each in a different phase from the next.
I hope you'll stick around to see how it ends. Not even I can tell you.
Best!
R
a few great stories
I'm a firm believer that the best writers learn from other writers, so here, I'd like to highlight some stories that inspire me. There's no real theme and no real order. Some come from childhood. Some I read last month. Any media: book, show, movie... This is just a collection of four- and five-star media that has shaped me through the years into the storyteller I am today.
All rights to the original creators. I do not claim any ownership of the following works, I just think they're really cool and would love to connect with more people who agree <3
