Valerie’s Retreat puts Valerie’s crisis management skills on display. You’ll get to know her pretty average life. Her job as the head teller at a bank, her one bedroom apartment, and her exceptionally lazy cat give the impression that she could be anyone you meet in your daily life. However, when things start to get rough, her first reaction is to run. An abusive childhood you learn about as the story proceeds left her with shaky decision-making skills. Franco, her boyfriend, doesn’t know what the right answer is either. Between them they commit a little felony and leave the country.

So what genre is this book?
This book falls into the genre Romantic Thriller but I hope it’s more dynamic than being described by those two words. Hopefully the reader will finish a scene where something goes wrong for Valerie and think about how they might handle the same situation. At one point Valerie and Franco feel like they just don’t have any good options. That leads them to make extreme choices. What would have to happen in your life for you to commit a felony? How bad would things have to be? That breaking point is the interesting driving focus of Valerie’s Retreat.

Tell us about Valerie.
Valerie is very likeable, outgoing, and appears to be a generally happy person. Yet, inside she has vicious demons demeaning her with bouts of insecurity and inadequacy that she hides. This is a contradiction that is difficult to put in print. Unlike many folks who might say this and don’t mean it, I do. If you read Valerie’s Retreat and feel I didn’t fully express this duality, please let me know through my website or with an Amazon review. When a critic incudes an idea about how the character or plot could’ve been better, I especially like that. New ideas about a plot or a book make an author grow.

Who are these prospective critics? What kind of readers will it appeal to?
I don’t understand how anyone writing fiction could predict who their work
will appeal to. Characters come to me and tell their stories inside my head. None of these folks enter my thoughts and preface their presence by announcing their target market. In fact, after I wrote Hazardous Choices, a book about a gang member trying to leave that lifestyle by accepting a college football scholarship in a small town, a thirty-five year-old woman told me how much she liked the book. I’d never have guessed that would happen. Valerie’s Retreat hasn’t received enough feedback for me to know which segment(s) of readers this books appeals to. I look forward to hearing back from people!

Have you written any other books that we should read next?
I have published three other books that are available on Amazon. A Spy Home is a memoir of a former spy who near the end of his career comes to the realization that his life’s work of promoting rebellion in third-world counties for American interests was a waste. Out of bitterness, he steals over nine million dollars on his last mission. The money was meant for a pro-American rebel group in an impoverished country. His retirement is spent learning what he missed at home with his family and wondering if the CIA will figure out he has their money.

Hazardous Choices describes the difficulty a young man has trying to fit in during his first year of college. In Chicago he served as a gangbanger for the vicious Neptune Knights, and in a small Kentucky town where he received a scholarship to play division two football he tries to fit in with the other students. His understanding of the world doesn’t make much sense in this environment.

A Mormon Massacre tells about a young man in his early twenties who had been raised hating the Mormon church. To fight what he believes is a cult, Jeremiah goes undercover as a convert to rescue women from abusive plural marriages.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I live in Nashville, Tennessee with my wife and daughter. We like to go boating as a family, and I jog to stay fit. My daughter has Down syndrome and competes in Special Olympic powerlifting, bowling, and basketball. I’m an assistant basketball coach and helper “coach” for powerlifting. My arms are so tiny they make Barney Fife look strong. The actual impetus for me to begin writing came while I was reading Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks. When I got to the part where he received a million-dollar advance, I thought, “Holy cow! He’s a good writer, but I know I can do this, too.” I’ve been writing since that day in 2004.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
www.josephmrinaldo.com

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
Twitter: @Jmrinaldo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JosephRinaldoBooks

What’s next?
Life After Life; right now I love that title but it might change. This is about man who thinks he’s crazy because he knows he’s reincarnated. In his previous life he served as the man-servant to Alexander the First, the Tsar of Russia. The Tsar’s death is surrounded by mystery and suspicion. This man knows the truth.