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Rickey Bray

Goodreads author profile

url

http://www.goodreads.com/rbray

born

in Lawton, Oklahoma, The United States

gender

male

website

http://www.rickeybray.com

genre

Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy

influences

Ernest Hemmingway, Edgar Allan Poe

member since

February 2009

About this author

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Growing up in the rural Elgin, Oklahoma area, my life was happily normal with my wife and three young children. All of that changed abruptly on a spring day in 1978.

We were returning home from an outing in the mountains when our car was involved in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. After the screeching of brakes, glass shattering, and half of our car destroyed, my wife and two of my three children were dead. I was only in my early twenties and was unable to cope with the loss. I fell into a miasma of depression and, unfortunately, turned to illegal drugs for consolation.

Even though I later remarried and had two more children, I never fully recovered from my loss and continued to use drugs as a crutch. All of this came to an abrupt ha...more Growing up in the rural Elgin, Oklahoma area, my life was happily normal with my wife and three young children. All of that changed abruptly on a spring day in 1978.

We were returning home from an outing in the mountains when our car was involved in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. After the screeching of brakes, glass shattering, and half of our car destroyed, my wife and two of my three children were dead. I was only in my early twenties and was unable to cope with the loss. I fell into a miasma of depression and, unfortunately, turned to illegal drugs for consolation.

Even though I later remarried and had two more children, I never fully recovered from my loss and continued to use drugs as a crutch. All of this came to an abrupt halt fourteen years later when my second wife and I were arrested in 1993 on numerous drug charges. Both of us were sentenced to 32 years in prison!!! I was 39 years old!

Entering the prison system, I felt as if I was in a void similar to the five stages of grief. First there is denial, followed by anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, hopefully, acceptance. It actually took me four years before I came to terms with my situation and did a “life review.”

I finally asked myself, “Am I going to try and accomplish something, even though I’m in jail, or am I just going to give up?”

It was then that I decided to try writing. I had always loved to read, so writing came quite naturally to me. In prison there was no access to computers or the Internet for reference materials, and the prison library consisted only of a box of tattered westerns and romance novels, which in effect forced me to rely on my own imagination. For me, writing became my therapy. I was finally able to deal with the death of my wife and children, my incarceration, and overcome my dependence on drugs.

While in prison, I was very fortunate that my cellmate was an artistically gifted person. We had an unspoken agreement to keep our cell quiet so that each of us could pursue our creative endeavors – I wrote and my cellmate, who was serving time for murder, painted. I used him to critique my writing, and he used me as the subject of many of his paintings. I now have a portrait that he painted which I take to all of my book signings.

With the “time” to write and our cell turned into a creative studio, I wrote six manuscripts using only a pencil on yellow legal pads. My first published book, Rendezvous Rock, is a romantic-drama with some light supernatural elements. One of the principal characters is a contemporary witch. Yet I knew nothing of witchcraft and had no way to do any research, so I concocted an earth-based religion to base the story on. I tried to make the characters real and believable. Although fictional, it seems real enough that it leaves the reader wondering … maybe? The book placed second in the Fantasy Category of the 2010 Reader Views Literary Contest and won the Cross Genre Category of the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards.

Now a free man, I was in the Oklahoma prison system for twelve years, from 1993 until 2005. Since my release from prison, my wife and I divorced, but I have recently married a lovely woman I have known since 1977 and now reside in Marlow, Oklahoma. I have also returned to my previous profession as a house painter and serve as the foreman for a painting company. I hope to eventually get all of my manuscripts published. My life has turned around, and I am now only looking forward instead of dwelling on the past.
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Rickey Bray's Blog

4th of July Special

To celebrate the 4th of July, I'm giving away 2 free copies of Rendezvous Rock to the first 2 Goodreads members who request it. Also, if you already enjoyed reading it, I'd appreciate a vote for it on the list "Best Books Featuring Witches."

Happy 4th of July!

2 comments

• 1 like · like •

Published on July 04, 2012 09:41 • 66 views • Tags: 4th, adventure, magic, paranormal, romance, witches

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Rickey Bray's Books

Average rating: 4.08 · 52 ratings · 29 reviews · 1 distinct work · Similar authors

Rendezvous Rock
4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 avg rating — 52 ratings — published 2009 — 3 editions

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Rickey is Currently Reading

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The Sword of Solonus

by Adam Matthews (Goodreads Author)

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Mar 14, 2013 01:34pm

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)

by Stieg Larsson

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Jan 31, 2013 11:23am

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Rickey liked Dan Schwent's review of The Big Blowdown: " Joe Recevo and Pete Karras were friends since they were kids, until their boss decided he didn't like Pete and had him badly beaten, giving him a crippling knee injury. Three years later, their lives will soon intersect when their old boss decides... " Read more of this review »
May 16, 2013 01:37pm · see review
Rickey liked Richard's review of Montana 1948: " Rating: 5* of five The Publisher Says: The events of that small-town summer forever alter David Hayden's view of his family: his self-effacing father, a sheriff who never wears his badge; his clear sighted mother; his uncle, a charming war hero and... " Read more of this review »
May 16, 2013 01:37pm · see review
Rickey liked Jeffrey Keeten's review of The Moviegoer: " “The fact is I am quite happy in a movie,even a bad movie...What I remember is the time John Wayne killed three men with a carbine as he was falling to the dusty street in Stagecoach, and the time the kitten found Orson Wells in the doorway in the... " Read more of this review »
May 16, 2013 01:36pm · see review
Rickey liked s.penkevich's review of The Private Lives of Trees: " ‘Life is a huge album for creating an instantaneous past with loud and definite colors’ Our lives are full of faces that come and go, some disappearing forever from our private stage, while others sometimes check back in and out over time. Each of... " Read more of this review »
May 16, 2013 01:36pm · see review
Rickey made a comment on Richard's review of The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2) "Great review, although my opinion of the book is much higher than yours. I liked the way you broke your review down for people with different viewpoin...more "
May 09, 2013 09:57am · see review
Rickey made a comment on his review of Hadrian's Wall "No, I haven't read any of Gage's series. I'll look into Napoleon's Pyramids. Thanks for the suggestion."
May 04, 2013 11:31am · see review
Rickey is 95% done with The Sword of Solonus The Sword of Solonus by Adam Matthews (Goodreads Author) progress:	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 20, 2013 05:57am · like · see status
Rickey rated a book 5 of 5 stars The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change by Al Gore read in April, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I listened to this as an audio book, and although quite long, it was very interesting. Al Gore goes into great depth in taking a look at six drivers that will influence our future. He emphasizes that we use the amazing advances in technology with cau...more
Apr 13, 2013 07:08am · see review
Rickey is now following Marly Rushing and Sarah
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Quotes by Rickey Bray

“White people build a really big fire and stand way back. Indians build a little-bitty fire and get real close.”
― Rickey Bray, Rendezvous Rock

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