I am the author of dark fantasy “Curse of the Blacknoc Witch.” My lifelong mission is to inspire readers through the power of imaginative storytelling. When I’m not writing or hopelessly distracted by Netflix/video games, I prefer getting lost in amazing books.

What do you write?

Fantasy and horror but I dabble in other genres such as dystopian, spec, sci-fi.

What do you read?

Anything that can hold my short attention span. Thrillers/suspense. Dystopian. Sci-fi. Horror. Really anything that can stretch my mind. I’m especially partial to strange, eerie things. A good old haunted house story hits the spot. If you have any good recommendations please shoot me a rec here or over at Goodreads. 🙂

What are your interests?

Photo manipulation, graphic design. In my personal life, I tend to have tomboyish hobbies. Needless to say, I enjoy fishing with the family. Shooting ranges. Hiking. Swimming. Video games. Knife collecting. Running. Tai Chi. Watching the next awesome season of Stranger Things or really anything by Mike Flanagan.

How did you get into writing?

I started dabbling in my teens. I had this idea I thought would make a fun story for a video game. I wrote and finished my first three chapters of that story and then never continued it, lol. I was lost at the time because I knew absolutely nothing about writing. The desire to better know the craft inevitably brought me to a free writer’s course called F2k Social (today known as Writer’s Village University.) The course opened up a whole new world. I learned the basics of writing. I connected with other writers and continued to grow in my craft.

Favorite superhero?

Batman! Always Batman! Because he’s Batman!

What weapon would you use if faced against a zombie apocalypse?

Knives! Since I already collect knives, it only seems right to finally put them to use and start chopping up some zombies. Hmmm. Maybe that should be my next book?

What have you published so far?

Aside from a several short stories in a few magazines, I published my novella, Curse of the Blacknoc Witch with The Wild Rose Press.

What are you going to publish in the future?

My heart is set on publishing a wide range of books. See my Books I’m Writing page to give you a feel of my projects.

How did you come up with your pen name?

I wanting something different, something to go with all genres because like I mentioned before, I want to publish different books. I went through many names. From Tori Winters, to Tori Stone, to Tori Arrows (which I did end up using before discovering it was already taken.)  I wanted the middle initial V to make it extra unique, and of course, because V stands for Victoria. Rainn came just because it sounds nice and because rain is just awesome, right?

What writing software do you use?
Scrivener 3. I refuse to write in anything but Scrivener. The only time I use Microsoft Word is when I’m editing docs for other authors or editing small pieces of my own work.

Do you have any writing rituals?

Yes, tea. I do us this app called Pomodoro Challenge each time I sit down to write. It’s basically a time management technique. It breaks down your work in a twenty-minute (or custom) intervals. It helps me stay focus because let’s face it, writing is one of the easiest things to not do.

What advice would you give a writer just starting out?

There’s that famous quote by Stephen King that I love. It’s pretty straight forward and I believe it to be true.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” —Stephen King

I would also add to find other writers to connect with. Find a critique group. Get comfortable sharing your work and receiving criticism. Criticism is something that will never go away. Get used to the feeling of rejection because it’s going to happen to your work, more than once. Maybe even a hundred times. You’re going to lose your vision or passion of why you started writing to begin with, so it’s important to learn how to reignite this passion on command. And this is a must! Develop a stubborn mentality because this is going to help you get past all the nos.