About Ray Anselmo
Ray Anselmo was born in San Francisco on December 9, 1969, and grew up in the Sacramento, CA area. Since 1987 he has lived in Stockton, CA (not always by choice). He has been married to the former Nina Harting (aka the Supermodel, Jennifer Garner's Double, the Grace of God) since 1999, and they have two children.
At heart, Ray is a storyteller - sometimes to the chagrin of people who wish he would shut up once in a while - and has found that writing is a socially acceptable way to be himself. He has survived his parents' divorce, his father's alcoholism, unemployment, Dilbertesque job situations, club foot, diverticulitis, cataracts, car accidents, not having his Asperger's officially diagnosed until he was 42, and living in Stockton since 1987. You won't scare him with any zombie-apocalypse nonsense, trust me.
Favorite Authors (in no particular order): Bill James, Salman Rushdie, Spider Robinson, Malcolm Gladwell, Joe Haldeman, Brennan Manning, Robert Harris, Orson Scott Card, Donald Miller, Bill Simmons, Philip Yancey, Neil Gaiman, Geralyn Beauchamp.
"I had a lot of creative energy locked up inside. When I was a kid at school, I had a lot of outlets for that. And then time passed and I was suddenly married with two babies, and all this creative energy was in there. And I was sick all the time, because I couldn't let it out. Once I started writing, I could let it out, and I got well again ... If you start thinking about your legacy when you are writing, it's not going to work. You can't start thinking about lasting impact or what a critic would say. I write because I can't NOT write. I can't help it. It has to come out." - Judy Blume
BIBLIOPHILE MUSINGS:
A true Romantic Comedy. Set in what could be “Any-Time, Any-Place”. Though the locations and times are created, arranged marriages still happen in modern times and in “normal” families on rare occasions. Through vivid characters and at times quite humorous plot, Anselmo weaves a riveting what-if tale. The plot takes the theoretical stance of a bride and groom who want nothing to do with their wedding that everyone else decided would be. The two join forces to protest this hideous injustice against them despite the fact that this how their society has always functioned. They are determined to prove it is an impossibility, that they are totally incompatible. Can their machinations upstage their own wedding to be? Who will ultimately end up being the ones to think twice when all comes to an end? Read the book to meet Pella & Kavin and their matchmaking parents. You’ll also discover many a plot a foot several quite hilarious in this first installment of Anselmo’s series following Pella Lensoil’s adventures. However, be forewarned if you are impatient like me, he mentions there will be at least six books in the series; releasing one a year. Since this one just released in July 2015 that means a wait for #2.
