Meet the Author

I’m an Australian author that enjoys reading smutty romance books that feature non-human characters - from monsters wielding the weirdest dick people have seen to aliens who know how to use their tails for naughty purposes. However, that is pretty on brand for me.

So, let’s get to know me outside of the book world.

I have been a big anime/manga lover since I was very young, from romance to fantasy action and/or adventure. That has heavily influenced my interests over the years. It also set me onto my creative path as I began drawing in this style before I moved over into horror surrealism and gothic art. It was something I enjoyed doing; however, I have very shaky hands that make it hard to paint and draw without getting frustrated!

I’m also a gamer (when I have time).

A lot of my hobbies circle around solo activities, but I’m a big adventure person. The chance of seeing me on a bush trail is minimal, although not improbable... but I do enjoy dragging anyone and everyone to adrenaline events. I’ve climbed the harbour bridge, skydived over Wollongong beach, and scuba-dived in the Great Barrier Reef. I’m the kind of person you can call randomly at 3am to ask if I want to go for a random drive to nowhere, and as long as I get to drive and pump music, I’m totally down.

I’m a big foodie. I will eat anything and everything, and I especially enjoy eating foods from other cultures while learning to eat how they do and showing my respect.

My taste in music varies. I enjoy heavy metal and hardcore, house, trance, trap, but I also deeply love phonk. I have an infatuation with slowed down versions of songs, and I will belt out Disney tunes.

My taste in movies is also just as wide, and I enjoy going to the cinemas. I love Marvel and basically anything fantasy/sci-fi related. Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are some of my favourite movies. However, for me, nothing beats slapping on a Disney movie and eating popcorn at home.

I don’t watch a lot of TV and tend to lean towards watching anime.

Once upon a time… Just joking.

For most of my life, I’ve been a pretty big loner. I was bullied heavily as a kid for being overweight and just generally freaking weird. I really was an odd kid! I was bubbly when I knew you, but really reserved if I didn't. I was always living and dreaming up fantasy worlds and stories, playing in the Australian backyard with sticks thinking I was a warrior - I never made myself the princess but the knight in shining armour. However, all the struggles I’ve dealt with, learning to navigate and get help for my mental health disorders, and just being a strange cosmic child have helped me to get where I am today.

I have been depressed for most of my life, but I am who I am - and I’ve strived to be happy every day. I always tried to wake up every morning and look to the future, and look at problems as things that can be solved rather than things to dwell on. Not always easy, but pushing forward has always been my goal.

I originally wanted to be an actor when I was young. I was very expressive and enjoyed being eccentric. I also wanted to be a singer, but unfortunately, I’m tone-deaf! I drew and wrote poetry a lot up until I became an adult. I spent most of my teenage years trying to figure out where I fit in creatively and just in this world in general.

When I turned 18, I wanted to become a psychologist. Because I didn’t get a high enough qualifying mark for university, this was something I never pursued - which may have been for the best. I did read deeply in psychology, social behavioural science, brain chemistry, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), mental health disorders, and human/animal biology. I liked knowing how the brain works and why - or why it failed. Our brains are fascinating, and just the simplest thing can throw them out of order and straight into chaos.

I started working in physically intensive jobs when I was 18. I operated forklifts. I’ve worked in the steel industry as a production line leader and was the face of female representation. I’ve driven trucks and built really cool things from nothing but timber. I’m strong, both mentally and physically.

But when it’s all said and done, none of these were the destined paths for me.

I tried writing my first book when I was 19, and although the book premise is something I’d like to come back to in the future, I didn’t have the discipline to finish it. I tried again at 23, but life was very tough for me at this age, and I was still finding my feet as an adult.

When I turned 26, I finally sat down and wrote my first book. Although Finding the Dragon’s Heart is currently unpublished, it has a very special place in my heart. It’s what started my career. I still worked full-time, since writing a book never guarantees sales will flood in, but I was in it for the long haul.

Sometimes the hardest battles are the most rewarding in the end.

I wrote A Soul to Keep right after I found out my father was dying from cancer. I threw myself into the book as a coping mechanism. Although he is now, sadly, gone, he was my biggest supporter, and it does make me a little sad every day that he never got to see what would happen after I published, but he was all for me writing monster smut! He was an eccentric man, who was just as much of an oddball as me. He was creative and adventurous himself, so he helped to shape me into the Opal Reyne you know today. My family have always tried to be supportive, even if they didn't always understand, and I'm thankful towards them every day, and every new step further I take into my career.

A Soul to Keep came out in June 2022, and since then, I have moved over to being a full-time author. I have a wonderful fan base and community that I love connecting with, and all the positive reader feedback I receive helps me to keep going everyday.

I will continue to keep writing. This isn’t something I’m doing for money, or for fame, or for anything stupid like that. It’s something I thoroughly enjoy and it’s therapeutic for me.

If you know anything about the writing world, you’ve probably heard the terms: panster, plotter, and planster.
For those of you who don’t, let me break it down for you. A panster is someone who doesn’t plot their book and just begins writing when an idea explodes in their head. A plotter is someone who has an idea but prefers to plot out the whole story before they write. A planster is a writer who is a little of both, although mostly leaning to one side or the other.

I am a planster, leaning mainly towards a panster.

For me, I will get a smutty scene in my head. If I like that smutty scene, I tend to think up another, then another, until I have a few involving the same characters. They generally come in the form of lucid dreams - which I do a lot since I have pretty bad insomnia.

Once I have a few of these smutty scenes, my mind starts building stories that lead up to these scenes. I start to fixate - sometimes having sleep elude me due to this - until eventually I have a whole bunch of plot in my head. I usually dream smutty scenes first, then the heart-breaking, tearful scenes, and then filler to get to all these highs and lows.

The only way to stop myself from obsessing is to write.

First, I must spend an extended period of time trying to figure out the right names for my characters! (lol) I start every time at chapter one. I’m unable to deviate and write a future chapter until I’ve reached it. This sometimes makes things hard when I have brain fog and can’t seem to get the words out. It can take me anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months to write a full novel.

I try to focus on having a good balance. A decent amount of world building without it being over-explained. Plot without it being paced too fast or too slow - I try to hit into medium burn spice. Character depth with believable qualities. The right amount of environmental description.

One thing I will always try to be: inclusive. There are many people in the world, and I want to give everyone representation. Plus-sized people to thin and muscular people. Small breast to large breast. Black, white, and every person in between. LGBTQIA+. Mental health disorders to intellectual/physical disabilities. Every single person deserves positive representation, and this is something I am hoping to achieve.