RJ Samuel is the pen name of the author, who lives and works in Galway, Ireland. She was born in 1967 in Nigeria to Indian parents. She left Nigeria in 1984 to study in Galway, Ireland and has remained in Galway since then, apart from a 3-year episode in the southwest of France. She is an Irish citizen and now considers herself almost Irish as well as almost Indian.She has been writing creatively for 6 years, excluding her period in France where she wrote nothing creative, probably because she was running a restaurant bar despite having a background in Medicine (she is a qualified medical doctor) and IT (she has a Masters in IT) and absolutely no background in restaurants, apart from eating… in them. Her story 'Helmets' was shortlisted for the 2011 Over the Edge 'New Writer of the Year Competition' and she was the only entrant to have both her fiction and her poetry long-listed for the Doire Press '1st Annual International Fiction and Poetry Chapbook Competition' in January 2012. Her short story 'Vision Painter' went on to be short-listed for this competition.She is currently writing her second novel, Falling Colours, which is also set in Galway and which is based on the short story 'Vision Painter'.www.RJSamuel.comTwitter: @R_J_Samuel