About
Nan Rinella
The quintessential late bloomer, Nan became a journalist as a Washington D.C. intern at age 50. During the next decade, she began speaking, directed a local writers conference, and after 9/11 wrote a nonfiction book: Smart Steps for Safe Travel.
Though she enjoyed journalism, Nan always had a burgeoning desire to write fiction. An author in search of an idea—a concept with significance, substance, and staying power—inspiration struck in 2004 while reading The Last Battle, the final volume of The Chronicles of Narnia.
In that book, Lewis mirrored the 8 October, 1952, London train crash that took the lives of his characters and ushered them into Aslan’s Country—all except for Susan Pevensie. But what happened to her?
The plight of a young English woman, who might have lost her family in that tragic railway accident ignited Nan’s imagination. Consumed by that thought, Rinella gave birth to THE CHOICE Series. Smitten with developing her own characters, Nan entered their world and the rest is what enticing tales are made of.
The quintessential late bloomer, Nan went back to college to become a journalist. At age 50, she became a Washington D.C. intern. During the next decade, she began speaking, directed a local writers conference, and after 9/11 wrote a nonfiction book: Smart Steps for Safe Travel.
Although she enjoyed journalism, always in the back of her mind was a burgeoning desire to write fiction. An author in search of an idea—a concept with significance, substance, and staying power—inspiration struck in 2004 while reading The Last Battle. The final volume of The Chronicles of Narnia, ignited Nan’s imagination with the idea of a young English woman losing her family in a tragic railway accident. What would happen to her? The idea for The Choice series was born.
Born in Hollywood, California, Nan was raised in Arizona, where she frequented the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, along with Hollwood elite. She’s also lived in Chicago, Seatlle, Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Amarillo. She was married to her Prince Charming, Joe Rinella (ret. USAF), for 53 years, before he passed in November 2024. Visits with her son, Ryan, daughter-in-love Hillary and granddaughter, McCall give her great joy.
An Indomitable Story-Teller Nan’s
- the regional representative for the C. S.Lewis Foundation in Texas.
- been published in the Amarillo Globe-News, Canyon News, Amarillo Observer, Accent West, and Focus on the Family Magazine, Human Events, and Consumer Resource and has over 200 articles in print. Nan’s also a contributor to Daily Devotions for Writers.
- a graduate of Bible Study Fellowship, Christian Leaders, Authors & Speakers Services Seminar, and Personality Training Workshop.
- 1995 Senior Fellow at the National Journalism Center and intern for Human Events in Washington D.C.
A flight attendant for twenty years, Nan was an inflight coordinator and a crew member for Military Airlift Command.
She’s wowed by the color turquoise.
Every man’s life is a fairy tale, written by God’s fingers.