Rayla Jackson faces tough situations.

“Everyone has their battles and their demons that haunt them from fears to regrets,” she muses. “Mine, well mine, were worse. I saw and felt things when I died.”

As a 19-year-old college student, she survived a car crash that killed her parents. Now she must raise two younger twin brothers. But her second chance at life has now put her in danger.

Rayla is a fictional character in “Blood of Power,” a recently released science fiction book published and available on Amazon written by Kayla Rutherford, a 21-year-old Smithfield native. She began writing the book about a year ago.

The COVID-19 quarantine and a few nudges from friends were the last pushes she needed to finish. The book was published in May. Online reviews of her first book have been positive and complimentary, with one reader saying the book “is filled with great storytelling and suspense.”

“A lot of my inspiration also comes from my friends. We all like talking about different worlds, ideas and a lot of my friends like making characters…all of my friends are just very imaginative and creative. A lot of my ideas prosper from having talks and different games and ideas from them.”

Rutherford is a 2020 graduate of James Madison University who majored in integrated science and technology with a double concentration in energy and environment. For now, she’d like her science and writing careers to coexist.

“I currently have a full-time job as an environmental engineer, but I also do come home and I write on the side,” Rutherford said. “I’ve also already finished the second book of this series, because it’s going to be a trilogy.”

“The second book is called ‘Blood of Destruction,’ and in this book, the main character is actually being transported to a different planet,” Rutherford said of her upcoming book’s plot. In short, “the entire story is basically how far she’s willing to go to protect her brothers.”

Although the book is geared toward younger adults, “I know a lot of people read young adult novels even if they’re like 60, 70 or 80.”

She’s got a narrative in mind for her third book but is waiting for feedback from the second book. Her goal is to publish that one in early 2021.

Follow Rutherford on Facebook and Instagram at kayla_rutherford06 for book information and updates.