Rafael Mayor grew up in South Florida in a boys home where reading books became the escape he needed. From Lord of the Flies to Shakespeare, Rafael says he easily read more than 100 books each year.

I met Rafael at the Farmers Market in Celebration, FL where he and his wife were selling books. I came to the Farmers Market looking for a story and arrived about an hour early hoping to snag a good parking spot and to catch the vendors before things got too busy. As I walked around quietly observing who was there, Rafael happened to be the first person to say hello to me as I walked by.

Rafael is an author who published 5 novels between 2006 and 2009 but put the pen down after losing his daughter at a young age.

Looking for a change, Rafael and his wife traveled the country staying in Massachusetts, California and Colorado, but eventually found their way to the Orlando area where they’ve lived since.

In 2020 his wife encouraged him to get back to what he loved; writing. It was the inspiration he needed and since then he’s published 1 more novel, completed 2 more and is working on a screenplay.

Rafael writes Fictional Fantasy, Horror Mystery, Sci FI and NonFiction. He uses 3 different pen names when he writes and they’re associated with the genre of his writing. For Fictional Fantasy he uses Coco (these are also for kids), for Sci-Fi and Horror Mystery his pen name is RD Mayor and for Non-Fiction he writes as Rafa Mayol.

Thinking of what he loves about Orlando, Rafael says it's the people. With Orlando being such a transient place he loves the opportunity of meeting people from all over the world.