Today it’s my turn on the Fantastic Blog Hop Tour and I’d like to take the time to talk about me.  Where do I begin?…  Gosh, no wonder Mark Twain never finished his autobiography, this stuff is hard!  Okay, I guess I should start by saying I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was 12, but was told by my writing instructors, you couldn’t make a living at it.  So I went to school and got a certification in IT crap.  It was my plan B, just in case the writing thing didn’t work out.

I went into freelance writing but hated it, I mean the hustle was ridiculous.  The constant querying and networking involved was a huge pain.  So I decided to go into the workforce and get a “real” job.  However, my plan B was officially ruined after the economy crashed.

Just as I was about to go back to school, I saw a posting on Facebook for Red River Writers looking for a virtual assistant for one of their podcasts.  Having no idea what a podcast was, I Googled it and was immediately stoked.

As I listened to authors talk about their books and how they couldn’t live without writing, something clicked and before long, I was writing fiction again.  In fact, one day when our host Dellani Oakes was having technical issues, I was called upon to read one of my children’s stories.  “What?”  I said aloud.  You see, I hadn’t been published yet so this was daunting.  I managed to stammer and stutter my way through my story all the while, sweating bullets.  No seriously, I was Schvitzing like a pig and in the middle of January no less!

After that I was no longer a rookie, and right before one of our shows, Dellani, asked me what I was working on.  Dumbfounded, I had no idea I was supposed to keep writing while I queried.  I figured I’d just wait by the mailbox and see what happened LOL!

In 2011, I decided to write a YA novel after the highly publicized suicides of several young gay men.  I had no idea where these characters would take me, but by 2012, I had a completed manuscript.  Since I had so much trouble getting an agent with my children’s book and after noticing that my kind of work wasn’t being published by the mainstream I decided to self-publish.  In March of 2012, I released “Hag” to the world and it managed to make all the way to the #10 spot on Amazon’s bestseller’s list.  So I’m in this for the long haul, and with a little hard work, I’ll be able to do it again with my upcoming book, “Eternal Bond.”

Keep your fingers crossed!

~ Rachel

Today, I’m being interviewed by several fellow authors on The Fantastic Blog Hop.  Do me a favor and give them a little love by clicking like or commenting. ❤

Juli Page Morgan: www.julipagemorgan.com/blog
S. A. Hussey:   http://sahussey1.wordpress.com/
Ruth Davis Hays:  http://jorthusbooks.wordpress.com/
Dellani Oakes: http://writersanctuary.blogspot.com/
Karina Gioertz: www.friedgatortail.wordpress.com
Karen Vaughan:www.karenwritesmurder.com
Kristen Duvall: www.kristenduvall.com/blog

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