Falling into October

Yay, it's finally here! October is upon us and my first blog post on my new author website is now live. How exciting is this?!

Side note, I may have already drank a few pumpkin spice lattes and eaten multiple pumpkin scones this season... oops.

I've had to do a lot of revamping lately. I don't just mean my author website but also juggling school, work, writing, YouTube, etc. I moved into a new house this past August as well as quitting my old job. I now live with one of my best friends, Emily, who was gracious enough to open her new home to me with no questions asked. It's funny how you can become friends with someone so quickly and grow that friendship in such a short amount of time.

The move went as smoothly as I could've hoped. However, I'm still searching for a job and also commuting to school an hour there and back twice a week. It's a lot of stress that I've been trying to cope with. I tend to focus on the things I'm so lucky to have which really helps me during times that I feel as though I'm failing. I know it'll work out. It's just the process of getting to that next comfortable step that scares me.

Okay, enough with the doom and gloom. Let's focus on some other updates I want to discuss. My YouTube channel is officially coming back this month! I can't give a definitive date yet, but a video is finally in the works and I'm going to make sure you guys love it! It'll be fall themed (of course) and maybe even a bit spooky.. you'll just have to watch and find out!

Speaking of spooky, the third and final installment of the Alex* series is scheduled to release to my blog on Friday, October 25th. The title is 1971. For those of you who have followed this series, thank you so much for loving it as much as I do. This story will be the prequel you've all been waiting for. It'll provide a look into Grandma Betty's past when she meets the menacing creature for the very first time. There will be characters you've never met before, as well as some old friends that may show up at some point. In short, I can tell you it's not the story you think you know...

*For those of you who haven't read Alex and its sequel Ellie, head over to the short stories page or click on the links provided!

Nobles is still in the editing process of its first draft. It's definitely moving at a faster pace than it has been. Who knew how much work went into building a world from scratch? I'll be posting excerpts from the final draft here and there so keep an eye out for more related blog posts! I'm also simultaneously working on the first draft of book 2 titled The Watcher. In fact, it's going to be my NaNoWriMo project for November! I'm very excited to make some headway with that. For more information on either of these books, feel free to head over to the "Books" page.

For a quick treat, here's a section from 1971 (Alex #3) :

It took a lot of digging to find the ritual that the survivor had mentioned in the article. Julie Richards was her name. She claimed the ritual was the start of something irreversible and evil. The Shadow Man had killed her friends and left her psyche practically destroyed. She was paranoid and guilt-ridden but never elaborated on what exactly happened. I found the ritual through old articles about popular legends that began long before even my grandparents’ time. It originated somewhere in Europe, I think. The story gets a little hazy that far back.

I hope you're as excited for October as I am! Talk to you soon.

~Rach

Dream. Wake Up. Pursue. Inspire.