RACHEL ROCKS!!! And no one deserves this more! What a ride, girl, and I'm glad I've shared the last couple of years with you.
Soooo…my favorite Rachel Van Dyken book. It's hard to choose—okay maybe not that hard to choose (book: The Redemption of Lord Rawlings—cover: Wolf's Pursuit). But I decided that while I might have a favorite, as all of you do, I wanted to share a special story with all of you about a girl who subbed a book. And that book was The Ugly Duckling Debutante.
In the spring of 2011, I received a book to read for acquisitions. Roughly ten pages or so in, I knew Astraea Press had to have the book. I couldn't get my fingers to type fast enough as I emailed Stephanie Taylor and told her to send the contract. I was so insistent that Stephanie laughed at me! I remembe
r staring at the screen refreshing the page, waiting for an email back from Stephanie saying, "Okay, I sent her the contract." Nothing. Can you say panic?
Soo…I go back to reading the story. Finish it. Make a list of things that need attention in editing. Rachel…I found that email. I hope you don't mind, but I want to share a snippet of it with everyone. But if you'd like the whole email, let me know and it's yours! I'm thinking I'll print it out and have you sign it! TRUE STORY! (My Rachel imitation, hehe.) Here it is:
Really liked this story. I would like to see her get a contract. I don't think a lot needs fixed content wise, just fix the punctuation/grammar.
Steph was laughing at me and emailed back basically that she'd sent you the contract so quit bugging her already.
Then, The Ugly Duckling Debutante is released and slowly it starts to explode on the scene. At one point early on, Stephanie ask on Facebook if she could tell everyone the number of books you'd sold on Amazon and you said of course. She posted you were getting dangerously close to selling 400 copies. My thought was, "That's all?" I tell my husband how you've only sold 400 copies and, rightfully so, he didn't understand why I wasn't impressed by that. My answer to him was, "Because that's a drop in the bucket to what this girl's gonna do."
Kay Springsteen has asked me several times how I knew you'd be so popular. And I've told you, Rachel, that I don't know. Well, my answer is slightly different since I met you at The Romantic Times Convention in 2012. Now my answer is, "It's Rachel." Anyone who's been lucky enough to meet Rachel is nodding in agreement right now thinking, "YEP!" and for anyone who hasn't met Rachel yet, well, you need to meet her. And when you do, you'll understand why my answer now is, "It's Rachel." Rachel, you're amazing. I'm so proud of you. Laura Heritage and I might tease you endlessly about being the reason you've gone as far as you have, but you know that's just us showing you love. You did this girl. I was just smart enough to see it in you and, well, now that I've met you 
and gotten to know you, no one deserves it more. And like I told you a few weeks ago. I don't care how many books you sell, how much money you make. You will always be Rachel to me. My friend, my fellow author, truly one of the most amazing people I've ever met. And I've met MaryJanice Davidson, Jude Deveraux, and Julie Garwood!!!
And…thanks to Rachel and an email between
me and my cyber best friend the all-around awesome person and writer Kay Springsteen, Kay and I now have an amazing Regency series that we love. So in celebration of Rachel's contract and the recent release of our Regency Romance Something Like A Lady, I'll be offering two commenters an eBook copy of Something Like A Lady from either Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or another third-party site. And be sure to shout out on twitter with the hashtag #RachelRocks. Lets help this girl go viral in a big way!
Congrats, Rachel! We all love you and are sooooo very happy for you!
Don’t forget to continue the fun by visiting all the blogs on the hop, including Rachel’s blog where you might get some more news! Click HERE to return to the list of participating blogs. Blog hop will run through May 19th and winners will be announced May 20th.
Kim
