Rachel Van Dyken, author and book critic, has a new release out, THE WAGER. It’s the follow up to THE BET, which was a huge hit on the Amazon charts. Rachel’s output is truly prolific and she writes in the Regency historical genre and the New Adult genre. She’s been hugely busy with writing and promoting her work lately, as well as dealing with pressing family matters, but I really wanted to take the opportunity to help get the word out about this book, which is as exciting as the first part of this series. I interviewed Rachel a couple of months ago and I’m taking the opportunity to reprint a portion of that interview, which you can see below.
RACHEL VAN DYKEN ON THE WEB:
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What made you decide to write?
I was a school counselor right out of college and also worked for the state as a therapist. Things were stressful to say the least. As a way to de-stress I started writing–and I haven’t stopped since! I always have a story of some kind rolling around in my head. It doesn’t feel like work for me. If anything, I’m angry that I actually need to sleep!
What are your preferred genres for writing and reading?
I really enjoy writing regency romance. Lately I’ve been writing a lot more New Adult which is a newer genre that just popped up within the last year or so. Historical romance is an escape for me and New Adult is just fun. I don’t know if I could choose between the two.
Could you possibly enlighten me as to what the New Adult genre is?
New Adult books deal with more mature themes, they are books based on characters that are just out of high school and starting college. It’s a more coming-of-age genre. Good examples of authors in this genre are: Jamie Mcguire (Beautiful Disaster), Abbi Glines (Twisted Perfection), Monica Murphy (Second Chance Boyfriend) etc. Most of these books come with warnings so 12 year olds know not to pick them up. They aren’t by any means bad, so I don’t want you to get that impression, they just deal, like I said with more mature life altering topics. Hope that helps!
Do you write according to a daily target or do you go with the muse, when inspiration hits?
I do both. I like to have a goal of at least 4000 words a day, some days I’ll write 10,000 words, and some days I can only get half of my goal. But I always write something. If I’m stuck I open a different manuscript and write some of that then come back to the one that’s on deadline.
THE WAGER
What is it about a junior-high crush that can send an otherwise intelligent woman into a tailspin? TV reporter Char Lynn wishes she knew. Jake Titus is too rich, too handsome, too arrogant: a trifecta that once lured Char into the best night-and worst morning-after-of her life. Now they’ve been thrown together in a wedding party. It’s awkward, but survivable . . . until Jake stops acting like a jerk, and starts acting like the man she’d always hoped he could be.
If watching your brother marry your best friend is weird, being attracted to your best friend’s other best friend is downright bizarre. Unfortunately for Jake, Char hasn’t forgotten how he once tossed her aside. Worse still, Jake’s already-nutty grandma is even crazier about Char. Cue meet-cute shenanigans and all manner of meddling, and somehow, Jake’s falling. For Char. Now all he has to do is make her believe it . . .
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