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Hi, I’m Rebecca! Writing here as Rachel H. Drake. I love writing paranormal romance novels with unexpected world building and hidden connections between books.

Little bits of my life often show up in my characters. For example, in A Blazing Heart, the format of Asher’s house was based on where I lived with my boyfriend and his family. Certain aspects of Emily in A Lovely Haunt and Astoria in A Divine Loyalty are my own personality traits. Probably the most interesting behind the scenes is in A Beloved Bite, where that helpless feeling between the characters was inspired by the year my husband was in cancer treatments, sharing a caregiver perspective. (👀 If you are reading my about page, you have details on books not released yet. Congratulations, you found an Easter egg.)

Life has thrown me some interesting curveballs, and I’m grateful for all that those hard times have taught me.

Now I’m in my mid-thirties, married to my high school sweetheart, and have an elementary-aged creative boy that loves video games just as much as his dad.

I write in multiple genres, because I am a very passionate ADHD woman with many interests. You can read self-help and manifestation works, as well as my personal blog, under Rebecca K. Sampson and my plot twist fantasy novels as R. K. Sampson.

The first story I remember writing was about a “white knight” coming to save me on a Pegasus… I was in first grade. Yet, I didn’t write fiction regularly until after I graduated college and heard about the month-long book writing challenge. Before then, I mainly wrote poetry and did mixed media collages. There is a trunk in my room full of journals and art I’ve created over the years. I have always been an artist, just in different mediums until I found novels.

Technically, my first published work was a haiku about gardens being a symbol for love in fourth grade in the Anthology of Young Poets collection. After that, I had poems posted about my an ex-crush in my school’s magazine (pretty bold of me to do, I’ve got to say) and on Livejournal and Fictionpress. Some of it probably still exists, though who knows what embarrassing username I used at 15.

In 2014, I started writing a contemporary novel about a young teen with anxiety that had another life as an apocalypse survivor (with zombies) that she visited in her dreams. It was the same month as my wedding, so I took that book with me on my honeymoon, writing on my phone as my husband and I waited in lines at Disney World.

I never published that story, or the second novel I attempted (a YA novel-told-in-verse pitched as Mean Girls meets Easy A), instead pivoting to fantasy novels. Maybe one day I’ll visit it again, you never know what life can throw your way.

My journey into the paranormal wasn’t until a few years into my fantasy publishing journey. You know how tragedy can be a motivator?

I was in a car accident in 2022 that smashed my dominant hand, leaving me in physical therapy for a year as I regained my strength. One night, possibly induced by painkillers, I had a dream about a ghost and his best friend. That book became the first book in the Creature Cravings series, now reworked as a Lily Hills Creatures. That story gave me the courage to write through the pain, as even typing at that point was hard for me to do.

Now years later, I’m grateful for that accident, and the wide world that writing paranormal books has opened up for me.

As an independent author, I write and publish my books on my own instead of with a large publisher. With the help of a few trusted contractors, I bring my creative visions to life with my own publishing company Aria James Publishing.

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Credits:

• Character art by @inkbykloe
• Profile picture of me by @sennydoesarty
• Author branding by Insta-Love Graphic Design