Hang in There

Flowers help, too.

Within the context of the worlds we write in, writers are gods. We control the who, what, when, where, why, and how of all that occurs within our pages. Like the wonderful people who read those stories, we writers can find a little escape and live vicariously through the characters.

While I love living through my crazy cast of characters, the thing I seek the most isn’t what you might expect.

I have a pretty good life. Nine-and-a-half years in, I’m still ridiculously in love with my husband. My kids are intelligent, thoughtful adults who are a joy to be around, but also seek out my company, too. I have the career I wanted when I was a kid, and it’s as wonderful as I expected it to be.

So, why do I need the escape of Zoey’s world? Is it the monsters? Not really. Weird as they are, they’re just regular folks. The thing I crave most is knowing that, eventually, everything has to sort itself out for everybody. No matter what terrible thing happens in my books, things will eventually be okay. They have to.

When my real-life friends are in trouble, I can’t guarantee them anything. Lost jobs, divorce, sickness, unhappy careers, unexpected pregnancies after a break-up—I can’t offer anything but platitudes. I am helpless to change anything. As an author, I can look at my outline, nod, and say “Hang in there. It all works out by chapter twenty-seven.”

But reality isn’t that far off from the fiction I write. Time moves forward. Every event, no matter how difficult, will eventually move forward, too. Circumstances will change, and then we’ll look back and realize it’s all behind us. We moved through it and past it, whether we did anything or not, because time kept going and the story went along with it.

So, real life isn’t so different from fiction after all. We can’t fix everything, but we can hold each other's hands while we turn the pages to get to the next chapter.

Sometimes today sucks. But honest, everything works out by chapter twenty-seven.

Because it has to.

Rachel writes stories that drop average people into magical situations filled with heart and quirky humor.

She believes in pixie dust, the power of love, good cheese, lucky socks and putting things off until the last minute. Her home is Disneyland, despite her current location in Kansas. Rachel has one husband, two grown kids and a crazy-catlady starter kit.

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