Author: Rachel

Welcome to the web home of Rachel Heston Davis--young adult lit writer, newspaper stringer, and associate editor at Written World Communications. Please, make yourself at home. :) You can find loads of information here. For a peek into the secret life of an obsessive writer, read my blog. To see those writing projects on which I'm obsessing, visit the Writing page. If you're a fellow storyteller or story reader, I recommend Resources and Links to point you in the right direction. And as always, check my news feed for updates on projects and publishing!

And the winner is….

ByRachel September 16, 2009 1 Comment

The winner of the Happy Endings Writing Contest is: Fishy, for her beat-the-odds, did-lots-of-things-someone-in-my-economic-and-life-bracket-shouldn’t-be-able-to-do happy ending. Congratulations Fishy! You can expect to see your new YA book soon. RHDavis

Dead Characters

ByRachel September 15, 2009 3 Comments

I'm reading a YA fantasy series (I won't say which one to avoid spoilers) and one of the two main characters died suddenly in the middle of the second book (it's a four-book series). It's a rather disorienting sensation. In the realm of fantasy and adventure, most main characters make it to the end, or at least until the final battle. I can't tell if it's upsetting or refreshing to have someone...

Happy Endings Writing Contest

ByRachel September 8, 2009 6 Comments

I recently got in a discussion at Science Fiction and Fantasy Novelists about happy endings--are they cheesy? Unrealistic? Do you like them or find them trite? I won't delve into that argument here. Maybe I'll save it for a later post. But it did give me an idea for Up and Writing's very first ever contest.Ooooh. I want to hear your very best real-life happy ending. When did you fight the...

Melting Stones Part II

ByRachel September 4, 2009 2 Comments

Welcome to the second official meeting of the Up and Writing Book Club. As per my earlier announcements, we're discussing part one and part two of MELTING STONES by Tamora Pierce today. Thus, today's list of discussion topics is shorter than usual to accommodate the inclusion of last week's topics. I see two main points of interest in chapters seven through eleven. The first being Pierce's...

Which Literary Character Are You?

ByRachel September 3, 2009 4 Comments

There's an interesting conversation over at blog Fantasy Debut about bonding with characters in the novels you read. Most people who read find at least one or two characters in literature who feel real to them--characters you'd want to meet and hang out with. Characters you admire. It got me thinking about a related topic; which literary characters have I felt were the most like me? Which ones...