Author Spotlight – Rachel Poli – Writer's Treasure Chest

Welcome!

Please introduce yourself.

During the day, I’m a teacher’s aide in a special education preschool classroom. I babysit for multiple families throughout each week and I’m also the director of my church’s Sunday school program. In the early hours of the morning and at night, I’m a writer working on my mystery novel or various short stories. I’m also busy juggling two blogs and planning more.

When I’m not working or writing, I’m usually found reading a book, playing video games, drinking coffee, or soaking up the sun.

When did you start writing?

I was ten-years-old when I began writing. My older sister discovered a website called FanFiction and created a story based off of one of our favorite video games. I thought it was cool and wanted to be a part of it as well. I created a fan fiction story based off of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I wrote fan fiction for a few years before I began to get my own original ideas. Writing has stuck with me ever since.

What motivates you to write?

What motivates me to keep writing is the hope that I will someday be an inspiration to someone else. I find inspiration all around me no matter who I’m with, where I am, or what I’m doing. Reading books especially can take you somewhere you never dreamed possible. With so much hate going on in the world today, I can only hope my writing will have a lasting effect for someone. Something witty or something humorous, but something they’ll never forget and take to heart.

What genre do you write in and what made you chose this particular genre?

I write in many genres mostly because I like to explore them and see what I can come up with. But I love mystery and the main novel I’ve been working on since 2013 is a mystery. I have a whole series mapped out for those characters and I’ve enjoyed every minute of working with them. I hope that will be my debut novel in the near future. I also write the occasional children’s book here and there.

What is your goal in writing? Do you have dreams where your writing should take you?

I hope to have a few novels published. I have so many stories I want to share with the world and I can’t imagine doing anything else but writing. I’ve also given some thought to pursuing an editor career or maybe teaching creative writing at a college level. Who knows where writing may lead me?

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if yes, how do you deal with it?

I’m working on too many projects to suffer from writer’s block. I alternate projects monthly to make sure I don’t get writer’s block. But there are certainly some days when I don’t feel motivated to write. When that happens, I read a book, write in my journal, or start a brand new writing prompt just to get my brain pumped with exciting new thoughts. Or I take a day off. There’s nothing wrong with taking a day off here and there.

What advice would you like to give new, hopeful authors?

Keep doing you. If you have a passion for writing and you have dreams of writing, then do it. Don’t let anything or anyone stop you or put any doubt in your mind. I’ve had my fair share of doubts throughout the years since I started, but you just have to push those thoughts and keep doing you. Also, remember that this doesn’t happen overnight. Hard work, patience, and determination really pay off. It’s hard not to get discouraged at times, but remember that rejection is your friend. Every mistake is a lesson learned. Every next attempt will be better than the last. It’s a learning curve and most of us are still learning.

Please, tell us about your work.

I’m currently working on the first book of my mystery series with a working title of George Florence. The premise is as follows:

Can a fired detective and college student work together to solve a murder?

Lilah Williams, an English major at the local community college, tracks down Detective George Florence when she needs help with a robbery case. George’s private-eye agency is going under and is willing to take just about any case he can get his hands on. Since Lilah is giving him a case, she asks for something in return: information on her father, the late Detective Joseph Williams. George reluctantly agrees since Joseph was his mentor back in the day, but only on the condition that Lilah goes home after one day.

But when Lilah sticks around longer than intended and a body emerges during the robbery investigation, Lilah feels as though she has to help George as they uncover the truth—about the current murder and her father’s death.

I’m still in the editing stages of this novel, but I hope to begin the query process by the end of the year.

Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!

Thank you for having me! It was an honor and a pleasure being here.

Contact Rachel:

RachelPoli.com (writing blog)

DoublexJump.wordpress.com (video game blog)

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7295610-rachel

https://twitter.com/rpoli3

https://www.pinterest.com/rpoli3/

http://rpoli3.tumblr.com/