I told myself that life was long and that surely a stretch of time would open up at some point.

I felt like I didn’t have time to write I was busy. I enjoyed being with books, so I spent my twenties working in bookstores I made comic books, which technically involves writing, although it’s very different than novel writing. It’s not that I didn’t write-I wrote a lot, especially as a teenager, scrawling out fantasy novels longhand in spiral notebooks-but since I was already a writer (in my own mind), there seemed no urgency to finishing or publishing anything. A beloved teacher liked one of my poems and wrote in the corner of the page: Rachel, you’re a real writer! I liked her way of thinking and adopted the title at once. I, on the other hand, decided I was a writer when I was eleven years old. I believe the usual order is to write first, and then, once you’ve written enough, you are a writer. Like everything I do, I came to writing backwards. Jim Thomas, Editor-at-Large, Random House Books for Young Readers I’m immensely proud of the book and of its brilliant-and patient-Writer. That half-breed girl is just the same, but now she’s at court, at the center of trouble that threatens not only the peace between humans and dragons but also her life. Several outlines and many drafts later, the Seraphina that will go on sale on July 10th was born. To her credit, Rachel took that as a challenge.

In a phone call with Rachel before she agreed to sign with Random House, I told her I was in love with the world and with the main character, but that the story itself, largely domestic in nature, didn’t seem big enough to fill this incredibly original world she’d created. At the heart of the story was the girl’s struggle to come to terms with herself and her heritage, for her great secret was that she was a half-breed, a monster in the eyes of her people. The story was about a girl growing up in a household where her father seemed distant, and her stepmother tried hard but didn’t understand. Here was a writer with a capital “W.” The world she had created was rich and detailed and had the most fascinating depiction of dragons, mathematically minded creatures that view love as a disease and humans as mildly intelligent cockroaches. I was immediately struck by the exquisite beauty of Rachel’s prose and the complexity and nuance of her characters. I will always be grateful that he thought to send it to me. It had previously been sold to another publishing house, but when that editor left, Rachel’s agent, fearful that the book would lose its way, bought the manuscript back and shopped it again. Rachel Hartman had already rewritten Seraphina twice before it got to me. Today we have a true inside look at the author and her book, complete with a special introduction from her editor. We’re all eagerly awaiting the July 10th arrival of Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina in bookstores and libraries.

Rachel hartman books