“‘The first rule of dungeons,’ he said with a wry grin, ‘don’t pin all your hopes on a gullible door.’” –The Spirit Thief page 4
Aaron has three series, the Heartstrikers series (fantasy), The Paradox Trilogy (sci-fi) and The Legends of Eli Monpress (fantasy). She is also the author of the nonfiction book “2000 to 1000: How to write faster, write better, and write more of what you love”. She runs a very successful blog and she is active on her Twitter and Facebook pages.
Her newest series, the Heartstrikers series, is still in progress. The first book, Nice Dragons Finish Last, was released for Kindle only in the summer of 2014. Much like Aaron’s previous work, it stars an unlikely hero, in this case, a meek dragon named Julius and it contains hilarious, but not over-the-top writing.
This series is self-published and she had this to say on her blog as to the reason she decided to make that choice, “but the main reason I decided to self publish was a purely Rachel problem. See, I write fast. Like, really fast. And the cold hard truth is that New York simply cannot buy my books as quickly as I can write them.” (Blog post)
Her second series, The Paradox Trilogy, is released under the pseudonym Rachel Bach (which is her husband’s name) she does this because it’s a little less family-friendly than her other two series. This sci-fi space opera stars Devi Morris, a mercenary with a big plan. And though it is a bit different than her other two series, as it is sci-fi and a bit more adult-oriented it doesn’t lose the wit and humor that her other books have, which is the real charm of her writing.
The series that started it all was the Legends of Eli Monpress. This series is about the greatest thief in the world and his two friends, a swordsman and a demon. It sounds like it would be too much, or overwrought, but she handles these characters and this world that she’s built with a finely skilled hand. It never seems like it’s too much, even when she convinces us that there are no stars in the sky of this world.
Everything is believable. And she does this by a beautiful mix of humor and action with a dramatic element that is seen most in the last two books. Everything starts to come together in the fourth book of the five book series, and it’s there that you realize that the clues have been there all along, and you want to go back and reread everything to see if you can pick up on all of the things you’ve missed. And that is all thanks to Aaron’s masterful writing ability.
As stated before, she writes very fast. She has unlocked the secret to writing ten thousand words a day, and then she wrote a book about it. Much like the Heatstrikers series, this book is only available for Kindle download, but she also made a blog post about it for those that don’t have access to the book. According to the Amazon.com description, this book has helped thousands of writers up their word count.
Her blog, Pretentious Title, is full of many writing tips, most of them are located on the sidebar titled “Rachel’s Greatest Hits”. They include a way to make world maps using a lesser-known Google Maps feature, and a post about how she’s able to plot a novel in 5 steps. Her blog also features many giveaways of signed editions of her books.
The best thing about Rachel Aaron, however, is not her writing, or her helpful blog posts. The part that makes her worthy of someone’s favorite author is how connected she is to her readers. Comment on her blog post, tweet at her, send her a review that you’ve written, and she will respond. Ask her a question about her main character’s sexuality, and she will answer. She She’s not obligated to respond, but that fact that she does makes her books all the more enjoyable.
Her books won’t be right for you if you aren’t a fan of fantasy and sci-fi, but if you are they’re worth checking out. They’re unique, well-written and genuinely funny. Rachel Aaron is an author to look out for.
