Born on May 19, 1985, Rachel Van Dyken received numerous writing awards including #1 New York Times Bestseller, #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller and USA Today Bestseller for her Regency and New Adult Romance novels. This is through the help of her sales representative from Trident Media Group, Erica Spellman. As a writer, she also loved reading books by other amazing authors like Julia Quinn, Meg Cabot, CS Lewis, Stephanie Meyer, Ted Dekker and a lot more.
She grew in a small town in Washington State where you can commonly see cows and tractors cross the streets. She went to a small private school and finished Bachelors in Social Sciences and Masters in Business in a private college known as California Coast University. She currently lives with her husband Nathan Van Dyke, a kid, and 2 dogs. As an individual, she loves Swedish fish and the idea of camping outside Starbucks. Oftentimes, she gets too excited over small things and loves the idea of sleeping in and waking up to a strong cup of coffee. She loves Starbucks, reading, writing, wine tasting and everything with her husband.
She started writing in 2010 when she was still a school counselor. Her work consists of seeing approximately 500 to 800 kids a year with various serious issues she emotionally and mentally brought with her at home. It was a stressful and emotionally draining time for her. Writing became her way of coping up with the stress. Then it became her passion, writing during every break of her work. Her stress releasing method finally became her addiction. However, this wasn’t the first time she knew about her passion for writing. When she was a kid, she used to loved making short stories and daydreaming about them.
As a self-publishing author, she was faced with a few problems and challenges including finding a great editor and talented cover artist. As a writer, she also face challenges including a short attention span and writing what interests her. Added to that, Facebook is also one of her biggest distraction. Every time she write, her mind wanders as well thing about her kid, household chores and etc. As a writer, she writes one draft and then forward it on to edits. She gets help from professional editors and a team from her traditional publishing contract.
During a 2013 interview, she admitted that the book Ruin was her most favorite piece to write since it was an emotional journey for her. On the other hand, The Gamble was her most difficult novel to write because of its restricted deadline.
“You may not see every single piece of the puzzle that creates your life — you may not see every move the grand chess player makes — but know, He is in complete control of the game board. Sometimes certain pieces are moved or knocked over to make room for new ones. Other times, things happen because of the world we live in. But everything in the end, will always turn out for good. It’s a nice promise, isn’t it? To know there’s a reason for it all?”
-Rachel Van Dyken, Ruin
According to her, word of mouth is the most effect marketing tool for getting her work to her audience. For every interview, she always make sure to advertise her current novels and make them known to the listeners, readers and viewers.
She is the talented writer behind The Bet and The Wager of one of her series, The Bet. Both books can be brought in formats of Paper, Audible (Unabridged), Mass Market Paperback and Audio CD in various websites and bookstores.
The novel entitled The Bet is the first book of the contemporary series with the same name. The book was released June of the year 2013. The book was able to make on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 7 weeks.
Kacey lived and grew with the Titus brothers. She seeks the first brother after protecting her in school while she hates the other who kept on teasing her. As the three grew up, devastating reasons separated them, especially Kacey’s relationship Jake. After few years, he became a playboy millionaire. However, the only way to get what he wants, which is to board the company is to please his family by begging Kacey back. This is how The Bet begins. On the website Goodreads.com, The Bet received more than 25, 000 ratings and over 2, 000 reviews.
“It’s important to keep your options open. It’s important to live and not get so hung up on the past. The past is called the past for a reason. If you are constantly looking behind you, your eyes aren’t on the road ahead. You don’t drive a car that way, so why would you live your life that way? Isn’t life more important than driving that beat up Subaru?”
-Rachel Van Dyken, The Bet
The Wager is the second book of The Bet Series. It was reviewed by editors to be a funny novel. The 373 paged story of the novel was published on October 1, 2013. On this novel, she used a multi-narrator format which a lot of readers anticipated. This led them to easily connect the 4 protagonists and follow their different storylines until the end. Same with the first book, the chemistry between Jake and Char, who are the main characters of the novel, erupts into a passion including heated arguments and steamy kissing scenes. Each character in the story is uniquely entertaining including Granma Nadine.
“I want to ruin you for anyone else’s kisses. I want to brand you as mine. I want to hear you say my name, not because you’re irritated, but because you’re so damn turned on you can’t think straight. I want to do that to you. I want to make you mine.”
-Rachel Van Dyken, The Wager
Rachel Van Dyken continues to write contemporary and romantic novels. She is a hardworking, talented and versatile self-publishing author. Even after being rejected a few times by publishers and agents, she was able to share her passion for writing and even hit number one spots and receive awards.
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