RW Hague interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

Hello and thank you for this opportunity to discuss and introduce my latest novel, Surviving Midas! This Young Adult Thriller is my debut novel due to release on December 1, 2022, by Walnut Street Publishing! 

I am Rachel W. Hague, a registered nurse with multiple years of experience in the medical field. Currently, I teach nursing students at a local university and live on a mini-farm with my husband, toddler son, clever dog, loveable cat, and a growing number of chickens and ducks. 

When did your love of books begin?

I have always loved books, but the first story I wrote was at nine. It was called The Mixed-Up Kid. I think my mom might still have it somewhere…

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

At twelve, I started writing all the time, especially fanfiction for Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, which isn’t a book but a story written by someone! I remember getting pissed when the moderator deleted one of my chapters because it ended with the main character holding a knife to someone’s throat. It was a cliffhanger! Nobody was about to die! But I had to go back and change the ending–which killed the effect! I was so mad about that! Fun times. 

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

I’m not quite sure I understand this question. Do you mean, what is my writing process? Or how did I become an author? 

As for my writing process, I really just think up an interesting character or situation and expound on it from there. My latest release, Surviving Midas came from a thought experiment: what would it be like for kidnapped children to be found ten years after they went missing? What would they experience during their captivity? And under what circumstances would they have been kept alive?

As for the process of becoming a published author--well that’s been one heck of a journey. There are many pitfalls that an author can fall into, and I fell into every one! From vanity publishing to query trenches to bankrupt publishers, it’s been quite the ride. But nothing worth having is easy! 

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

Find a community of writers. And never try to publish something that has not been read by a critical eye. 

Sharing your writing with someone else is daunting. What if they hate it? Tear it to shreds? 

But here’s a scarier situation: what if I spend tons of money publishing a book and no one buys it? 

Tell us about your book/books:

Surviving Midas is part one of a three-part young adult thriller series following the kidnapping of Katie Thompson. Here’s the summary: 

The day after her fifteenth birthday, Katie Thompson, our naïve yet compassionate heroine, opens a birthday card armed with a golden glitter bomb. At first, the prank seems harmless until she sees the card has been signed by Midas, the man her FBI father has been investigating for nearly a decade. The FBI dismisses the card as a taunt, one of many from Midas in the past, but the next day Katie is kidnapped by the infamous criminal. With Katie as his hostage, Midas now controls the FBI investigation that would see him destroyed.

Katie is held captive on the farm in the middle of nowhere with fifty other kids, all victims of Midas’s kidnapping ring. Here they are forced to work as slaves under hellish conditions. Food is always scarce, exposure to the elements is guaranteed, and sickness kills the weak. Escape is a death sentence, but mere survival might mean losing everything else.   

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

I am honestly more familiar with the writing community. I love all the quirks we seem to have. Finally, I have found a community that shares most of my neuroses! 

For readers, I love the passion that they hold for these fictional characters. It’s fun to share the joy of people residing in your head with others! 

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Thank you for taking the time to read my work! We live in a busy world, and you could have walked right on by this story, but you decided to take it with you! I hope you find all the adventure and joy in reading these pages as I did writing them. 

Where can people connect with you?

I’m on several social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and Minds. For a comprehensive list, check out my website at www.rwhague.com. Can’t wait to see you there!