FAQ
How do you come up with your essay and poetry ideas?
Life gives me plenty of inspiration. Whether it’s a good day or a bad day, a day spent alone or a day spent with my kids, I find plenty to write about simply in the daily living of a life.
Why does it take you so long to publish a book?
Publishing is a very involved process. There is not only the writing side, which consists of writing, revising (which can sometimes, itself, be an endless part of the process), sensitivity reader notes, more revising, editing, and copy editing, but there is also the actual publishing side of things—getting proofs, finding interior layout mistakes, correcting those mistakes, getting another proof. On and on it goes.
Then there’s the design side: is the cover perfect? Do all the parts match up? What if they don’t? Well, then it’s back to the design drawing board.
The launch requires just as much energy: building a team of early readers, begging them for launch day reviews, mailing out paperback copies for those who leave a review, good or bad (If you’d like to be a part of that team, visit https://www.racheltoalson.com/
The process is strenuous, from start to finish, and time is finite.
Plus, I have a lot of kids.
Wait. How many kids do you have?
Six.
They’re all from the same dad?
Yes. He’s very good-looking.
And none of them are girls?
No. I get a corner of pink and purple, lace and silk, in my house, and the rest is reserved for stinky socks, fart clouds, and un-flushed toilets.