Rachel Ellyn's Blog

Yup. Me too!It's how my writing career began. Want to learn an easy method? Here's a quick video...

I'm putting this out there, my big goal, and I'm asking you to come along for the ride. Hold me accountable, cheer me on, cross your fingers, this is going to be fun - challenging, but fun!And I'm a firm believer in vocalizing your dreams to the universe. So Universe, I have a crazy big dream.Do you have one too? Let me know so I can be your cheerleader too!

The wonderful Ella Lynch is bringing Pixies Shoes to life as an audiobook. Here's a little taste of her talent.

My flight left Minneapolis at 10:00 pm. I arrived in Reykjavik at 10:00 am local, 5 am CST. I was thrilled. I was excited, and with only two and a half hours of sleep on the plane, I was tired. Now to tackle driving from the airport to my Airbnb in downtown Reykjavik. I wanted coffee, yet I was high on that initial travel inertia.Forty minutes of driving and I was in downtown Reykjavik, which I found to be full of one-way streets and foreign, but mostly interpretable road signs. I wanted a co...

It seems every decade has its challenges! Enjoy!

I love to read. I have gone without sleep telling myself, "just one more page.” Trust me, I do not look pretty with dark circles under my eyes! Because of my love of reading, I have missed planes while sitting at the departure gate, and one time I missed a landing.I had traveled to Austin, Texas to assist a client, and was on my return flight home. Hunkered into my First Class aisle seat, a perk of the frequent business traveler, I grabbed my book, a Jonathan Kellerman novel I believe, that I...

Betty, your office coworker, and in her words an avid reader, has just found out your manuscript is done. She begs you to let her read it. She loves (insert your genre here) and has just finished reading (insert big name author's book title in your genre - if fantasy insert Game of Thrones). Bells go off in your head. You've been hoping to find a beta reader. This happenstance is pure luck! Or is it?A quick aside... we're talking about a beta reader, not an ARC (Advance Release Copy). Beta re...

One of the beauties of today's digital publishing is the fact you can correct any punctuation or spelling mistakes you find after you've launched your post, blog entry, short story, or novel. Yea!But remember the age old saying, you only have one chance to make a good impression? Yea, naughty, naughty. You shouldn't have had any mistakes in the document you are publishing. This is why using a good editor and have peers review your work is so important.The attitude of "I don't need no stinking...

[image error]You and I are sitting at a table at Starbucks, sipping our Cappuccinos—mine's a decaf, yours is full-leaded with one sugar, I'm setting the mood—when our mutual girlfriend bursts through the door, slides crying into a vacant chair at our table. "He" just broke up with her, with the classic line, "It's not you. It's me." You and I turn to each other, roll our eyes in disgust, and tell her he's lying. Totally lying!We hug her and tell her how sorry we are she's hurting—like good girlfriends do—...

My Dearest Son,I received your secret coded message of love and my heart bursts with joy.Thank you for invigorating my hope that these angsty teen years are drawing to a close. You were so clever to use the hanging of the toilet paper roll backwards as your signal. I saw it immediately and recognized it for what it was… your signal to me that you had changed the roll without me asking… and that you love me.Thank you, my beautiful man child.  Mama loves you, too!P.S. I now wait with baited bre...