Rachel Dacus's Blog

Free eBooks About Love and Time Warm your heart and dive into history at the same time. This month, a group of authors offer you a smorgasbord of Free romantic and historical fiction. Learn about different eras and places in history. Warm your heart with stories of love and connection. You can download as many books as you like and stack up your springtime reading. All you have to do is join the author’s newsletter…

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I’ve been making animated recordings of my poems — poem movies, if you will. I love listening to poetry, especially when read by the author. Adding visuals is fully engaging for me, so I’m using the program Canva to layer the text over moving backgrounds for a full poetry experience. Here’s my latest on Youtube — “I Get Over Myself”, a poem from my book The Artist’s House. I have several of these animated readings on…

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My new poetry collection. The Artist’s House is a cultural autobiography, honoring the literature, art, and artists that have shaped my writing, with illustrations and interactive features. It will include Art Nouveau style drawings and links to music, dance, and poetry online. Listen to a song by Jacob Collier while reading a poem about Emily Dickinson’s lines dueling with Taylor Swift’s. Watch a performance of Twyla Tharp’s “In The Upper Rooms” ballet after reading the…

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New Review! Very happy to have my new poetry collection reviewed by author Elizabeth Havey on her recent blog. Read the review here. She writes “Rachel Dacus is an amazing poet, choosing her words to explore ideas…every poem a gift that touches, informs and shines” I’m honored to have the book so enthusiastically reviewed. One of the dimensions of the book I’m most pleased by is the art work I included, drawings, photos, and paintings.…

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My first published novel, The Renaissance Club, was released in December 2018. It was the culmination of a complicated journey to publication as my first novel. At the time, I had no idea it would become the first book in a series. It was the end of a long, tortured odyssey from first draft to printed novel selling to the public.Hurrah for me! I’ve never told the full story of how this book was published,…

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In the recent years of uncertainty and upheaval, I’ve spent a lot of time in the artist’s house, reading and writing, and tending to my wellbeing by savoring art of all kinds. I’m very happy to let you know my new poetry collection, THE ARTIST’S HOUSE, is now available on Amazon! Paperback and ebook. Thanks to all the poets and artists who continue to inspire me and create our arts community,

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My new poetry is coming! The Artist’s House will release on October 16, 2025.I’ve never been more proud of a book, and really excited to share it with you. A fresh concept in an illustrated package, it will be available in ebook and print. It’s been a long time — seven years — since I published a poetry collection. I was interrupted by the pandemic, a busy work schedule, and other projects. Receiving a poem…

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Two hundred fifty years ago, one of my favorite authors was born. Jane Austen fans are celebrating her birthday with style and fanfare. The iconic romance author is being given parties and new films. Miss Austen, a new Masterpiece Theatre series premiered on May 5.  The delightful French-English rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Life revives the great tradition of storytelling with Austen-like wit, satire, and happy ending. Mix-ups and mishaps, costumes and contemporary. Here’s a…

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Calling all creatives: Writers, artists, musicians, people who create and have lively imaginations–do you want to take charge of your books and your work? I do. I want to own my creative life from beginning to end. I came to it through experiences I’ll describe below.I became an indie because publishers have their own ideas of what will sell, and collaborating with them can be rocky, but emerging models of self-publishing offer a wealth of…

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I’m a veteran of publishing poetry books with small presses, but now as a successful self-published novelist, I’m considering how to succeed with self-publishing a poetry book. While it’s true that far fewer readers engage with poetry than with fiction, I know the poetry readers are out there. And I know how to publish a book using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, a good cover designer, and promoting books with ads. What I don’t know is…

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