Indie Support Sunday: Rachel Fallon

May 11
12 min read

Like a lot of romantasy readers, Rachel Fallon was introduced to A Court of Thorn and Roses and her life has never been the same! Not only is she a fan of the series, she considers it her gateway to penning her own books. Even though she was told that she won’t be able to make authoring a career after brain damage that prevented her from writing for ten years, Rachel took what she wanted and created a whole world for readers to get lost in.

The Star Queen Chronicles is a trilogy with two books out now and the third coming soon. And that’s not all, she’s even planning a spin-off that intertwines arranged marriage with an assassin as a love interest. Anyone else getting excited for these books?

Rachel’s list of recommendations are perfect for anyone looking to dive into romantasy books and series, there’s enough to keep you entertained for the rest of the year. Also make sure you pay special attention to her advice for fellow authors, some you may have heard before, but it’s worth reading again!

Of Darkness and Ruination and Of Light and Freedom are out now and available in Kindle Unlimited.

BEING AN AUTHOR

Who or what inspired you to write?

I’ve loved writing for as long as I can remember really. My mom had always been incredibly encouraging about my ability to write, and I had a fourth grade teacher who told me that I had something special and it would be a waste if I didn’t find a career in writing. That has always stuck with me.

But so many convinced me there was no way to make a career that way, that it took me some time to come back to it. Partly because I had brain damage that damaged my ability to write creatively for about 10 years. But when I realized the ability had come back, that words would flow creatively once more, it was right around when I found romantasy! It was like kismet. ACOTAR was my gateway drug, and I had always loved both fantasy and romance, so getting to combine them in this way was really just perfect for me.

I’ve always had a wild imagination where stories play like movies in my mind, and I had so many ideas and wanted to get some out of my head and onto the page. With my ability to write creatively back, I realized I had to make my fourth grade teacher proud and do something about it!

What’s the best and worst part about being an indie author?

The best is getting to control everything and get the work out there without having to spend years querying, trying to find an agent, and then pitching to publishers. I can just put the work out now and I get to pick my cover, my interior, my marketing. I love being able to curate my own brand and my book’s “look” and run with it!

The worst is definitely the cost for me. Having to pay for everything myself is a strain, and I used my savings to handle most of it for this first book, but going forward, I’m going to have to be more careful and won’t have as much to put upfront. You always have to risk contracts with editors and others who may not be what you think you’re signing up for. So there’s some risk there for those of us not adept at that kind of thing. Not to mention, you don’t have the marketing power of a publisher behind you. It’s up to you! You don’t have hundreds of books provided to you to sign for all the requests for signed copies either. You either have to pay for them upfront, or do bookplates. But it really all ties back into that cost element.

Why did you choose to self-publish instead of going the traditional route?

I wanted to do it before I chickened out, quite frankly! I was so nervous about putting my work out there, and I knew if I spent years trying to sell my manuscript, I would back out. I also liked the ability to make choices myself for my cover and things of that nature, that you don’t get with regular publishing. It’s challenging to go indie in many ways, but I do think it’s incredibly rewarding as well! I managed to put together a book I’m proud of, with a gorgeous cover that is everything I’ve ever dreamed of, an equally beautiful interior, and it’s really just something I’m so excited to have out there!

When you’re not writing, what do you do to get the creative juices flowing?

I tend to picture books as movies in my mind, and even with TVs and movies, I imagine alternative plots and different ways things could have happened! So I spend a lot of time thinking and imagining different stories and what ways they could have gone. It’s a fun exercise!

If you were to recommend books to me (in any genre), what would they be?

My favorite series are all romantasy, so I would say I’d recommend this giant list! :) ACOTAR, Blood and Ash, Crowns of Nyaxia, Shadows of Tenebris, Crescent City, Artefacts of Ouranos, Plated Prisoner, House of Bane and Blood, Legends of Thezmarr, Broken Kingdoms/Ever Seas, When the Moon Hatched, Kingdom of Lies, Fall of Ruin and Wrath, The Stars are Dying, Of Flesh and Bone, Gods and Monsters, The Mist King, The Nightfire Quartet, Bound by Blood, Saga of the Unfated, Deliciously Dak Fairytales, The Sacred Stones, A Touch of Gold and Madness, Deals with Demons, The Secrets of Jane, Forgotten Kingdom Chronicles, A Dream so Wicked, Dream by the Shadows, Every Dark Shadow, Hades/Persephone Saga, Stars and Shadows, Frost and Nectar, Blood of a Fae, Secrets of the Faerie Crown, The Foxglove King,

What are your top 5 tips or pieces of advice for aspiring authors?

Don’t give up and don’t let your inner critic stop you. We’re our own worst enemies.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help! I met so many wonderful people who’ve helped me on my journey that way, and made friends with many of them! There’s so much to learn about publishing a book and the many things involved in it, there’s no shame in not knowing everything.
Follow your heart, and your characters. Write for yourself and don’t let outside opinions influence what you write. Your books will find their audience, and not every book is for every person. You want your book to be authentically yours, and to follow the plot and characters as they come to you. Taking discourse from online and changing your story to reflect changing opinion won’t help you.
Do your research. Don’t sign contracts without being sure about something. Don’t just jump on something because you’re excited. Before picking an editor, check and double check they are a good fit for you when it comes to working together, feedback style, timetable wise, etc. I ran into all sorts of issues, so do better than me!
If you can avoid it, don’t look at reviews. I’m trying to take my own advice here! I love seeing the amazing 5 star reviews, they literally made my whole year! But seeing the more negative ones can be very demoralizing. It ties back into writing for yourself. We know our books aren’t going to be perfect fits for everybody who reads them. You can’t focus on those negatives, and you don’t want to impact your mental health or your writing. So avoid reader spaces where you can!

ROMANCE AS A GENRE

Why did you choose romance as the genre to write in? What is your favorite thing about the genre?

I’ve always gotten attached to couples. Whether I’m reading or watching TV or a movie–I get attached! It started with Buffy and Spike when I was young and grew into many over the years. Romance wasn’t ever really a question for me. It’s just part of what I love and need to be invested in a story!

If not romance/subgenres of romance, what genre would you like to write in?

I can’t imagine not including a romance of some kind. I would like to write an urban fantasy at some point, but I’d like to be more established in fantasy first!

What are your most and least favorite tropes?

I’m obsessed with fated mates and enemies to lovers. They’re so good and hit the spot every time! I’m not a fan of anything that takes me away from the main pairing though. Like I said, I need a romance to be attached to, and when something like another love interest or cheating get involved…well, it would have to be done very, very well to not be an issue for me. I do think a love triangle can be done well, but I consider that slightly different!

What are some tropes you want to write in the future?

I have a spin off planned that has the competition and arranged marriage tropes intertwined with the assassin/love interest trope, and I’m really excited to write it! I’d eventually like to experiment with something like friends to lovers or second chance romance, but I haven’t read much of those so I would need to get some more background with them first!

If you write open door romance, why did you choose that and what inspires your sex scenes?

I’ve always loved smut! I was big into fanfiction before, and that’s something that’s usually included. I got used to my stories having it and love reading it. And who doesn’t love sex, you know? My sex scenes are inspired from a combination of experience, reading, and letting my characters have their way. I often let my characters choose where to lead the story, and sometimes their decisions or acts surprise me as I’m writing it. But I also have a…wide range of experiences to draw from! 😉

YOUR BOOKS

What inspired your published stories? How and when did you come up with these stories and plots?

Of Darkness and Ruination, and really the whole of The Star Queen Chronicles, came from a few places inspiration wise. I’ve always loved celestial imagery and mythology, and the way those two things can intertwine. ACOTAR definitely helped inspire me, though I tried to make it very different with only bare bones similarities. Still, you can see the inspiration! We get hints to the war that happened long ago, where humans were freed from slavery in ACOTAR. To me, that was a story worth exploring and I set about wondering how that could play out.

Shadow and Bone and the relationship between the Darkling and Alina and their light/dark interplay was another. I really wanted to explore the balance between them and how chaotic it can be when unbalanced, and that led to a greater piece of my worldbuilding instead actually! Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, along with A Kiss of Iron, helped inspire my politics and house system within the story, along with the spy games! I basically sat down for several months just world building and planning out the plot and arcs in the story. One thing feeding into the next as I went. Taking small pieces from my sources of inspiration and then looking to mythologies and taking some from there, and just doing a lot of hmm, what if this, or what if that?

Can you briefly tell me about your books?

How to explain without just reading my blurb, hmm…Asteria is a human in a world where humans are enslaved to the fae. Celesterra is a continent of celestial kingdoms with elemental powers that tie into the god of their celestial kingdom and relates to the time of day it represents. The world itself runs on a system of balance, where it needs to remain that way or it will slip to chaos and have severe consequences. All humans at age twenty one attend Placement Day, where they are Placed in a new kingdom and torn away from their families and friends. Asteria has kept her heart closed off for just this reason. She hates being a slave and is filled with rage over her position, wanting nothing more than to be free.

But when she ends up in Dusk Kingdom, and directly under Crown Prince Cyrus, he demands more of her than her morals are willing to give. She has to navigate court politics while attacks begin from the Night Kingdom. King Calix of Night has been attacking other kingdoms at random, slaughtering fae in their way and taking humans–slaughtering them, torturing them, no one is sure–but his hatred of humans is all too well known. Asteria finds herself put between Dusk and Night as a bloody war begins to brew and the world tilts toward chaos, forcing her to choose who to trust.

The book is split into two distinct parts. It’s a long one, but it can almost be read as two books! The first half has a dark romance hint to it with spying and political games, while the second half has some more magical situations and the fated mates fun! Everything all ties together in a really fun way I think, and going forward it's only going to get crazier!

Do you already have a favorite character from the stories you’ve written?

I’m tied between Asteria and Calix. Asteria has a lot of myself in her, as I explore themes I’ve dealt with in real life in a fantasy setting. So I’m very emotionally attached to her. But Calix is just…everything I could ever want in one man! Haha

If you were to cast your book for a movie/television show, who would you cast in the lead roles?

For Asteria I could see Barbara Palvin, Marina Laswick, Jenna Ortega, Abigail Cowen, Lucy Hale. For Calix, Alexander Skarsgard, Bill Skarsgard, Leland Fraser, Jordan Barrett, MGK, Timothee Chalamet—though in reality it’s hard for any real man to match up in my mind! Haha

How much of yourself do you put into these characters?

Quite a bit, especially for Asteria though. The rest not as much, though, there is always something of my life within them. From the gaslighting and manipulation from men, to the horrible cattiness I dealt with from other girls, there’s bits of me within them all. But Asteria has what is basically fantasy bipolar. There’s a fantasy reason for it, along with the chronic pain she experiences. Where I don’t have great, solid reasons in my own life for these things, I can explore them and be like oh this is why for her, which is nice. But it’s fun to explore them all from a fantasy lens. Like what causes this rage within Asteria, the mood swings she can’t control, the hypersexuality? How does she overcome these things and learn to control them? How does she manage when she has no explanation at this time?

So I take bits of my own journey and then let her character develop as I write! She tries not to get close because she knows she must say goodbye eventually, and she has this experience with other girls being terrible to her. There’s a lot of my own journey to opening up to other women after that and learning how to let them in.

What is a story/stories that you really want to tell?

I’m dying to tell this full story of Asteria, but also the marriage competition spin off in this world! I love competition stories of all kinds, and it’s been so much fun to write so far. I’ve also plotted out an Romantasy/dystopian Hades/Persephone style tale, with adventure and a world falling into chaos thanks to an imprisoned god making everyone immortal. I love exploring chaos as you can see!

What’s next on the bookshelf for you? Anything you can tell us about a future project?

Now that I’ve finished everything with Of Light and Freedom, I’m going to jump back into writing the first story in the spin off series, The Chronicles of Adamah! The marriage competition, arranged marriages, assassins, gem magic, and alchemy mix is hopefully going to be fun for everyone. I also have a Viking Vampire/Witch spin off planned I can’t wait to work on! Meanwhile, I need to jump into reading a lot of books! Starting with Broken Souls and Bones by LJ Andrews!

When you write these stories, what are you hoping your readers will feel?

I want them to feel a range of emotions! I want them to feel what Asteria is feeling and go on that roller coaster with her! I want them to be torn, to be yelling at their book for Asteria or others to wake up and realize what’s happening, to be disgusted when certain events take place, to feel validated, to be shocked! I want them to see the heart in there and feel it too. And then I want them to desperately need the next book!

AUTHOR’S CHOICE

Paperbacks, hardbacks, ebooks or audiobooks—ebooks for reading and hardbacks for display! I do all my reading via the kindle app on my phone, but like having special editions to display.
Contemporary, fantasy, historical or romantic suspense
Single or Dual POV—ohh tough one! I enjoy both, but I’ll go with Dual because I like getting a well rounded view, unless like my first book, you have to hold off to keep the mystery! haha
Standalones, series or standalones in a series—I love getting to really dive into a world and its characters over a longer period of time.
Open door, ajar door or closed door romances
Music or silence when writing—Music in the background. I tend to tune out any noises while writing but, when I do tune back in, I like to have noise of some kind going on.
Plotter, pantser or plantser—But I do let my characters do what they will once I get going! So I’ll make changes to the plot I planned out once that happens.
Water, tea, coffee or….wine?—Cherry limeade sparkling water from Sparkling Ice! I’m obsessed with it.
Cold or warm weather
Write better in the morning, afternoon or night?—Late at night. All my best ideas come then.
Illustrated or photo cover?