Make Believe Wednesdays #4

Please help me welcome another Rachel to the blog. She'd dreamin' with me today! :)

Imagination, make believe, daydreams, fantasies…yep, I have an intimate relationship with these traits. In fact, some would maybe say that I’ve perhaps embraced them a bit too fiercely.

(*grin*)

One of my earliest memories is my cute as a button three-year-old pink tutu bedecked self, imagining the entire cast of Guiding Light in the waiting room of my ballet class, watching me like I watched them with my grandmother. Okay, so maybe my television habits weren’t appropriate for a child, but that’s beside the point. And, that was just the beginning. As I grew older, more imaginary friends joined the fray, better allowing me to follow all my fantastical whims.

Whenever I played Saved by the Bell with my loving, wonderful cousin Danielle—who had the unfortunate circumstance of being born four years after me and also had to follow along with said whims—I was always Kelly, and I could always perfectly imagine Zach there, holding my hand and staring deeply into my eyes. For Full House, when I was DJ (naturally), I had Kevin Quinn and later Steve (who would later become Aladdin) right beside me. And when New Kids on the Block hit the scene, it was entirely too easy to imagine their bus breaking down outside our house and having them all fall madly in love with me. Even though I was at least nine years younger…but I digress.

Anytime I’m asked why I became a writer, or how I’m able to create my characters and imaginary worlds, I just grin and think back to that dance class, that day at the pool pretending Jordan Knight was swimming next to me, and that ride in the car with Mark Paul Gosselaar.

Those days when I was completely able to let go and let my imagination run wild shaped who I was. They gave me an escape from the world of snotty little girls and awkwardness. They made me who I am today, still embracing the world of make believe, but now doing so in a much more socially acceptable way for an adult. And I don’t know, maybe it was the early soap opera watching, or maybe it was the days of play when all the hot boys on my television fell in love with me, but my childhood even led me to the kind of writer I am. A writer who adores happy endings, falling in love along with my characters, and being elevated to a world where love and romance reigns. 

As a homeschool mom to two more budding authors who spend much of the day wrapped in their own make believe worlds, I can’t help but smile as I listen to the stories they create….and wonder if perhaps the Jonas Brothers are playing alongside them.

As a teen, Rachel Harris threw raging parties that shook her parents’ walls and created embarrassing fodder for future YA novels. As an adult, she reads and writes obsessively, rehashes said embarrassing fodder, and dreams up characters who become her imaginary friends. When she’s not typing furiously or flipping pages in an enthralling romance, you can find her homeschooling her two beautiful princesses, hanging out with her amazing husband, or taking a hot bubble bath…next to a pile of chocolate. MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY is her first novel. She had her own fantabulous Sweet Sixteen in high school. Sadly, it wasn’t televised.

You can visit Rachel at her website www.RachelHarrisWrites.com, on Facebook www.Facebook.com/RachelHarrisYA, on Twitter (where she practically lives) www.twitter.com/RachelHarrisYA, and at Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5347676.Rachel_Harris