Rachelle Nelson is the author of young adult fiction that is imaginative and fun while still being appropriate for Christian youth. (Courtesy photo)
By Hilarey Johnson
Rachelle Nelson always loved kids. She taught Sunday school, was a teen mentor, and a Quaker Hill camp counselor. Even while she attended college, she mentored younger students on the Boise State campus.
People “coming of age” drew her because it had been a formative time in her own life. Even though her parents raised her up to know the Lord, Rachelle had had questions about God as a young adult that remained unanswered. She has never tired of processing ideas and encouraging young people in that same season.
Rachelle was 11, the same age as Harry Potter, when the first of the book series published. She grew up with the characters. During this time, she acquired both a love of reading and the wonder that C.S. Lewis wrote about in the book “On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature,” where he discusses a child who reads fairy tales. Rachelle learned to be captivated for that thing just out of reach in the real world, but which draws us in when we read of enchanted forests – making all woods a little enchanted.
It fostered a delight in using her imagination. She loved to read, paint, write poems or make music. Therefore, she knew she also wanted to marry someone creative. She met her husband, a creative musician, Jared Nelson, when she was 22. He had also been a youth leader. They naturally ministered together, leading mission trips and small groups even when they were just a handful of years older than those they discipled. They sing together under the band name Nelson at the Helm.
At one of these youth events, there was a whiteboard where people were encouraged to write future goals. She wrote that someday she would write a book. It sounded fun – but wasn’t something that burned inside of her just yet.
Around this time, Rachelle read a sci-fi, dystopian allegory called “Arena,” by Karen Hancock. She had begun to grow serious about the Lord, and realized that some books she loved to read – those which had imaginative, magical worlds – could be incongruent with her faith in Jesus. This book showed her she could integrate creativity and her faith. Realizing that the human imagination could honor God was a big deal to her.
But, she started to struggle with chronic illness. The latter part of her 20s became a blur with extreme lethargy, migraines, pain, doctor visits and an auto-immune diagnosis. She could no longer maintain a full-time work schedule.
She turned 30 years old just before 2020, and it was a wake-up call. Her heart cried out that she could not just accept sleeping 12 hours a day with an inability to function and living with constant pain. She poured herself into discovering what her symptoms meant.
You’ve probably been warned about researching symptoms online during a crisis because the conclusion will be the false fear that you’re dying of a brain tumor. That’s exactly what her research led her to – but this time, it was true. When doctors confessed they didn’t know why the panels from her blood work were so far out of range, she took what she found online and self-diagnosed an active Prolactinoma brain tumor. Her doctor ordered an MRI. A one in a million chance meant it was rare enough that no doctor she’d visited had ever come across it.
She began treatment in the spring of 2020, just as the world shut down. Part of the medication to suppress the tumor was a bi-weekly release of dopamine. However, treatment came with a warning that she might have compulsive behavior. She was supposed to be wary if she wanted to drive to another state, spend a lot of money, take up gambling or any other random and obsessive thoughts.
What she did was contemplate her situation. The world had shut down and she’d been laid off… but she felt amazing. She was filled with energy when her body no longer had to fight the brain tumor. Suddenly, she had both time and energy to write a story. She’d had enough life experience, pain and imagination to craft a bona fide fantasy. All of her pent up creative energy poured out. It happened quickly.
The first draft was, in her own words, “a dumpster fire.”
So, she audited a college-level course on YouTube from famous fantasy author, Brandon Sanderson, about how to write science fiction and fantasy.
Rachelle finished two semesters, revised her manuscript and sent it out with loads of negative self-talk. Thoughts like, “What do I do now?”, “Nothing will happen,” and “Who am I to write?”.
Immediately, she received several offers. She accepted one from Enclave Publishing, a traditional, royalty-paying, Christian, speculative fiction publishing house. “The Sky of Seven Colors” is available from the same publishing house printing the 20th anniversary edition of “Arena” – the first inspiration that made her hope she could weave her love for story with her faith in God.
Rachelle is extremely grateful for how much they taught her. Even then, she knew she was in over her head. A needed step for writers and authors is to attend a writer’s conference, and her first conference was Realm Makers. A gathering specifically tailored for Christians who write in fantasy and speculative fiction genres. While she was there, her publisher asked, “What’s next?”
Her dreams were vivid, and her imagination was wild… she had no lack of ideas. But doubt crept in. It’s standard for authors who have written a book to wonder if they can do it a second time. It’s part of the sensitivity of a creative: letting ideas flow in and out. For Rachelle, besides asking, “Who am I to write?”, she wondered if success had only been possible because of the boost of energy from the medication. Her health was now stable, she was no longer compulsive. Writing had become more work.
However, Rachelle also thought, “I only have one life… I only get one voice… one brain…” And she decided, “Why waste it for fear of not being enough?”
Rachelle encourages everyone, whether you feel writing is part of you, or a calling, to be around other writers of faith. She says that writing takes so much work, requires so much creative power, parts of your own story and your inventive mind-space – but it produces little income as a reward. She says, “You have to know why you are writing,” and laughs that you could never be paid enough for something this energy-consuming. It must be a passion.
That’s why she’s connected with the local faith-based writers’ group, IdaHope Christian Writers (ICW). They understand the passion and, while being goal-oriented, they focus more on the “heart of the writer,” the relationship with God and others. On April 26, 2025, Rachelle is teaching a breakout session at the ICW conference for young adult writing, if you feel that passion.
Rachelle Nelson’s second book, “Embergold,” releases March 2025, the same month as this issue of Christian Living Magazine. Think: character-driven story full of courage and healing, romance, isolated settings, and dragons with broken hearts.
Rachelle says, “YA stories captured my imagination when I was young. In so many ways, reading can feel like experiencing a life that is not our own. We walk through the wisdom and the perspectives of the author who spins the tale. Some of those tales helped me to have courage as I navigated adulthood, and to experience first in books what I later learned in real life: that good can come from sorrow. Those are the kinds of stories I want to contribute to today’s world. When things are dark, we need light more than ever.”
You can find YA Fantasy Author Rachelle Nelson online at linktr.ee/rachelle.nelson.author where you will be able to sign up for her newsletter.
Author, ghostwriter and narrator, Hilarey Johnson, grew up hearing that she would be an excellent student if she could get her head out of the clouds. Her daydreaming still makes it possible to get lost driving anywhere. She loves characters with a hidden or unknown worth who rise to claim their identity. She writes redemptive stories from Idaho and travels in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. Someday Hilarey hopes to time travel. She blogs regularly at Hilarey.com.
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