In the years since Rachael Hetrick graduated from Palmer Ridge High School in 2014, she’s embarked on a journey to both write and share her love of writing, ultimately leading to publishing five novels, with more on the way.
Hetrick, who also works for the Lewis-Palmer School District 38 Transportation Department, spends her mornings and afternoons safely transporting students to and from school, but picks up her pen in the evenings, keeping herself on task by setting deadlines.
When she’s not actively engaged in her day job or polishing her latest work, she also shares her love of writing with students. Recently, Hetrick spent time with a number of classes at Palmer Ridge High School to answer questions from students who are also interested in writing professionally.
Lewis-Palmer School District 38 Communications conducted a Question & Answer session with Hetrick to dive deeper into her background, her passions and her plans for the future, and you can read more below. Please note the responses below are lightly edited for clarity and style.
Q: When did you start writing, and when did you officially publish your first book?
“I started writing as a child as soon as I learned the alphabet. I still have a journal from when I was young, maybe 4-6, and I never stopped. And even though I had the dream of being a published author before I even started high school, I didn’t publish my first book, Curse of Infiniti, until November 20th, 2020.”
Q: How did you catch on with your publisher?
“I am actually self-published, and when I moved back to America from overseas, I started my own publishing company, Via Veritas Vita Press. For a long time I wanted to be traditionally published because I thought that only trad pub books were high quality, but that opinion changed around 2020 because I saw quite a few indie-published books at the same (sometimes even higher) quality. I also saw that I would get to have more control over publishing if I did so myself.”
Q: As both an alum, staff member and author, can you reflect briefly on that unique perspective? What is your ultimate dream?
“I feel so blessed to be working for the same district I graduated from because I get to give back in a way. It was in high school at PRHS that I started to write more seriously with the intention and hope of publishing (though that dream was set aside for almost 10 years). Now that I have five books out in the world, my dream is to continue publishing and hopefully have a full-time income from that so I can focus on my love of writing.”
Q: Congratulations on your latest book signing, can you share how that came about?
“Thank you for the congratulations! I had the dream since I published Curse to have a book signing, with hopefully more in the future. One day I was driving past Covered Treasure and decided spontaneously to go in and ask if they would carry my books. I always carry a couple copies in my car, so I had them with me to show. They were absolutely amazing and accepted me basically right away. I received an email from them discussing whether I’d like to do a book signing and I agreed right away. It really was just a matter of taking the initiative to go ask. The worst they could’ve said was no.”
Q: Why are you sharing your experience with students? What do you hope they get out of it and what do you get out of it?
“High school, as I mentioned previously, was when my dream of becoming a published author elevated to the level where I was actively writing full manuscripts. I know for me, it would’ve been so incredible to have a published author come in and speak to me, encouraging me to keep writing, and that’s what I wanted to be for the students. Even if it’s not writing that’s their dream, I wanted to encourage them to pursue their goals, even if it takes longer than expected as it did for me. I hope that these students see that I was literally where they were not long ago, and now I’m doing something I’d dreamed of as a little kid. These things are possible. I myself was uplifted to see the same care and compassion that PRHS had for me being poured out on those students. It truly is an incredible school.”
Q: What's next for you? What books are on the horizon?
"At the moment, I am working on a five-book series that predates my trilogy and duology, and instead follows the stories of those characters’ parents. I’m hopefully finishing the first draft of book three at the beginning of December and the first draft of book four at the beginning of January. Then I just have to draft book five and start the obnoxiously long process of developmental edits, beta reads, more edits, more beta reads, more edits, then sending it to my copy editor. But I also have a few new ideas for other stories that don’t revolve around the fantasy world I created in these books, and it’s been a breath of fresh air planning something completely new. These new ideas are in the really early stages, so I likely won’t announce them publicly any time soon, but the first people to know will be those on my monthly newsletter. If you’d like to join that, and get the first 6 chapters of Curse of Infiniti for free, my website is www.rachelhetrickwrites.com."
Q: In the meanwhile, are you enjoying your time in transportation?
I am definitely enjoying driving a school bus. Not only is it incredibly fun to actually drive a bus, but the community at LPSD Transportation is also so welcoming and friendly. My coworkers are some of the greatest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. And my students are so wonderful. It didn’t take long for me to grow attached to them, and I already can’t wait to see the wonderful things they accomplish when they graduate and grow up. Like with any job, there are good days and there are not as good days, but I can already say the good outweighs the bad. What a blessing it is to have found a job where I can serve the district that helped me become who I am today!