AUTHOR RACHEL MENARD won the grand prize in the seventh annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Ebook Awards for her young-adult fantasy book, “Steel Hand, Cold Heart.” She was awarded $5,000, a paid trip to the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference in New York and a feature in the May/June issue of the magazine. Menard, a resident of Scituate, spent 18 months writing her book. She began writing 10 years ago, honing her craft by reading books and attending a weekly writer’s group and conferences on writing. She is actively involved with the Association of Rhode Island Authors, the New England Speculative Writers and the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
What was your reaction to being chosen as the grand-prize winner of the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Ebook Awards? I deleted the first notification email they sent me by accident. You always enter these contests hoping you will be recognized, and unfortunately that rarely happens. When I read the second email, I screamed. Even when I had imagined winning something, I had never imagined I would win grand prize with a young-adult genre-fiction book. … This exceeded all of my expectations.
How did you conceive the idea for your book and what inspired you to write it? The book started with the character, Carina, who is a young Viking with a metal gauntlet seared onto her hand. She’s tough, but vulnerable too. On all outward appearances, she is not someone you would want to hang out with, which is why I wrote this in first person, so the reader could see her internal monologue. I always like exploring what makes the villain tick. The problem with writing anti-heroines is people might not like her, which is why I gave her a supporting cast of more-likable characters to help peel away those layers.
My next book is a gender-swapped Hercules retelling. Retellings are a popular theme in young-adult novels, but I wanted to choose a story that had not been done a thousand times. I really like featuring strong women, so it made sense to use Hercules.
What inspired you to become a writer? I had always wanted to write. I just didn’t know what I wanted to write. I hate to say this, but the “Twilight” books really pushed me into young adult. Say what you will about Stephenie Meyer, but her books inspired a lot of people to read and write. “Twilight” was just a door for me into a genre that is so interesting and varied. As a writer, YA gives you a lot of freedom and room to explore. I love it.
What do you hope to achieve with your writing in the future? The dream would obviously be a three-book deal with a major publisher and a Netflix series, but I have been at this long enough to know that doesn’t happen overnight. No matter what happens, though, I think I will always be most proud of this book because even after so many people told me, “No,” I said, “Yes,” and it hasn’t been a failure. People are reading “Steel Hand, Cold Heart” and really enjoying it.
