Meet Elisabeth Rhoads | Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elisabeth Rhoads and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elisabeth, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
It’s actually the poem, “If” by Rudyard Kipling, and while I won’t quote the entire poem here, one of my favorite bits is, “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, And treat those two impostors just the same…” It reminds me that no matter how good or how bad things get, the important thing is to do the work. For me, that’s writing.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When I was young, I preferred doing easy things. Reading was easy. Writing poems and short stories was easy. The next logical step? Writing my first novel at age thirteen. It was easy—for the first dozen pages. And then it got hard. I quit, just like that.

Fast-forward about a decade. I learned a little self-discipline and finished a full-length screenplay. I went on to write another. Then I launched into writing what I knew best, which just so happened to be a Hallmark-style Christmas romance. My then-boyfriend (now husband) had gifted me a Corona typewriter. I bought a ribbon of black ink and clacked the entire novel out on that thing. Not to brag, but I hit every cliché of every Hallmark Christmas romance ever. I thought, I’m gonna pitch this thing to Hallmark. They are gonna love it and turn it into a movie, and I’ll be set for life! Right on cue I got a standard form rejection.

I launched into my next novel—a dystopian romance. When I finished, I read the first several chapters and discovered how bad it was. I had no idea how to edit, so I decided it was a lost cause and launched into yet another. That third novel was what eventually became Haggard House.

Haggard House is a dark, psychological suspense set in the nineteenth century. The story centers around Adam, raised within the dank walls of Haggard House and torn between his fear of Hell and his growing love for the heathen village girl.

In all, I spent about four years writing, editing, and researching. If I had known how difficult the process would be, I don’t think I would have had the willpower to get started. It took everything I had and then some.

Even after finishing, things were hard. I spent years trying to get Haggard House published traditionally before finally being accepted into Richard Bausch’s workshop. Then I spent another year pitching. Finally, I came to the conclusion that I would publish it myself, first as a free serial over the course of a year on Substack, and then as a self-published novel for purchase.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
One of the fortunate things about living in Orange County is the close access to so many different types of terrain. My answer is biased towards nature because that’s what I love.

Definitely spend a couple days visiting San Diego and the beautiful beach spots like La Jolla, along the way. Eat sushi while you’re there.

Then come back to Orange County and spend a day visiting the beaches, especially Laguna and San Clemente. Spend a day in the mountains. There are some easy-to-reach hikes, such as Red Rock Canyon in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park or Black Star Canyon Falls.

Visit the desert in Joshua Tree National Park for a couple of days, but don’t do it in summer.

Check out wine country in Temecula for a day or two. Visit a winery—or two.

Last but not least, take a day to hike the San Gabriel Mountains “Bridge to Nowhere” Trail. As the name suggests, it’s a bridge that quite literally leads to nowhere. It was part of a road being built in the 1930s. Unfortunately, a flood came and washed away much of it, so the project was abandoned. The bridge was left behind.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are actually two people that I would like to dedicate this shoutout to. The first is Nami Mun. Nami is an incredible author whom I used to work for as a babysitter. At the time, I was pursuing—in word if not so much in action—a career in theatre. One night, Nami and her husband got back from an event they had gone to—I believe it was the writer’s salon they attended once a month. Nami, out of the blue, said something like, “It’s interesting that you’re pursuing acting because I’ve always seen you as a writer.”

I thought, How could she see that? The truth is, I was actually writing at the time; and in fact, I was writing daily; but for some reason the thought of being a writer had never occurred to me. Her comment stuck like a bur. That was the day I began to see myself as a writer.

The second person I would like to dedicate this shoutout to is Richard Bausch. Richard is a PEN/Malamud and REA Award-winning short story writer and novelist. He’s also a generous and wonderful person. I met Richard when I was accepted into his Creative Writing Workshop on the campus of Chapman University. When I joined the workshop, I was pretty discouraged. I had been pitching my third unpublished novel to literary agents for several years at that point, and after over one hundred rejections, I was beginning to think that the work itself must be bad.

However, after bringing chapter after chapter into the workshop, the positive feedback I received from Richard blew me away. If it hadn’t been for his kind words, I never would have had the courage to take the leap and publish the novel myself.

Website: https://www.elisabethrhoads.com/

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Other: To learn more about the Haggard House serial, and subscribe to read it free, click here. https://www.elisabethrhoads.com/what-is-haggard-house