<h3>The Short Version</h3>
Rachel Stones writes picture books and middle grade novels. She is married to the hottest elementary teacher in the west, and they have four little bookworms. She lives with her family in the Arizona desert, and doesn't miss the snow one bit.

<h3>The Longer Version</h3>
Rachel grew up in a small farming town in Idaho, famous for potatoes, wind, and sub-zero temperatures. She has held a variety of interesting jobs.
<ul>
	<li>Spud-harvest-dirt-clod-thrower (It's a real thing.)</li>
	<li>Tree-planter (She has planted close to a million trees!)</li>
	<li>Office assistant, school teacher, clock-maker, and business owner</li>

</ul>


All of these jobs felt like work. The first job title Rachel had that didn't feel like work, was professional volleyball player. She played volleyball overseas for a season, after helping her college team to two conference championships and two "Elite Eight" NCAA appearances. (Go Cougars!)

Rachel has always enjoyed writing, and signed up for a writing class in 2013. On the first day of class, she knew she had found her new passion- the only thing that didn't feel like work and gave her the thrill that volleyball once did. 

Ok fine, it's not <em>exactly</em> the same. You can't hit someone in the face with a book. At least it's frowned upon. But Rachel's excitement over writing was similar to the passion she had for the sport she has loved all her life.

Rachel dove into writing head first, rearranging her schedule to make time to write, at the crack of dawn, late at night, and in little snippets throughout the day when her kids are busy. In her first year of writing, she took three online courses, joined SCBWI, attended their Los Angeles conference, won the writing contest at her regional SCBWI conference, and sold her first piece of work to Highlights Magazine. She joined two critique groups, participated in WriteonCon, PiBoIdMo, ReviMo, Start the Year Off Write, and just joined Julie Hedlund's 12 x 12. A lifetime of sports, manual labor, and growing up with three brothers does a lot for your work ethic and persistence. Rachel is in this for the long haul.

Before having children, Rachel enjoyed travel. She did her student-teaching in Samoa, lived in Europe, and visited many countries around the world. She hopes to be able to travel again someday when everyone is out of diapers and old enough to carry their own suitcases.

Rachel lives in the Arizona desert with her husband and their four young children. She loves sunshine, avocados, Nutella, and anything with melted cheese on it. She still plays volleyball in women's city leagues, but the old vertical just isn't what it used to be.

Disclaimer: Rachel loves exclamation points and parentheses. (Don't judge.) She only uses them sparingly when writing books, but this is not a book!!!