Episode 14: Rachel Toor, author of On the Road to Find Out

Behind the Prose

Though she hesitates to call herself a “writer” (she thinks it sounds self-important), author and columnist Rachel Toor has written her way into a new Young Adult novel and onto my list of writers I want to be when I grow up. You’ll remember I blogged about her wise but rude writing advice, and as soon as I hit publish, I emailed her to invite her to the show. Not only does she write monthly and bi-monthly columns for The Chronicle of Higher Education and Running Times Magazine respectively, she’s published three nonfiction books. Her latest work and first novel, On the Road to Find Out, dropped in 2014 on Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. In this two-part interview, you’ll learn about Rachel’s career (she’s been a publishing house editor and an admissions counselor at an Ivy League school) and how authors lose some creative control at commercial houses versus university presses. Plus, she tells us what exactly fiction writers mean when they say they can’t wait to see what their characters do next. Also, in the Writer’s Check In, I give you a tidbit about my experience with submitting to The Reject Pile, which was featured in episode 13.