Rachael Van Horn was born in Ipswich, England and has travelled and lived in numerous other countries and states within the United States throughout her life Rachael developed a love of writing early because her mother instilled within her a passion for reading. Her most vivid memory of reading in her young life was when she experienced the books “My Friend Flika” and “Thunderhead” by Mary O’Hara and “The Red Pony” by John Steinbeck. She learned from those authors the rich use of active prose to vividly describe environments, a tool Rachael has used throughout her writing career in both fiction and news-writing.
In young adulthood, Rachael stumbled upon an open position at her local news agency, the Enid News and Eagle. The editor there, Jerry Pittman, saw promise in some of the samples Rachael shared with him during her interview, and he took a chance on her. It turned out to be a good bet, because Rachael became a long-term, well-loved writer and columnist over the years.
She has written for and had pieces published in numerous agencies including The Enid News and Eagle, The Woodward News, the Daily Oklahoman, the Houston Chronical, the Corpus Christie Caller-Times, the Tacoma Tribune and many other papers and magazines throughout the country. Her writing was also written highlighted in the New Yorker by well-known writer Ian Frazier. Rachael is an Army veteran who loves to weave the many life experiences and unique real-life characters into her writing.
Those include the sometimes-wild characters she learned to know in the war zones of Iraq, her time in the oil fields of Northwest Oklahoma, her work in cattle ranching and her hikes in the mountains of Northern California. Most importantly, Rachael is a mother to her only child, daughter Johnna Wickstrom-Weary, grandmother to Eva, Gwen and Myles Weary, mother-in-law to her favorite son-in-law Jason Weary and partner to the love of her life Virgil Sanders. She and Virgil spend their days in Grove, Oklahoma enjoying Grand Lake and taking care of each other and their four dogs, Wyatt, Gracie, Finn and Opie
I’ve written:
Landry Minor is a politically defeated former Northwest Oklahoma sheriff. Landry has taken revenge against his community by robbing the community bank. However he regrets his choice and needs the help of four other local characters to undo his crime before anyone is the wiser.
