Andrea Rodgers
Yes, I'm one of "those people" who has always been a writer. :) I wouldn't exist without the "writing" part of me--it's what makes me who I am. I told stories from my earliest days and my favorite childhood activity was going to the library to check out books. I read and wrote every day--at restaurants, as a passenger in the car, and while my parents shopped at stores. It was common for me to disappear at family gatherings and be found writing somewhere.
As a pre-teen, I recruited a couple of my friends to create a group called The Writers Club to write shorts stories and critique each other's work. In high school, I became editor of my school's literary magazine and had articles published in the local newspaper--but I wanted to touch lives through books as they had for me, so I was devastated to learn that being a novelist wasn't a "real job." I put my passion on hold when I went to Iowa State University, majored in journalism and mass communication, and enjoyed hosting an entertainment show on the campus TV station. English was my minor so I wrote for my college magazine and had several articles published in a newspaper where I interned for two summers.I graduated in 2002 and worked in both television and radio for the next few years. In 2003, I married my college sweetheart, had a son in 2008, and a daughter in 2011.
My life-long ambition never wavered, though. I joined the Romance Writers of America in 2005 and submitted my first manuscript in 2006, followed by another in 2007. After publication fell through, I took a hiatus to be a stay-at-home-mom, but re-joined the RWA in October 2013 after my oldest child started kindergarten. Every November, writers are encouraged to join NaNoWriMo (write 50,000 words in one month). I'd never participated--but decided to try. Although it wasn't a romance like my previous books, an inspirational story came to me in a dream so I immediately got to work. It was literally a "dream come true" when I was offered a contract in December 2013 for The 20th Christmas. The novel was released at Barnes & Noble on October 1, 2014. . .and on November 6th I was ranked an Amazon Best Selling Author when The 20th Christmas reached a #3 spot. On Black Friday it reached the Top 10 list again (#8 Christian Fiction) and a third & fourth time in December 2014.
In 2015, I signed a contract for my second novel, Caged Dove, about a woman who returns to her hometown after being gone for fifteen years - and a dramatic chain of events weave her life with a teenage girl.I spent 2016 with my youngest child (rather than publishing another book), since she starts kindergarten in the fall of 2017 - but my goal is to write 2-3 books a year from then on. I hope you will stay with me! Thank you!
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
Twenty years ago, Aniston Kline learned that childhood rhyme wasn't true after being bullied in junior high. Now a newspaper reporter, Aniston returns to her hometown-a place she thought she would never return to-prepared to write an article about a boy's story that echoes her past. Aniston wants nothing more than to slip in and out of Savanna Shores unseen and unrecognized by anyone who might still remember her; however, a brutal snowstorm ushers her into town and leaves her stranded in a snowstorm with her high school crush, Arjay.
Arjay Mason was once the handsome quarterback of the high school football team. Now a police officer in Savanna Shores, he has yet to find lasting love. He realizes he already missed one opportunity with Aniston and doesn't want her to leave again-but how could she stay in a town that once caused her pain?
As Aniston faces her own demons from her past and sifts through old emotions with Arjay, the fate of a teenage girl named Maddie becomes intricately intertwined with the two adults to reveal a much grander plan for everyone involved. While it seemed like it was just coincidence that brought together Aniston and Arjay, the two begin to understand there's a reason they were brought together again
