RACHEL M. MARTENS

WELCOME

 

I am the author of the Poe gothic thriller series, the YA paranormal thriller romance Metalhead, the short horror fiction collection Midnight Hour, and the conspiracy thriller Patriots' Dance.  For further information about these works or to read my author's bio, use the tabs above to navigate this page.  Publication news can be found below, or you can use the widget at the bottom to subscribe to my email list, which I use about once a month to deliver exciting publication news, as well as exclusive first-looks at new cover images, first chapters, and even excerpts that didn't make it into my published works.  You can also hunt me down on social media using the buttons at the bottom of the page, including YouTube, where you can listen to the same playlists I listen to while writing.

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Thanks for visiting and happy reading!

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NEWS

 

Poe: Haunted Souls is a 2025 Saturday Visiter Awards Winner!!!

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I am so incredibly honored that book four in the Poe Series, Poe: Haunted Souls, is an official 2025 Winner of Poe Fest International's Saturday Visiter Awards!  Edgar Allan Poe has been such a profound inspiration to me throughout my writing career, not just for his macabre tales and magnificent style, but also for his unflinching commitment to his writing career.  Poe struggled all his life with money difficulties and probably no small amount of self-doubt.  All writers have that, especially when they're starting out and fighting against incredible odds to get noticed and make a living through their art, and in Edgar Allan Poe's days very few writers made a living this way.  In spite of that, Poe kept writing, kept publishing, and refused to flinch in the face of sometimes brutal criticism.  In fact, he was a harsh critic himself and earned the moniker "Tomahawk Man" for the sometimes scathing literary criticism he published when it would have been easier to play nice with his contemporaries.  Poe, though, was a fearless man of integrity who fought tooth and nail his entire life for his dream of becoming a successful writer and leaving a positive and lasting mark on American literature.  I find this part of Poe's biography to be incredibly inspiring and often think of it when I struggle with writer's block or self-doubt.  The Saturday Visiter Awards recognize creative achievements based on the life or works of Edgar Allan Poe and is named after the Baltimore Saturday Visiter, a periodical which hosted a writing contest Poe himself won in 1833 with "MS. Found In A Bottle," launching his writing career.  To have one of my books win this prestigious award truly means the world to me and is so very motivating.  Thank you sincerely to Poe Baltimore and Poe Fest International for this great honor and for hosting me and my books at Poe Fest International 2025!  This is truly one of the highlights of my writing career to date and I am so very proud.

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