Rachelle Nelson grew up reading fantasy novels and getting her clothes muddy in the pine forests of Idaho. These days, she still loves hiking through mountains and libraries, though she is a bit less fond of mud. She doesn’t write true stories, but she writes about truth. When Rachelle is not reading and writing, she sings in a band with her talented husband, who makes her happier than should be legal. If you like adventures, good food, and honest conversations, you are her favorite kind of person.
In this interview, Rachelle shares some of her thoughts regarding her latest book, Sky of Seven Colors.
FF: What inspired the story in your book?
Growing up, thick tomes of Grimm’s, Anderson’s, and Arabian Nights always sat on my nightstand. Then, around the time I turned thirteen, my love of YA fantasy began and somehow never ended.
Sky of Seven Colors was inspired by all my daydreams of fairytales. There are many stories of magical creatures entering our earth. What if a human was considered a magical creature in another earth? I wrote about that place, and a human who travels there.
I have also been a youth mentor for more than a decade, and I’m often heartbroken by destructive messages in popular young adult novels. Messages that love is an uncontrollable force, excusing all toxic behavior. We see it in romanticized love triangles. The characters choose to explore feelings and desires over care and concern for everyone involved.
So, I wanted to write about the difference between desire and love. Real love. The kind that puts others first. The kind that is hard.
FF: What can you tell us about the main characters in your book?
Meg is seventeen, she loves to paint in her sketchbook, and she is afraid of being alone. Actually, she’s afraid of most things. A friend of mine recently asked if I realized I had written parts of myself into Meg.
“You mean how she has obsessive compulsive disorder, like me?” I replied.
My friend laughed. “I didn’t want to say it out loud if you wrote her that way on accident.”
I’ve had OCD as long as I can remember. It’s my brain’s way of trying to take control and create order in the middle of chaos. Overcoming OCD has been a journey of accepting that God is in control, and I am safe with Him.
I gave Meg some of my own controlling compulsions. She always needs to know where certain objects are, and checks on them when she’s anxious. While these compulsions might seem silly, she developed the fears behind them for good reason. Bad things have happened in her life. People she loves have been hurt.
On Meg’s journey, she discovers even the most painful things can be worked for good. Her character is about moving forward and finding joy.
FF: Which character surprised you the most?
I don’t want to spoil anything for you, so I won’t give any names. There is a character in Sky of Seven Colors who is a combination of all the nerdy guys I have known and loved. He talks too much, he chews with his mouth open, and he has a know-it-all answer for everything. (The know-it-all part is a bit from me as well, unfortunately.)
And he has a beautifully heroic story arc.
I didn’t mean for him to be a hero. He was meant to be a comedic source of information. But he became important to me, and incredibly important to Meg as the story developed.
I think that’s how relationships work in life too. You can’t always tell which people will end up being dear to you. It’s often the ones you least expect, especially the annoying ones.
FF: Why do you think storytelling is such a powerful way to share truth?
Stories are part of being human. It is an awesome piece of the survival instincts we were created with.
Humans are meant for community, and relationships are important to us. So, if we hear about a mistake or a victory someone else experienced, we remember it for ourselves. We lock it away for later and implement that wisdom into our lives.
Even Jesus taught through narrative. Parables, we call them.
Fictional stories are thinly veiled true stories. Dragons and fairies may not exist, but the emotions the characters experience come from the author. With a story, I can entertain you, and make you feel something true, and help you to see something true that I have discovered about the world.
And you will remember it because it is inherently relational, and so are you.
FF: What kind of research did you do for this book?
I actually did a deep dive into color science. I wanted to make sure my magic system worked within the laws of reality.
Here’s a little bit of what I discovered. Color doesn’t come from the surface we see it on. It must be in the light shining on that surface. Certain molecular structures reflect different colors from the light. Prisms refract the full rainbow.
So, in the gray other-earth, there must be color in the light. But nothing in that earth has the ability to reflect or refract that color, except for things from our earth, like Meg.
Meg’s color contains certain properties that are priceless to the gray people. She allows them to access a power in their own light that they would otherwise be oblivious to.
Of course, none of this science is discussed in the book. But it had to make sense to me so I could write the story.
FF: What do you want readers to take away after reading your book?
I want to give them courage to face the hard things in their lives. And I want them to know God can work anything for good. Even our own mistakes.
FF: What are the biggest challenges for you as an author writing in your specific genre?
When I became a Christian, I struggled with the fantasy genre I loved so much. I know witchcraft is not something God wants his followers to engage in. But I was still drawn to the inspirational, heroic, and often loving messages I found in stories about magic.
So I studied Biblical example of magic and why God warned us to stay away from it. Dark magic entices humans to seek out external, worldly, and spiritual powers for their own glorification and gain. It is a counterfeit for God and leads us away from submission to our creator.
However, there is a kind of power God has given to each of us. It’s not something we seek out for our own glory, but something that he intrinsically created in us. Each person is born with value to this world, and they must decide if they will use their gifts to build up others and serve God, or if they will cause harm with their power.
There are also resources in this world that humankind stewards. Energy. Animals. Minerals. Medicine. These are gifts from God, as long as we don’t worship the creation before the creator.
These are the kinds of magics I write about, only exaggerated into fantastical stories. And these are the kinds of magics I enjoy reading about. It’s a strange niche in the wide fantasy genre, so that is challenging. But I’ve found a home.
FF: What authors or books have inspired you as an author?
Of course C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. Growing up, I read all the Wizard of Oz books and loved them. Karen Hancock was one of the first current Christian speculative writers I read, and she further opened my mind to writing fantasy.
Sky of Seven Colors is probably a bizarre mixture of Narnia, The Giver, A Wrinkle in Time, The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, Ella Enchanted, East by Edith Pattou, and a host of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
FF: How has your faith or world view impacted the way you tell stories?
Sky of Seven Color is not a direct allegory for the Christian narrative, and it doesn’t mention the name of Jesus outright. It’s just a story that comes from a place of hope. I may become more direct about my faith in future books I write, but I am not sure yet. I do know that I will always write stories where good wins over evil, forgiveness is the key to freedom, and true love means giving of yourself for another.
Sky of Seven Colors
Rachelle Nelson
Enclave Escape
Genres: YA/Teen Fantasy, Portal Fantasy
Release Date: August 8, 2023
ASIN: B0BT76DWP6
ISBN-13: 979-8886050585
Book Summary:
In a strange part of the forest, the divide between worlds grows thin.
After the accident, Meg would do anything to wake her best friend from his deadly coma. At least, that’s what she whispered into the woodland shadows. She never imagined her wish would trap her in a gray other-earth, void of any color.
Meg’s vibrant humanity is a priceless artifact in the gray kingdom, coveted by the royal court. All she wants to do is find a way back home. Until she discovers the other-earth contains healing powers that can save her friend. But only if Meg becomes what the gray people need—a human bride for Kalmus, the powerful king of the capital city.
With her heart torn between earths, Meg’s choices may cost more than she knows.
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