An Interview with Rachel N Kaufman

1) Tell us about your book.

The world of Pylertchia is in peril. A descendant of the Great Deceiver has returned and rumors of an army amassing in the East are spreading throughout the land. Eons have passed since the Great Deceiver trapped the eight Dragon Lords in hidden prisons and now, with the fate of Pylertchia in the balance, they are calling forth the Dragon Born to find and free them. Fifteen-year-old Adalee is the vessel of the dormant Dragon Essence, which has awakened the Call and is pulling her toward her fate. But can she escape the clutches of her abusive keeper and embrace her destiny, or is Pylertchia doomed to fall under the Great Deceiver’s rule?This book is the first in an eight-book series, set in the fictional world of Pylertchia in an age best described as ancient.

2) How long have you been writing?

I began writing when I was five years old. I loved making up stories and drawing illustrations for them. However, the idea for this story came to me when I was seventeen, and I spent eighteen years perfecting the idea. The first book came out in early 2021, and the second is set to come out early spring of 2022.

3) Tell us something unique about your main character.

My main character is Adalee, a vivacious fifteen-year-old girl who has many demons to conquer. She is the Dragon Born, destined to find and free the Dragon Lords, and the world recognizes her by her hair that looks like fire in the wind, and her eyes that glimmer like gems in the light.

4) Is your book part of a series?

It is. This is the first book in an eight-book series, and the plan is to have one release a year.

5) What is your favorite thing about being an author?

I love getting to express myself. I love residing in a place where I don’t have to tone down my crazy ideas, and instead can create a world for them to inhabit. For someone who has always been described as being a little ‘extra’ during playtime with friends, I am grateful to be an author that can be as extra as I please, because the world belongs to me.

6) What does the future hold for you?

I will continue working on this series, but once it is completed, I have many spin-off series and stand-alone novels that also take place in Pylertchia, expanding across all eras. Some of them will include characters that the readers meet during Dragon Born, and some will simply be origin stories of legends and myths of Pylertchia. But I don’t see myself being done writing for a very, very long time.

Rachel Kaufman was born in Dallas, TX in 1985. She has one younger brother, Justin, and an older half-brother, John, and half-sister, Connie. She wrote her first story when she was five, which her parents, John and Jana, promptly secured to the front of the refrigerator.
​She spent the next few years leaning into her creativity and expressing her ideas through written word, drawings, and telling stories. In the third grade she realized her love of reading, and poured all her extra time into absorbing story after story, and trying to convince her friends to re-enact said stories in their childhood games on the playground. She loved to read so much, she forgot how much she loved to write until she turned seventeen, and the spark re-ignited. She has spent the last eighteen years building the world of Pylertchia and is excited about her debut series.  
Rachel has a BA in English with a double-minor in Secondary Education and Spanish. She is a stay-at-home mother in Alabama to her two small children, Levi and Hannah. Her husband not only works full time but is also her agent and publisher. She enjoys scrapbooking, painting, doing puzzles, and exploring new places. The family has two cats, named Desmond and Oliver, though she lovingly refers to them as the "floofen-truffles."