We were lucky to catch up with Rhiannon Futch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rhiannon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was little all I wanted to do was draw and write. I created these entire worlds around the drawings I made. My home life wasn’t super happy as a child. Creating these worlds helped me to escape and, to cope. I was also a voracious reader. Those two things allowed me to believe that the world could be better than what I knew it to be. Stories helped me believe in a better world. Though I couldn’t follow that dream until years later, it never left me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into writing again when I was pushing myself to get a degree as quickly as possible. I missed out on finishing high school, I got my GED years later. I didn’t finish college right then for lack of time. I had daughters and a marriage that shouldn’t have ever happened. I spent a lot of time just trying to support them. As I moved into a time when they needed me to be hands on less, the college I had attended invited me to come back and finish the last two classes I needed to attain my AA is Social Work.
I went back and finished those classes only to realize how much I loved learning now that I wasn’t trying to do it while being the sole support for three little girls. I finished that degree and moved straight into a BA in Women’s and Gender Studies. My professors at FIU were amazing. Strong women that encouraged and guided in ways that I had no experience with. They praised my voice in the writing I did. When I moved on to getting my masters, it was also very writing intensive. Before I finished it, I had the idea to start writing the stories that had been living in my head rent free for so long.
My first book was published not long after I graduated. I have been writing and publishing steadily since then. I thought that I would be writing and working to help women by working at domestic violence shelters. I wasn’t the greatest fit there, silence in the face of racism and other awful behaviors isn’t my strong suit and I definitely got myself fired. The firing was intentional on my part and I have no regrets. The books I write, they are filled with women that found the strength they didn’t think they had to do things they never imagined. I hope that they inspire women to the great things they are so capable of doing.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I was taught over and over as a child and young adult that I was not worthy, would not succeed at anything I set out to do. My parents were and are, pretty damaged people. The message I got from them was that I was not to be seen or heard and that there was nothing I could be good at.
Getting out into the world and finding that I was maybe not the worst person ever, was it’s own challenge. Wrapping my mind around the idea that I was maybe worthy took a long time. A ton of internal work and I still struggle with it. It’s hard to learn loving yourself when you come from a background of knowing that your mom hated you from birth. As an adult, I realized that none of it was about me. Her hate of me was about her, her mental illness, and her life experiences.
That realization was the basis of letting go of all the things I had learned from my parents about me. All these ideas I had about being a complete mess and incapable of of succeeding at anything started to be a little easier to push away. I still have days that are harder to push away those ideas. I think most of us do as creatives. But I am much better at it now and I have a lot of tools to use in helping me remember my worth.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Helping women and theys realize how very amazing they are and that they don’t have to buy ideas that their family or society may have pushed on them about how they should be or behave.
Life is entirely too short to live it according to how someone else thinks they should. The more women and theys living their most authentic lives, the better this world can be. I want people to read my books and see how maybe their journey isn’t so different from my character’s journey, minus the magic aspects. However, if there are people dealing with vampires, shifters, and such, please do contact me I have questions.
For all that my characters are faced with magical issues, their main issues surround finding worth in themselves and found family. Romance is a major theme, but it is woven into finding love and acceptance of the person they are via found family and community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rhiannonfutchauthor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhiannonfutchauthor/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RhiannonFutchAuthor

Image Credits

Rhiannon Futch