Happy Capitally Engaged Release Day!

Hello readers!

Happy Capitally Engaged release day!

I’m so, so, SO excited to have Preston and Jax out into the world and sharing their love story with everyone. I’m really proud of this book, and think it shows my growth as an author. I hope you all will love it too.

The ebook is live on Amazon! Paperbacks are available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble at this point. It’ll push out to other online retailers, like Bookshop.org and your favorite Indie Bookstore over the next several days. (It’s a long story, but in short, websites change things and cause poor indie authors to panic all weekend. But we made it. 😂)

If you ordered a signed copy before Wednesday 8/28, I’m hoping those will go out tomorrow! If you order one after reading this, I’ll get them out as soon as I can - y’all bought out my first order stock, and I need to get more! 🎉🎉

I shared about the dedication and opening page of Capitally Engaged on Instagram this week, but wanted to take a moment to share here too - one of the reasons this book has my whole heart.

It’s very strange the way an Author’s brain works. You never know when or from where you’ll be able to pull inspiration from your stories.

When I was brainstorming about the Brandt Brothers, and I knew I wanted to the books to be centered in DC, I figured I better have a brother somehow involved in politics. I like being able to use nicknames from real names, so Preston “Prez” was born.

When brainstorming how to give him his leading lady, I remembered a very real occasion of me being between the Capitol and the Library of Congress, and realizing I needed to find a bathroom, and fast. I was with my husband, brother and sister in-law and toddler-aged niece - they stayed under the trees on the Capitol lawn while I went off in search of the Visitor’s Center entrance.

If it helps to set this scene even more, I was wearing a walking boot in 90 degree June humidity.

Upon reaching the guards, I asked if I could get in line to use the restroom. They pointed out the line behind me, full of visitors waiting to go through security, so I walked away, my brain trying to figure out what to try next. They called me back, let me through security, and well, mission accomplished.

In 2017, did I ever dream this real-life IBS emergency would serve as inspiration for a Rom-Com Meet Cute? Not at all. Did I think I’d open said book by talking about trying not to sh!t yourself in public? Absolutely not. But, well, here we are.

This book is for everyone, but it’s especially for the readers who have tummy troubles, who find the bathrooms as soon as they walk into a new place, and who have experienced that feeling of panic more times than they’d like to count in their lives.

A special thank you to Chloe Liese for putting digestive difficulties into With You Forever, creating the first time I saw this part of my identity on page. That gave me the courage to write the real, authentic, and sometimes a little smelly, romance you’ll find between Preston and Jax in the page of Capitally Engaged.

I’ll be back with a more regularly scheduled newsletter next week - thank you for tagging along this release journey with me!

If you’ll be at RomanceCon in Milwaukee next week, be sure to stop by my table! I’ll have copies of Capitally Engaged, brand new stickers, an art print, and special RomanceCon themed bookmarks.

Romantically Yours,

Rachel

P.S. That link to buy a book one more time is: https://www.rachelwholm.com/books