What Drives You Forward?

by Rebecca Royce

Each time I sit down to write Rachel Clancy, the protagonist of The Warrior series, I find myself answering a question.  In Initiation, the first book in the series, I needed to know what would happen to Rachel when she discovered that the monsters she’d feared her entire life, the ones who existed outside, or Upwards, from where she lived were not necessarily as bad as the ones she knew at home.  What would that do to her? And isn’t it the same for all teenagers?  Doesn’t part of growing up mean reassessing the childhood beliefs that the adults taught you to help you get through the day. Who was Rachel? How would she make it through?  

Rachel impressed me so much.  I didn’t really know what she would do when I sat down to write her story and by the end of it she and I knew each other very well. Although she is in no way me, (She is much braver than I am.) I like her a tremendous amount.   

The next book, I knew, would be more complicated for her because the question plaguing me that would be the momentum for Rachel’s story was hard.  When all hope is gone, what drives you forward?  Because learning that lesson is part of the journey every teenager makes.  In Rachel’s case, the situation is different than teenagers today.  In our world, no one is being asked to fight vampires or werewolves. But we do ask teenagers to handle their peer groups, their coaches, their teachers, and sometimes the expectations of the adults around them as they figure out who they want to be for the rest of their lives. 

Driven is complicated.  But Rachel is magnificent and I can’t wait to tell her next story.   

Here is a blurb below: 

My name is Rachel Clancy. Forty-six years ago, life as humanity understood it ended. Armageddon. Well, that’s what we call it, anyway. What other term works as well to describe the day the Vampires and Werewolves slaughtered nearly all of humanity?




When Rachel Clancy turned sixteen, she inadvertently changed the lives of everyone around her. Now, six months later she has to figure out how to live with what has happened.



Sent back into the wilderness—this time with a new love—she will find herself face-to-face with two people she never thought to see again: the boy she thought she loved and the man who wanted to destroy her since birth. If Rachel can learn what drives her forward, there may be a chance for everyone to start again. If she fails, all is lost.


I hope you’ll join me on Rachel’s journey to adulthood. There is a lot of story left to tell! 

~Rebecca Royce~