Rebecca Young: No Longer In Her Mother's Shadow!

Very Excited to Welcome Rebecca Young to Darcyholic Diversions!

During the Decatur Book Festival I had the pleasure of meeting Rebecca Young.  She is a very talented graphic artist (in addition to being the daughter of her Austen Author mother, Abigail Reynolds).  I believe I am safe to say that she is Darcy's definition of an accomplished woman!  I hope you enjoy getting to know her and seeing some of her very creative work.

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I am also announcing initial plans for a Darcyholic Holiday eBook Festival. 
More Information to come, but send me an email at barbaratillercole@gmail.com if you are an author and would like to participate!!

Upcoming Guest Posts Are As Follows:

October 5--C. Allyn Pierson
October 7--Jan Hahn and Janet Taylor's Jane Austenland Adventure
October 9--Karen W.
October 12--Sally Smith O'Rourke
October 15--Linda Goschioner
October 19--Amanda Grange

November 2--Amy Patterson

November 13--Karen Doornebos

And Many more to come!

Comments on Rebecca's post will be included as entries into the October give aways.  Chances will be given for joining this site, tweeting this post, joining this site as a member via Google Friend Connect (GFC) (See the left hand column on the blog to join!), sharing this on Facebook or your blog, Friend Barbara Tiller Cole on Facebook,  clicking 'like’ on Barbara Tiller Cole, Author's Facebook Page.

Rebecca Young:  No Longer 

In Her Mother's Shadow!

It’s very strange having your mother be a published author. Everyone has all these high assumptions of what authors are like and what they do and how they work, but for me she is still just my mom. 

Living with my mom has always been an adventure. She has the annoying quality of being able to be amazing and successful at everything she decides to pick up. I will always remember the day she decided to take up landscape quilting. We went to a fabric store and picked out a bunch of batiks and when we got home I watched this image begin to form out of these seemingly random scraps of cloth. The most recent talent addition is the harp. I came home one day and there was a full size harp in our living room. The sad thing is that it didn’t shock me. That is just what my mom does. So when she told me she had started writing I knew she would do well and was not at all surprised when a publisher approached her. Some people would say all this would be intimidating and hard to live up to but I just take it as inspiration. She shows me that it is possible to do anything you want, you just have to believe and be willing to get creative in how to make it happen.

My introduction to P&P came through the BBC version. One day mom sat me down with it and I watched it straight through. Around 2am when it was over, I started over again with disk one and watched all 5 hours again. I was hooked. 

I only actually started to read my moms books a few years ago(originally they were ‘too mature’ for my age) but I instantly fell in love. My first was Pemberley by the Sea which led to many others. I have always been a heavy reader and JAFF gave me something new.

I am many things but I have never been a writer. So I didn’t imagine that I would ever be included in this part of her world, however it has actually brought us together so much in the last year.  Over the years Mom has made passing comments that designing covers could be a good job for me and finally this spring I decided to do it! This led me down a crazy rabbit hole which I never could have forseen. She has been such a support for me in this designing endeavor and has introduced me to so many wonderful people.

I have always been very into art and started working in digital design at a summer camp in middle school. I formatted and designed a book of my friend’s poems when I was 15 and published it on Lulu. When I got really into it though was during a class I took freshman year of college. I had already been working with book formatting for about a year at that point and the design class gave me the courage to turn my art hobby into a career.

It is now common at our house to hear me and mom throwing around ideas for search terms for a ‘sexy mysterious guy with abs.’ (by the way the answer is ‘italian’ or ‘european’!)

Cover design and formatting fit perfectly into my life. I have never been a 9-5 girl and mom has always said I would probably end up having 5-10 jobs at a time. I just want to be doing everything and have variety in my life! With this job I work on my own time(often at 2am!) and can work at a coffeeshop, in waiting rooms, in my bed, on my couch, at the theatre, wherever! My life is like a game of tetris and design work is flexible. It also lets me be artistic and productive at the same time. I love working with all the authors and I find so much meaning in being able to bring their ideas to life.

Some people ask if I think I will ever work for a publisher and I can easily say no. I am a freelance girl. If a publisher wants me to work freelance I am happy to but I need freedom from rules. I like to cross the boundaries of what is expected and work with the authors. I am not someone who can be happy with being given a book and designing a cover and turning it in and never getting the authors input. I find way too much value in my discussions with authors and having their essence be in the covers as well as mine.