Rachel Menard was born in New Jersey, raised in Arizona, and then relocated to Rhode Island. Throughout her life she has been a barista, college radio DJ, singer in an alt-country band, marketer, designer, and finally, a young adult author. Her work has been featured in Writer’s Digest and on Cast of Wonders, and her short story, Blame it on the Bees, was chosen as a “Best of 2019” by Diabolical Plots. Her first novel Steel Hand, Cold Heart, won the Grand Prize in the Writer’s Digest 7th Annual Self-Published eBook awards. Her traditional debut, Game of Strength and Storm, was selected as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard and was published in 2022 by Flux, followed by an untitled sequel in March of 2023.