Rachel Ann Nunes

Rachel Ann Nunes (born May 7, 1966) is a United States best-selling and award-winning author born in Provo, Utah.^[1] She has authored dozens of novels, including the popular Autumn Rain series, the Ariana series, and the Huntington Family series. Nunes also published two picture books, Daughter of a King and The Secret of the King. She has also written under the name Teyla Branton.^[2]

Books

Rachel Ann Nunes writes mainstream women's fiction, family drama, romance, paranormal romantic suspense, Christian fiction, and LDS Christian fiction. Though she has focused primarily on clean romances and stories revolving around families, she has also published two picture books and a middle-grade chapter book, The Problem With Spaceships: Zero G (the first of an intended series).

She has currently published over three dozen books:

• Ariana: The Making of a Queen (Covenant Communications, Sept 1996, reprinted by Deseret Book, May 2008)
• Ariana: A Gift Most Precious, Covenant Communications,(Covenant Communications, Sept 1997, reprinted by Deseret Book, May 2008)
• Ariana: A New Beginning (Covenant Communications, Jan 1998, reprinted by Deseret Book, May 2008)
• A Bid for Love (Covenant Communications, Aug 1998, reprinted by Spring Creek, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2010)
• Ariana: A Glimpse of Eternity (Covenant Communications, Feb 1999, reprinted by Cedar Fort)
• Framed for Love (Covenant Communications, May 1999, reprinted by Spring Creek, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2010)
• To Love and to Promise (Covenant Communications, September 1999, reprinted by Spring Creek, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2010)
• Love on the Run (Covenant Communications, Sept 2000, reprinted by Spring Creek, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2010)
• A Greater Love (Truebeckon Books, March 2000, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2010)
• Tomorrow and Always (Covenant Communications, September 2000, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, Feb 2011)
• This Time Forever (Covenant Communications, Jan 2001, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2010)
• This Very Moment (Covenant Communications, Sept 2001, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2010)
• Bridge to Forever (Covenant Communications, June 2001, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2010)
• Daughter of a King (Covenant Communications, August 2001)
• Ties That Binds (Covenant Communications, March 2002, reprinted by Cedar Fort, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2011)
• Twice in a Lifetime (Cedar Fort, Sept 2002, reprinted by Cedar Fort, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, Feb 2012)
• A Heartbeat Away (Cedar Fort, April 2003, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, Feb 2012)
• Where I Belong (Cedar Fort, August 2003, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, Feb 2012)
• In Your Place (Cedar Fort, August 2004, ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, 2011)
• Winter Fire (Deseret Book, January 2005,)
• Secret of the King (Deseret Book, April 2005)
• No Longer Strangers (Deseret Book, Jan 2005)
• Chasing Yesterday (Deseret Book, Jan 2006
• By Morning Light (Deseret Book, Aug 2006
• The Independence Club (Deseret Book, Dec 2006)
• Flying Home (Shadow Mountain, Aug 2007)
• Fields of Home (Shadow Mountain, Feb 2008
• Eyes of a Stranger (Shadow Mountain, Sept 2008)
• Saving Madeline (Shadow Mountain, Sept 2009)
• Imprints, An Autumn Rain Novel (Shadow Mountain, April 2010)
• The Problem with Spaceships, Zero G (ebook Nunes Entertainment, March 2011)
• Shades of Gray, An Autumn Rain Novel (Shadow Mountain, May 2011)
• The Gift of Angels (ebook by Nunes Entertainment LLC, July 2011, print book by Cedar Fort August 2012)
• Before I Say Goodbye (Deseret Book, September 2011)
• Tell Me No Lies (ebook, January 2012 Nunes Entertainment LLC)
• Final Call, An Autumn Rain Novel (Shadow Mountain, February 2012)
• Line of Fire, An Autumn Rain Novel (Shadow Mountain, September 2012)

Awards

Nunes's novel Before I Say Goodbye won the 2011 Whitney Award for General Fiction. Her novels The Independence Club (2007), Fields of Home (2008) and Imprints, An Autumn Rain Novel (2010) were chosen as Whitney Award^[3] finalists.

Her picture book Daughter of a King was voted best children’s book of the year in 2003 by the Association of Independent LDS Booksellers, and her picture book The Secret of the King was chosen in Utah by the Governor's Commission on Literacy to be awarded to all Utah grade schools as part of the Read With A Child For 20 Minutes Per Day program.

Early life

Rachel Ann Nunes was born in Provo on May 7, 1966 to Kenneth Ralph Tarr and Katherine Louise Schmidt. She is the second of eight children and the first of six daughters. Nunes was taught to read by her mother when she was four, beginning a lifetime fascination with the written word. She avidly devoured books and won many reading contests in school. Her father was a French professor at Brigham Young University during much of her young life, and he often corrected her grammar and that of her siblings.

Her favorite novels as a youth were science fiction and fantasy. She began writing her own short stories in the seventh grade and her first novel at seventeen.

Schooling

Rachel Ann Nunes attended Kindergarten at Sunset Elementary in Provo, Utah, and for 1st to 4th grades she went to American Heritage, a private school, then located in Pleasant Grove, Utah. During her years at American Heritage, she lived with her family in Highland, Utah. After 4th grade, she returned to public school, but part of her fifth and sixth grade years, she spent in France with her family where her father was sent for six months in conjunction with Brigham Young University's Semester Abroad Program. There she read books about Marie Antoinette and roamed Paris with her older brother, having many experiences which would later appear in her early novels, most notably the Ariana series.

After returning from France, the family moved to back to Provo. Nunes attended Dixon Junior High in Provo and graduated from Provo High School in May 1984.

Marriage and Children

Nunes married Antonio Joao (TJ) Nunes in March 1989. They are the parents of seven children, three boys and four girls and make their home in Utah.

Nunes writes Monday through Friday in a home office, often with a child on her lap. She takes frequent breaks from writing to play or swim with the kids.^{[citation needed]}

Hobbies

According to her website, Nunes loves camping with her family, traveling and meeting new people, and, of course, writing. As a stay-at-home mother of seven, it isn't easy to find time to write, but she will trade washing dishes or weeding the garden for an hour at the computer any day! Her only rule about writing is to never eat chocolate at the computer. "Since I love chocolate and writing," she jokes, "my family might never see me again."^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Rachel Ann Nunes webpage
• Rachel Ann Nunes at the MLCA Database
• Interview with Rachel Ann Nunes at LatterDayAuthors.com