Hi – thank you for the privilege of letting me share a little bit of my world with you.

In the time since TulipFiction came online it has been very exciting to have this opportunity to share my stories and my faith with readers from all over the world. I am so thankful for the feedback and encouragement of the readers and other online authors who have taken the time to write, and I hope and pray I will be able to continue writing more fiction which captures the heart as well as challenges the reader to think about the Word of God.

I feel very blessed to be able to put my writing online for free and make it available to as many people as possible. I am still learning about the craft of writing, and while I certainly don't think all the stories I have posted are anywhere near as good as they could be, I hope you will find enjoyment in reading them none-the-less.

Included on my site is a mix of light and fluffy little stories which I have just written for fun, as well as others over which I have laboured long and hard with the aim of exploring specific theological concepts. But all of them, I hope, will catch you up in the romance of the moment!

And a little about me . . .

I was very blessed to have been brought up in a warm and loving family who taught me early on about the God of the Bible. I cannot remember a time when I didn't truly believe that God exists and that because of his incredible love for his people he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to live the godly life we couldn't and then to die on the cross in payment for our sins. I grew up treasuring the truth that anyone who seeks God can be forgiven for their sins, and be given a new heart and eternal life through faith in Jesus.

Others told me as a child that my youthful devotion to this invisible God would not outlast the temptations of adolescence or my going out into the "real" world - but I have found the opposite to be true. God has been with me and cared for me through all the trials and temptations of my life, including receiving my education in a very "real" public school and working as a clerk in the court system for several years. I am in my late thirties, married to a beautiful Christian man and blessed with four gorgeous children who it is our privilege to bring up in the nurture and admonition of Lord.

I have spent my life learning more about my Lord - through his Word and through the way he has revealed himself to me personally, graciously working in my life and the lives of others. As I have always loved writing romantic fiction (I can't stop myself from continuously making up stories in my mind) it seemed a natural way to express my faith through the characters in my stories who deal with their lives and their relationship with God, in what I hope is a realistic way.

I find fiction a wonderful way to contemplate the truths of life and of God's Word, both in writing and reading it. As a busy mother (I am also homeschooling my children) and with my energy limited by health problems I simply do not have the ability at the moment to take in the "heavy" Christian literature which I once did, and know that many others are in the same position. It is my hope that God might use my writing to express his truths in an easily accessible and pleasurable way.

Once upon a time I was very involved with art and crafts, and before my children (and this latest episode of ill health) came along I enjoyed dabbling in sewing, knitting, crochet, folk art, fimo modelling, cake decorating and various kinds of needlework. I still look forward to the time when I can get back into all those things but at the moment my "spare time" hobbies are mainly reading, writing and surfing the net. There are many Christian resources available online that have been a tremendous blessing to me, and I will be including some of those in my links section and newsletters.

I would love to hear from any readers with questions or comments about my stories, or from anyone who just wants to say hello ~ just be patient if it takes me a while to reply.

Email me either by clicking on the email button below (Java must be enabled) or by emailing me at the following address:

ive_been_reading at tulipfiction dot com (spaces removed and "at" and "dot" replaced by the correct symbols ).
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Yours,

Rachel Brown

P.S. A number of readers have commented that they didn't initially realise that I'm an Australian, so I thought I'd better add a comment about that here.

Since many of the people who visit TulipFiction are from other countries and have told me they are enjoying the distinctive Australian flavour to my stories I am trying to focus on that - but at the same time I am daily discovering the great variations in spelling, expressions and colloquial language from around the English speaking globe.

So if you don't understand "my 'strine" (my Australian vernacular) please ask for clarification and I'll add a note about it.