SMAD alumna to discuss debut novel at Feb. 1 event
Media Arts and Design
Rachel McRady (’11), an Emmy-winning writer and editor for "Entertainment Tonight," has just published her debut novel and will host an event Feb. 1 in downtown Harrisonburg as part of her book release.
McRady, who held numerous leadership positions in student media while she was a student, will be at Parentheses Books at 7 p.m. Feb. 1 for a conversation with Breeze TV’s Alexa Bonilla.
Bonilla will moderate a discussion about McRady’s Sun Seekers, a fictional family drama that comes out of McRady’s family history in dealing with dementia. It follows 6-year-old Gracie Lynn, a perpetually curious and big-hearted granddaughter convinced she knows how to save her beloved grandfather, John, from the “worm” that is eating his brain. She helps him break out of his nursing home, and the two disappear together on a quest to chase the sun. But what’s an adventure for Gracie is a nightmare scenario for her estranged parents, LeeAnn and Dan. There’s no way to predict where John might have taken their young daughter, or if he’s capable of keeping her safe.
McRady’s publisher describes the book as “an emotionally resonant novel that artfully explores the truths of parenthood, the ways in which we sometimes hurt those we love most and the universal experience of deep loss — even when the person is still here.”
McRady has been writing novels since before she could write herself, dictating stories to her mother on an old computer in the 1990s. She has had pieces published in The Washington Post, Time, The Huffington Post, Us Weekly, Parade, Teen Vogue, Motherly, Elite Daily, Yahoo Travel and more.
McRady lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, Caleb, and daughters, Iona and Isla.
McRady, who held numerous leadership positions in student media while she was a student, will be at Parentheses Books at 7 p.m. Feb. 1 for a conversation with Breeze TV’s Alexa Bonilla.Bonilla will moderate a discussion about McRady’s Sun Seekers, a fictional family drama that comes out of McRady’s family history in dealing with dementia. It follows 6-year-old Gracie Lynn, a perpetually curious and big-hearted granddaughter convinced she knows how to save her beloved grandfather, John, from the “worm” that is eating his brain. She helps him break out of his nursing home, and the two disappear together on a quest to chase the sun. But what’s an adventure for Gracie is a nightmare scenario for her estranged parents, LeeAnn and Dan. There’s no way to predict where John might have taken their young daughter, or if he’s capable of keeping her safe.
McRady’s publisher describes the book as “an emotionally resonant novel that artfully explores the truths of parenthood, the ways in which we sometimes hurt those we love most and the universal experience of deep loss — even when the person is still here.”
McRady has been writing novels since before she could write herself, dictating stories to her mother on an old computer in the 1990s. She has had pieces published in The Washington Post, Time, The Huffington Post, Us Weekly, Parade, Teen Vogue, Motherly, Elite Daily, Yahoo Travel and more.
McRady lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, Caleb, and daughters, Iona and Isla.
