Get to Know Rachel Brooks

  • By: admin | Date: Feb 17 2020

Welcome to the next installment of the BookEnds “Get to Know” series! (ICYMI, Kim’s was on Friday.) You’ve read our bios, but behind the business persona and books-books-books talk, we do have a few more layers. Today I’m peeling back the “Rachel onion” a bit more. (*Please note my satchel in the above photo is cat print.)

Favorite meals:

  1. Jjajangmyeon (I’d always ordered this dish out, until recently doing it from scratch with successful results!)
  2. Shrimp fettuccine Alfredo (no such thing as too many shrimp)
  3. Homemade berry cobbler (raspberry, blackberry, just give me a berry. Yes, this can be a meal, see the heading.)
  4. Pancit (with lumpia too, please)
  5. Pad Thai (spicy FTW)

*I only now realized 4 out of 5 are noodle dishes…

Things I did this month outside of work:

  1. Picked out new recipes to try from Maangchi’s cookbook
  2. Exercised to my ongoing choreography list, for fitness, the challenge of memorization, and of course, fun. (Here is one of my favorites I’ve been doing since 2018.)
  3. Watched more episodes of AJ and the Queen
  4. Downloaded the “weather kitty” app (Thanks to James, my daily weather report is now 217% cuter.)
  5. Cooked carne guisada for the first time

Passion

It might sound corny to say I’m passionate about “creative expression”, but it’s true! For as long as I can remember, I’ve had my hands in creating something.

A few examples:

  1. Painting (bedroom walls and ceiling…with permission! or on canvas)
  2. Pottery (visit my folks to see some still displayed)
  3. Stained glass cutting and soldering (excuse my French, but what a PITA)
  4. Trying to play instruments (drums and guitar, but with drums we all suffered more)
  5. Community theater (the longest-running creative pursuit at 10 years’ worth of performances, from productions of Guys and Dolls to A Christmas Story and more. I actually was this close to choosing theater as my major instead of business.)   

Now it doesn’t seem such a leap that I help guide authors in their creative pursuits, does it? As much as I love helping my clients, one of my 2020 goals is to carve out a bit more creative time for myself, too. I promise it won’t be drums.

10 responses to “Get to Know Rachel Brooks”

  1. Avatar Christy Smith says:
    February 17, 2020 at 11:58 am

    Wonderfully diverse interests!

  2. Avatar A.S. Fenichel says:
    February 17, 2020 at 1:07 pm

    I played Adelaide in Guys and Dolls in HS.

  3. Avatar AJ Blythe says:
    February 17, 2020 at 5:01 pm

    Not only am I learning more about the BookEnds team, but I’m simply learning more. Food, fitness, apps… I know I’m in a different country but I didn’t expect to have to Google as much as I do when I read the bios!

  4. Avatar Iris says:
    February 18, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    Jjajangmyeon – ugh. Lived in Korea for long enough, but never tried it. The sauce is just… how shall I say…. the wrong shade of brown.

    I fully agree though that berry cobbler (or anything sweet for that matter) is a full meal on the right (okay: most) days.
    You wouldn’t want to endear yourself to the community by sharing a recipe? 😉

  5. Avatar Carolyn Meers says:
    February 19, 2020 at 11:00 pm

    My list for the New Year was to not use plastic at all and help save the environment.

    And to try new Vegan food.
    I loved your post though , thanx .

    But I did however take up the drums .. LoL ..

  6. Avatar Carolyn Meers says:
    February 19, 2020 at 11:02 pm

    Oh and adopt more cats.

    And I love ANY Berry cobbler or pie as well.

  7. Avatar Carolyn Keith says:
    March 31, 2020 at 3:03 pm

    I love Pancit and Lumpia!!! And adopting more cats is always a wonderful idea!