MEET THE AUTHOR

Rachael Hiatt is an American author and practicing Registered Nurse for over 50 years, with Master’s Degrees in both Nursing and Counseling. Her debut work, The River Series, is comprised of eight medical historical romance novels which follow a group of exceptional Nurses and Doctors over a 40 year period, starting in WWI. The journey plunges readers into the struggle to find courage, love, faith, and meaning in the throes of the battle between good and evil.

Rachael is a mother of two and grandmother of three. When she sets aside her pen, she finds joy in playing the piano, writing poetry, and observing the migrations of Snow Geese. With heartfelt gratitude to the patients she has had the privilege of serving as well as the practitioners she has worked alongside, to her mother—her most loyal critic—and to God, she humbly offers these novels to her readers.

THE RIVER SERIES

took shape just like the flowing waters of Earth. Having master’s degrees in nursing and family practice counseling (and being raised by a mother who taught English and Literature), I suppose I was destined to write these novels. Throughout my life, streams of shared experiences, stories with common themes have flowed into each other, eventually merging into rivers of human experience… over five decades of stories pay homage to survivors of trauma and emotional pain.

Life has not always been easy, but it has been fruitful and allowed for personal and spiritual growth over the years… and I sincerely hope that life has helped me to be a better, more compassionate caregiver for my patients regardless of where or how they have needed my care.

Readers of these novels might potentially find similarities to their own journeys on one or more of the pages, as the events in the series depict true human nature, the good and the bad, the selfish and the generous, the hateful and the loving. The most painful plot points in the series, however re-worked and disguised, are based on true stories. It takes courage to read them, just as it took great courage for them to be told in the first place. I honor the courage of those willing to work through their pain in the telling of their experiences. Readers for whom the stories are too painful are welcome to skip over those parts. The story line will continue and be picked up later, and the lives of the main characters will continue to unfold. Although I try to give the characters the ability to find balance in both humor and sorrow, some readers may turn several pages to pass over a depicted event in the lives of our characters, and not look back.

*augmented photo of a WWI CCS by the Meuse River (from the trenches)

The River Series is medical romance fiction set into an historical context. The series covers a forty-year span of time from roughly 1916 to 1944. There are many secondary characters added along the way, like smaller creeks feeding into a main river, however the major characters remain the focal point of the entire series.

The Meuse begins the journey of our main characters with a team of volunteer doctors and nurses serving in European mobile medical camp, in the Great War. Doctors and nurses from America did volunteer with the French army before the United States formally declared war with Germany. The setting of World War I, provides a solid backdrop, one hundred years in the past. My maternal grandfather served in WWI and his hand-written journal offered intimate knowledge of the western front. His entries were helpful in establishing authenticity for The Meuse.

Three Rivers continues the tale as main characters return home, and the seeds of good and evil continue to grow on a different battlefield, as life became complicated by the Spanish Flu epidemic that shut down the country.

As Fishing Creek unfolds, the main characters face life and death, while their faith is tested and the question of ‘why me’ evolves into one of ‘why not me’ as social challenges affect people from all walks of life and human experience.

Throughout Elk River, as the series’ main family grows, society faces the challenges of Prohibition and human greed, reflecting many of the same social ills still plaguing humanity in modern times.

Six Penny Creek incorporates post war and Depression immigration and blending of cultures as the failing economy wreaks havoc on daily life of the people. The war of good and evil comes to a critical point for the main characters, one that will challenge their beliefs about whether good really is strong enough to overcome evil in the world.

In Tributary, the past collides with the present. Our characters learn that sometimes time itself does not ‘heal all wounds’ and must be faced head on with great courage and faith.

As High Water unfolds, World War II looms on the horizon, affecting the next generation, as our main characters realize history is repeating itself, and the “war to end all wars” did not achieve its goal of peace for all time. The original series of seven novels ends in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and the start of World War II.

An add-on novel, Frozen Falls, is set in the era of the Cold War, picking up some missing years of our character’s lives as the big-brother of government hits home for our main characters in a very personal way.

As a nurse, I cannot conceive of facing the life and death situations I have faced without a spiritual frame of reference. Someone once said ‘there is no atheist in a foxhole’. I haven’t run into many of them at the ICU bedside either. There have been many who struggle with the age-old question of, “If God is real, why doesn’t He do something about this?” I personally believe he always has already and take great comfort in the belief that there is a great and loving Creator who is intimately involved in His creation and has a plan to bring believers “back to the Garden” one future day, in His perfect timing.

In The River Series, the desire for spiritual growth is readily evident in the main characters. They are also squarely confronted with profound evil during their journeys. It is not a “spoiler” to tell the reader in advance that good will be the final victor. The main storyline illustrates how evil relentlessly ‘seeks to devour’ on Earth, preying on those who turn from truth to serve selfish or immoral purposes. The series’ ultimate triumphs are evident in the pure love shared between the main characters, especially between husband and wife, and in true forgiveness for the sins along their spiritual journeys to find meaning, salvation, redemption, and restoration.

And a word about doctors and nurses: it’s crucial to remember that we are humans too. As I often told my staff when orienting new nurses, there are times when we do everything exactly right, and the patient still dies. There are times when we inadvertently do something wrong and the patient still lives. It’s not up to us.

I have sat with the mother of an infant who died while still in her womb, and with aborted babies who died outside of the womb. I have supported those asking for every last medical measure to preserve life. And also those saying save the medical resources for a younger person who still has years ahead of them. I don’t judge. I have always tried to support informed choices and provide comfort.

Nurses are a strange breed. I started out in ICU making two dollars and seventy-eight cents an hour with a 3-11 differential. It was good pay at the time for nurses. I do not know of too many people willing to get bloody, messy, tired, stressed, and stretched for that pay scale. But nurses did it then.

Nurses:

  • Talk about bleeding intestines while eating spaghetti

  • Do CPR at an accident in a corn field as easily as in a five-star hospital bed

  • Smell a wound for tell-tale signs of certain infections with the same skill as smelling a stew cooking on the stove, knowing that it needs more oregano or garlic powder

  • Listen to a heart for symptoms of fluid overload with the same ears that hear our babies cry on the second floor even without a baby monitor

  • Prioritize washing a patient bedridden several days, while at the same time falling into bed after a twelve-hour shift without stopping to hit our own shower

  • Hear what a patient is not saying, more than the angry tirade coming from his or her mouth while experiencing intense pain

  • Say “at least I tried” when a patient refuses care and sends us away

  • Make mistakes and vow to learn what we need to know to keep them from happening again

  • Learn all there is to know about a disease and still remember that we don’t know all there is to know about the disease

  • Say we’re still a good nurse even if we can’t name all 206 bones in the adult body at ten at night (or two in the morning)

  • Translate generic names of drugs with reasonable accuracy and know where to look them up, just to be sure

  • Can read doctors’ handwriting…

And some of the finest human beings I have ever known are physicians, especially the ones who appreciate the nurses caring for their patients. As Doctor Parr once told his residents, “If the nurse here tells you she just has a ‘feeling’ something’s not right, drop what you’re doing and come over. A good nurse has an intuition that shouldn’t be ignored.” Thank you, Doctor Parr. You were a phenomenal surgeon. In another life, I would have accepted your offer to run your cardiothoracic practice.”

It’s to the nurses and their patients that I dedicate these novels.

- Rachael Hiatt