Rachel spent the majority of her working life running an interactive media company, designing and building software and websites, mainly for education. Her company was sold in 2000, and although she continued working for another 5 years, she also fulfilled a lifelong ambition of buying a property in Italy. The villa was a total ruin, and took about three years to complete, but finally Rachel found the time to fulfil her second ambition - writing a novel. Rachel still lives in central Italy with her husband and two German Shepherds.