“It was just a hobby. I had a knack for it, but I’d never written creatively before.
“Things have ticked along, and I realised there’s something here.”
Gottlieb was born and raised in New York and spent most of her life in Colorado.
She has lived in Kerikeri for nearly six years.
She writes under the pen name Rachel Old after stepping off the corporate ladder a decade ago and feeling unsure of calling herself an author.
Jandals is the first in a trilogy centred on “a museum in a war”. It is written as contemporary historical fiction for young adults.
Though the book was published in 2016, she never did anything with it – until recently, when she sent it to the International Impact Book Awards.
The awards are a global platform recognising indie, self-published and traditionally published authors whose books deliver a powerful message and create real-world impact.
“I received a letter of congratulations that I’d won for contemporary fiction in February, and I went to Phoenix [for the annual gala awards].
“Then the call came a couple of months after that saying I’d been nominated for Author of the Year. Then they said I was a finalist.”
Gottlieb is now preparing herself for the red-carpet event.
Though shy, she wants to do justice to her book.
“I’m interested in making sure I elevate this and stay brave because I’m pretty reserved.
“But it’s about the story … I wrote this for a reason because I know it’s making a difference.”
Jandals is a story of curious college students who meet in Amsterdam and accidentally help to change or save the world.
Its theme was to prove that “with patience and compassion, peace prevails”, Gottlieb said.
She wrote the book in Florida over one summer in 2015.
She previously helped to write treatments for the documentaries Bullfighter on the Green and Bell Rung.
Jandals now has a social media following of more than 5400 young people around the world.
Gottlieb hopes to finish her second book next year.
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.