When passion for writing leads to following in your father’s footsteps.

Pam Adams wrote one, so did Stephen King, James Patterson, Emily Bleeker, Diana Gabaldon, George R.R Martin and J. Thomas Richards. Yes, they all wrote books, and guess what? One of them is junior Rain Richard’s father. Rain soon hopes to pursue his dreams like his father.

Ever since Rains was 12, he knew he wanted to become a writer, and his father, Thomas, is one of his biggest influencers. When Rain was 14, his father published his own book called “The Black River Players.”
“It was kind of like a realization, i realized that i can someday publish a book and attain that goal” Richards ‘19 said. Another big influence that sparked his passion for writing was reading books from other authors like Rick Riordan and JK Rowling.
“He loves to read, even as a child he read a ton and no doubt that has a huge impact on him.” His father said.

Even when Rain moved around, writing was a constant in his life. When Rain was around twelve years old he moved to Des Moines with his mother and stepfather.
“I never really wanted to move to Des Moines,” Richards said, “but I went along with it.” In Des Moines he attended Roosevelt Junior High, and he had many groups of friends, which helped him view others differently.
“I like people, and I like meeting new people.” Richards said. His new experience in a different school helped him build up his story ideas and characters. It also gave him ideas on how the characters will act and behave.

“I try to make my characters believable and have them experience a change,” Richards said. “Sometimes what a character says or does is different from what they believe or what they are feeling, and I think that’s important to get right.”

Rain has lots of story ideas stored up inside his brain. An interesting story idea he has is about a zombie apocalypse, but the twist is it’s in the point of view of a zombie who is getting hunted by humans.
“Most of these are just bits and pieces,” he said. Another idea that he has about the next story he might write is about a man with amnesia who has forgotten he was Batman and how that man must find himself and become the hero he was always meant to be.

When he’s not writing Rain likes to spend time with his extended family consisting of three younger brothers, one step-mother, one step-father, and his biological mother and father. His father introduced him to video game consoles when he was younger and now he plays video games with his step-father.
“My step dad helped me build my computer that I have right now,” Richards said.
Rain also likes to spend time with his cousin Jared who is a junior attending West High. “We like to watch movies, play video games, surf the internet, and read books and comics together.” Jared said.

After four years of being in Des Moines, Rain decided to move back to Iowa City to stay with his father. He plans to continue pursuing his passion for writing and thinking up new ways to make himself a better person and a better writer.