“Stone Cold Fox” by Rachel Koller Croft

Rachel Koller Croft is on her first book tour …and loving it. A screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles, Croft has added novelist to her job description with the recent publication of “Stone Cold Fox,” a thriller about an ambitious woman who wants to leave a dark past behind to marry an heir to one of the country’s wealthiest families but first must go toe-to-toe with a female adversary.Croft shared “breaking news” with Steve Tarter that “Stone Cold Fox” had just been picked up as a possible TV series to feature her both as writer and executive producer.But Croft didn’t settle into success immediately. After college (a 2008 graduate from the University of Minnesota), she headed west to California to make her mark, she said. “The first job I got there was a very popular celebrity gossip blog. I remember thinking then that I had made it but it really was not my calling,” said Kroft who moved back to Chicago “a little deflated about my writing dreams.”“I needed a real job and ended up working in sales (in Chicago) which was pretty fortuitous for me. What people don’t tell aspiring screenwriters is that you have to go into a room and pitch yourself and your story so I’m actually very glad I got that work experience,” she said.Her return trip to the Golden State turned out to be more productive. Using her own experience taking road trips to Nashville from Chicago with her girlfriend (both love country music), she fashioned “Torn Hearts,”  a screenplay about two women musicians who travel to the Music City in a story blending country music and horror.As she tours the country, Croft blends an extrovert’s delight with meeting new people with stories about her “Stone Cold Fox” characters which she described as “little monsters.”