From her 20-year run as an Emmy-winning television journalist for 13 ABC, to hosting and producing her own lifestyle television program, Rebecca Regnier is a familiar face to many in the Toledo area. A Bedford graduate and Michigan State University alumna, Regnier knew from childhood that she was destined to entertain the masses.
“I was always perform-ish,” she said. “I always had an outgoing personality. I knew I would have a career that involved being in front of people.”
Regnier began her career by gradually building up a reputation in Toledo area television, eventually culminating in an offer from Diane Larson for an anchor position at 13 ABC. Over the span of the next two decades, Regnier became a figurehead of Toledo television and media.
In 2008, she took on the role of humor columnist for the Monroe News. Her weekly column ran for 13 years and received First Place in the 2020 Humor Columnist category from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, among other high accolades.
Tik Tok-ing
Regnier has accumulated a combined 40,000 followers on her Twitter, Instagram and, most recently, Tik Tok accounts.
“The key to successful social media is authenticity,” she said. “With Tik Tok, I didn’t want to market anything. I wanted to be as real and unvarnished as I could be.”
Regnier’s Tik Tok features dozens of comedic videos ranging in subjects ranging from pop culture to dieting to lifestyle to general shared life experiences, all told through the lens of her signature wit and personability.
The printed page
Nowadays, Regnier works as a full-time indie author. She lives in Michigan with her husband, an attorney also turned full-time author who’s published a series of legal suspense thrillers, called the Nate Shepard Novels, under pen name Michael Stagg.
Regnier has self-published two different series under the Paranormal Women’s Fiction (PWF) genre. The first being an eight-part series called Widow’s Bay, and the more recent a two-part series (with more on the way) called North of Forty-Nine.
The paranormal women’s fiction novel revolves around an older female protagonist who, in her mid-life, discovers she has supernatural powers. Regnier sums it up to “a mix of Twilight meets Harry Potter meets True Blood meets Golden Girls.”
“It’s a real specific niche,” she said. “It’s like coming-of-age but when you’re in your 50s and 40s.”
Pandemic Cold Cases
During the pandemic, Regnier embarked on a new series of suspense novels, the Kendra Dillon Cold Case Thrillers, authored under the pen name Rebecca Rane. This four-book series follows a cold-case podcaster who solves crimes— which is, essentially, the dream of every true-crime podcast fan.
She describes these novels as “darker” and “more mainstream” compared to her previous works.
“I was like, I’m going to build this thing and if it flies, great. If it doesn’t, then it was something I tried and it’s fine,” she laughed. “And it worked.”
That statement seems to be an overarching theme throughout all Regnier’s career pursuits.
“I always just kicked it in and started. I was never afraid of the word ‘no,’” she said. “I always had that. I could handle a ‘no’ without collapsing.”
You Will Do Better
On creating a career in broadcast television, she said, “I would’ve never thought I could have a TV job in Toledo for as long as I did, so I was happy about that.”
She added, “In Toledo, there’s opportunities that people don’t necessarily understand, they’re right here.”
Regnier’s novels can be found on Amazon and iTunes. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok and her personal website rebeccaregnier.com.
Her upcoming releases include a third installment in the North of Forty-Nine series and book one of her newest series, The Summer Cottage Novels, titled Sandbar Sisters.
Michael Stagg’s four-part legal thriller series can be found on Amazon or by visiting michaelstagg.com. His fifth installment, Just Plea, is expected to be released in May.
