Ellie's Note: I find myself ever inundated with more ideas than I have time for. The below are examples of projects which I have given the most attention and work. Hopefully, one day, each of them will move to the Publications page.
This novel follows Joanna Halcyon, a witch and Queen-to-be, as she endeavors to kill the evil rulers of her kingdom who have burned so many of her friends and family at the stake. Along the way, she uncovers truths about those whom she hates, accidently saves a young girl, and falls in love quite by accident. As her murderous plots evolve, will she be able to balance her loyalties both new and old, or will she ultimately burn herself down in pursuit of impossible dreams?
Like all my work, this story is full of queerness and magic. It is currently in the beta stage, with plans to pursue publication soon. If you are interested in reading a beta copy, please reach out via the shared inbox on our contact page!
You can find most of the current information about this project on my NaNoWriMo page, but the gist is here, too.
This book follows Peace, one of the divinely-appointed members of the Hunt, as she recounts some of her most interesting adventures. Her job is to slay monsters of mythic proportions in order to create Legends for the people who witness her actions. These are the Legends which go on to sustain civilizations. But there's more to that job than meets the eye, and as Peace herself comes to realize, the Hunt may not be what it seems...
I'm thrilled to be working on this project; it combines some of my favorite aspects of worldbuilding into chapters that are wildly varied. The initial idea for this book came about while I was reading Sam Sykes' Seven Blades In Black; I was awed by the monster-building in that book and wanted to try my hand at writing something similar, though I'd like to think I had an original idea or two along the way.
For as much as Jane Austen has given me, I felt it was time to attempt to honor my favorite of her books by adapting it. I've enjoyed many different adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, so I was eager to start writing my own.
The defining alterations I made when beginning were to set it in the modern day, and with both Mr. Darcy's and Elizabeth Bennet's roles played by transsexual women. I wanted to queer the narrative and explore its central themes from a trans perspective. How might it change things if the class differences between Lizzie and Darcy have less to do with outright income and more to do with access to gender-affirming care?
I wrote the first draft in September and October of 2023. It came out to around 33,000 words, which is respectable but far less than I'd hoped. I am currently working through the arduous process of editing and annotating my first draft, with the goal of putting together a second draft over the next few months.
I'll have much more to share about this project (which is really several dozen smaller projects in a trench coat) when I've done some organization and sorted out what I really intend to do with it. For now, the Archipelago is my catch-all fantasy setting, ranging from DnD-like high fantasy all the way down to whatever nonsense I can think of!