Today I have a special guest for you.

Thanks for having me today, Ronel.

A long time ago…

There was a girl who wrote stories. She had big dreams and little understanding of what it takes to get published. She wrote and wrote and wrote…and gave up because none of the hooks she cast got bites. But the stories kept nipping at her heels. It didn’t take long before she went back to writing. And she wrote and wrote and wrote.

She started to get nibbles. She got short stories published, and articles, and bits and bobs around the place. Then she got a novelette published in an anthology. At a little over 10k words, it was her longest successful piece.

Champagne was uncorked. Cake was eaten.

Her focus turned to novels, her true love. You guessed it: she wrote and wrote and wrote. But then life intruded. Stuff happened, the kind of stuff that reminded this girl that life is short. October last year, she went independent and published her debut YA fantasy novel, Wielder’s Prize.

Exciting times.

She didn’t stop there. She published book 2, Wielder’s Curse, and book 3, Wielder’s Fire, in January and May this year. She was on a roll!

She wasn’t a fast writer, but she’d been writing for a long time and created a large backlist of unpublished stories. She had a plan to publish more.

Of mice and men…

Once the box set for the Wielder’s Storm trilogy came out, she wanted to go back and rework the very first epic tome she ever wrote. She planned to break it into a multibook series. But this would take time. She didn’t want her readers to wait too long for something new to read, so her thoughts went to that novelette she had languishing in a drawer.

Girl was very happy… until she read it.

This old story no longer fit her author brand. She writes young adult epic fantasy, not adult urban fantasy. So she decided to rewrite it. It shouldn’t take long. No more than a few weeks.

Girl laughs at her foolishness.

Turns out, it took a lot longer. So did the cover. Both the story and the cover demanded something special, something different, something more.

Thus, Well of Ash was born.

A new title: Well of Ash

A new genre: fantasy with dragons

A new market: young adults

A new length: a novella verging close to a novel.

New characters: Ashina, a feisty seventeen-year-old girl who is drawn to the city’s mysterious Great Well. Lacc, an eighteen-year-old rat catcher with gorgeous eyes. Sooty, a fire lizard with a mystery of his own.

A new setting: an ‘enlightened’ river city called Prudentia. Ancient Great Wells have been built across the world for reasons no one alive understands.

And, of course, a whole new book description:

If the whispers call your name, run!
Seventeen-year-old Ashina has more in common with an untamed fire lizard than the people who are supposed to be her new family. After running away, she’s drawn to the city’s mysterious Great Well. No one knows who built them across the world or why. To linger near makes the skin crawl and the mind drift in nightmares. And yet this one calls to Ash in whispers that pull her closer.

Despite the warnings from a handsome stranger with gorgeous eyes, Ash searches for answers in dangerous places. Soon she’s caught in a tangle of peculiar events she can’t explain or escape. When both her sanity and life are threatened, she realizes she has more to lose than she thought. Ash must find the answers before she loses everything she holds dear.

If you like dragons, magic, and a fierce heroine with a wounded heart, then you’ll love Well of Ash, a YA Fantasy novella by Elle Cardy. Jump in today to unravel the secrets.

A story that writes itself

While this girl has her name on the cover, she didn’t write this story. This story wrote itself. It demanded dragons. It pressed for a mystery with whispers and phantoms. It insisted on going a certain way when the original went a different direction.

Sometimes the story is pigheaded. Sometimes Girl must bow to the story.

Besides, it was in her best interests to listen. She met new people, explored a whole new world, and it grew and grew until she thought this too could be a series…

…but that’s a story for another time.

Elle Cardy is this girl, and this girl is me.

A special gift for you

Today, I’m offering a special gift: You can get a free copy of Well of Ash when you join my VIP newsletter club. Click HERE.

Well of Ash is also available on Amazon as an ebook and a paperback.

Who is Elle Cardy?

Elle Cardy is an author, editor, game developer, 3D artist, graphic designer, photographer, gamer and so much more. She has a number of speculative short stories published in print and online. Wielder’s Prize is her debut young adult fantasy adventure. Having lived in Sydney most of her life, she is now a relative newcomer to sunny Brisbane where she lives with her sweetheart of a husband who is also her best friend.

Where can I find Elle Cardy?

Website: http://www.ellecardy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellecardy/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElleCardy

Blog: https://lyndaryoung.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19553756.Elle_Cardy

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/elle-cardy

Do you have any questions for the author? Have you read any of these books?