Your Questions, Answered
Elrich E-Readers Special Edition
Dear Reader,
First, I want to give a shout-out to those who were able to attend my live Saturday or watched it at a later time. Thank you for coming. I talked a lot about my books and creative process.
At the end of the video, I announced an epic giveaway of all three of my paperback books. Although you have until the end of August, don’t delay. You can get extra entries right now!
If you aren’t a video watcher and would prefer to read the text version with all the answers to the questions, I wrote it before the video began (although if you watch the video, you’ll know I go off-script). You can read and scroll through to find your question answered below. Enjoy!
What are my books? And what are they about?
I have three full-length novels published, one novella, and one collection of short stories. I was also featured in Where Giants Fall and Finding God in Anime Volume 2 and 3. I also have several short stories that won awards at my local fair. When I was in high school and college, I was published in several anthologies.
Currently, I focus my fiction writing on the Daughters of Tamnarae series. Technically Tala starts the generation of women (”thus daughters”), but I recommend reading Etania’s Worth first (which I hope all of you have already as part of our read-along, if not, it’s time to start!). To give you an idea of the family tree, Tala is the mother of Etania, who is the mother of Lavanna (the next novel in my series) and Amalia (an upcoming novel). I plan to end the series with Amalia. However, Etania’s stories are complete because I don’t have any cliffhangers, just tie-in’s.
My novella is Toothbreaker, and my short story collection is Beginnings.
What is Toothbreaker and what does it mean?
Toothbreaker is a novella about Sage and Tamar, two minor characters who make appearances in Etania’s stories. Essentially, it’s a “werewolf-redemption” story, and Toothbreaker is my title for werewolves. This novella can be read as a standalone. It is currently available in paperback and ebook, with plans for an audiobook soon.
What is Beginnings?
Beginnings is a short story collection about the tamers of my world, which connects to the next question.
What is the world in which these stories occur?
My stories take place on the fictional planet of Tearah. This makes them high fantasy (which means they have a unique world and races) versus low fantasy (where fantastical elements intrude on the normal world). Tearah has several continents, which include Eyerae, Norae, Tamnarae, and Airae. I have mostly developed Tamnarae with the Daughters of Tamnarae series, and Etania’s stories take place on this continent (thus the “of Tamnarae” part). Lavanna and Amalia’s stories take place on a series of islands that are within Tamnarae’s reach. I have a map of Tamnarae that is in each of my books.
Tamnarae is split into two countries. The first book takes place in Southern Tamnarae, which is a collection of lands and lords under a King. These lands include the hafif (normal humans without Neuma or powers in my universe, Eritam (giant wolf tamers), Leici (healers), Naymatua (earth users), Kinzoku (metal and jewel users), Draconian (dragon tamers), and Ningyo (water users). Northern Tamnarae includes three separate kingdoms who are a triumvirate: the Equus (unicorn tamers), Pyros (fire users), and Lycan (giant cat tamers). Lavanna’s stories will introduce two other races, the Alephari (light Neuma users) and Ixites (griffin tamers). The origin of the tamers (Lycan, Eritam, Draconian, Equus and Ixites) are part of Beginnings.
What are the Lehrlings?
The Lehrlings are twelve humans who are the original disciples of Melchizedek, Deo’s Son. If you’ve read the Bible, you can see the parallels between them and the apostles of Jesus. This was purposeful. Of course, unlike the disciples of the Bible, my Lehrlings (and their spouses) live for three hundred years and can only have a single child (or birth). They have special abilities, which include teleportation, an impenetrable shield, invisibility, telepathy, controlling the weather, telekinesis, limited prophecy, gravity manipulation, stopping time, size manipulation, and super strength. These are powers in addition to their natural abilities. For example, Jakin can teleport and use fire Neuma because he is a Pyros and a Lehrling.
One of those Lehrlings is called a Vexli. The Vexli can turn Skazic (monsters) back to hafif (powerless human beings). Daas, the first Vexli, betrayed Melchizedek. Because of Daas’ betrayal, there is not another Vexli for hundreds of years. The new Vexlis do not have the same constraints or long life as the other Lehrlings.
Speaking of other Lehrlings, there are twelve “original” disciples, as in people who lived with Melchizedek and learned directly from him when he was living on Tearah. Lehrlings train apprentices with the intention of passing on their powers. Not every apprentice becomes a Lehrling. The apprentices who are chosen to be Lehrlings are called “Heirs” and demonstrate Melchizedek’s blessing with their eye color shifting from normal shades (brown, blue, green, yellow) to jeweled tones (amethyst, emerald, turquoise, etc).
What is your writing process?
First, I want to let you know that I have significantly refined my process. As I mentioned before, I’ve been writing for awhile (since I was a child). So obviously, my process as a child, middle schooler, and teenager was to write a draft, scrap it before it was finished, and scribble ideas into my 1001 notebooks. I also co-wrote several books with my best friend, C.M. Fritzen (who now has a published book of her own based on stories we acted out/wrote as a child, but better!). Etania’s Worth took approximately twelve drafts before I actually finished it (this time because of my other best friend and fellow author, C.E. Stone). Then, I had to do several revisions and accidentally published my book before it was ready (Thus why there are lots of covers running around of my book). I learned so much and even refined my style. In my opinion, Etania’s Worth formed my writing process.
Now, it takes about six months to a year for me to finish one complete draft. Usually this includes writing and rewriting, sometimes writing up to eighty or more pages, scrapping it, and starting over or using pieces and throwing it out. This is because I am not an outliner. I’ve tried to be, but it doesn’t work for me. I do use some bits of the three act structure, but I wonder if I’m a chiastic structure person. Generally, when I start a draft, I have an idea of where I want to go and several important events. Writing is my favorite part of the process.
Tala, my paid subscriber story, is different. I prayed for God’s help on that one to outline because I wanted to deliver a good story for my paid subscribers. However, it may venture a bit off the outline (I just can’t help it), but I think it will stay the straight and narrow because I really like my ideas.
After I finish the first draft, I send it to my developmental editor, C.E. Stone. She used to also do the line edit of my books as well, but that has changed because of recent life things. I have gotten way better at doing line and grammar editing because of her tutelage. I also use programs like ProWritingAid and/or Grammarly to help me find pesky errors. Finally, I hand the story over to beta readers for feedback. These readers help me with another developmental edit after I revise the story, and usually I read my book at least five times before it is sent to ARC readers. Even then, I miss some things! It can be frustrating to find errors after I’ve read it so many times my eyes are crossing. Here’s a basic outline:
Drafting/Writing
Developmental Edit by C.E. Stone and Resulting Rewriting
Line/Grammar Edit
Beta Reader/Developmental Edit 2
Rewriting if needed (it depends on reader feedback)
Proofread by reading it out loud-usually results in line edits again.
ARCs usually go out here and my lovely launch team usually catches those final awful errors.
What inspired Etania’s Worth?
To answer this question, I have to tell you about the origin of the story. I wrote half-completed drafts about Lavanna (Etania’s daughter), who was a normal teenager on Earth, transported to Tamnarae. She discovered she had parents who abandoned/saved her through a tree. I did this because Narnia was one of my big inspirations. But I remember sitting at the end of the Prince Caspian movie, listening to the ending song. I hated that Peter and Susan couldn’t return to Narnia (even if I understood why). I was done with Portal Fantasy at that moment, choosing to go more the Lord of the Rings/high fantasy route. I started thinking I need to write about Lavanna’s parents, who I named Malkiel (now Keyel) and Etania. In that draft, Etania was blind and Malkiel was her bodyguard, and they were gathering allies against an evil king. You can kind of see the outlines of my current story in this original tale. Anyway, it eventually (many, many, many, many drafts later) became what it is today.
I don’t remember when the idea of Lavanna first came to me. My creative writing teacher always told me that I wrote about princesses, castles, and knights. To some extent, she’s right. I’ve always had a female protagonist, and the nearest I can think is that I wanted read a story from Aowyn, Arwen, and Susan’s point of view, and I wanted more romance. I didn’t want to write the typical “strong female protagonist” because I’m not an extreme feminist. I never want to disparage men and often ask for my husband’s opinion. I just wanted to read books about women whose faith in God grew through learning they’re not enough, and that’s okay (like Allie Beth Stuckey’s book). In some ways, the themes of these books often reflect my own struggles with faith. Etania’s Worth, especially, was about my struggles with identity and purpose.
From the very beginning, I’ve wanted women to read my books and feel like God loves them, cares about them, and has a purpose for them. I also didn’t just want to have a conversion story. I wanted to show what it’s really like to be a Christian long term in my books. Yes, my books are entertaining fantasy stories. But like Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia, they are reflections of my faith.
Next month, I will be discussing the inspiration behind Etania’s Calling and answering any other questions you may have (feel free to send some my way).
If you’ve reached the end of this post, thank you for reading. Your support encourages me to keep going. Soli Deo Gloria.
Until Next Time,
M.H. Elrich