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Welcome to the Hideaway

A high seas fairing treehouse, just waiting for you to climb aboard and join the adventure!

The idea of the Hideaway started some time ago, born out of the longing to create a space, imaginary but still quite tangible in some incredible way. This is a place for me as much as it is for you. The Hideaway is anywhere and everywhere I write, or you read. From my website to my stories, it’s all little pieces of the Hideaway. I like to think of this place just like a treehouse, shaped like an old ship, one with big white sails, masts, and riggings. It’s safely tucked up in the high boughs of some ancient oak tree in the middle of an old wood forest that grew from saplings in a age out of time and space, cozily furnished with chairs for all of you to sit in!

So go ahead and explore, mate, and maybe consider joining the crew of the S.S. Hideaway. If I'm not hiding in my captain's quarters, I'm always up for a chat!

The Story Room

Cave Paintings and Growing into the Void

Message in a Bottle 23 I like watching aerial nature videos. You know, like directly above looking down, an eagle's view as she soars....

El Capitan

Jun 153 min read

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Stoppin' to say Hi

Message in a Bottle 22 I feel like I want to have a good cry (that’s a weird statement), but I’m not sure what about. I’m not sure what...

El Capitan

Feb 52 min read

6 views

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Delete, Unsubscribe

Message in a Bottle 21 I’ve been unsubscribing from a lot of email lists lately. You know the really useless ones you don’t even know how...

El Capitan

Jan 23 min read

8 views

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There will be no Forcing of Christmas Cheer

Message in a Bottle 20 Maggie and Oliver are talking to me again. Sam and Alex too. It’s my Christmas story again, stomping off the snow...

El Capitan

Dec 16, 20242 min read

10 views

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Not all Rides can be Butter Roads

Message in a Bottle 19 It’s been awhile … once again … I’d love to talk to you once a month, but my whole point in doing emails this way...

El Capitan

Oct 1, 20244 min read

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Hi, my name is Ellie, and this is my Hideaway.

I'm a writer, naturalist and violinist. I like to escape in the pages of a good book. That's one of the reasons I write. Another is, because writing gives me wings to fly all around the world and then some. But the most important reason to me is to share hope and light with anyone out there listening... Or reading...

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#differentflowerssamegarden
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Check out my sisters @dreamydruidcreations and @emilietaylorart
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We didn’t do the Ely Blueberry Festival this year, but us sisters still snagged a weekend this summer for some Up North and cabin time. We made it into a little artist retreat instead. Saw lots of wildlife including a precious baby dear and some “mancala” sunnies building their nests. Looked at the stars. Watched 10 things I Hate About You. And second evening I caught around 25 little bass on one hook and a few worms🤣

I like watching aerial nature videos. You know, like directly above looking down, an eagle’s view as she soars. Bonus if there’s lots of animals, like a group of penguins swimming in and out of green-hued ice ponds. Otters floating on waves. Elephants marching across the Savannah. A mama tiger and her babies, just living, just being. There’s something so intimate about that bird’s eye view. The animals seem to have no cognition of being filmed and I am able to observe, to see without affecting. Without leaving any trace.
I think there’s a kind of pervasive obsession with leaving one’s mark. Ever since cave paintings and pyramids, humans have an innate need to make a change, stake a claim on their temporary power, or maybe just leave proof that they lived. We are transient here on earth, but maybe our monuments will endure … at least enough to prove we existed. Because if others don’t know, what’s the point of existing at all, hmm?

Expert for latest blog post. Find the whole thing in my bio links.

Nostalgia’s on the wind tonight
Stripping me of my fear of the future
Simply because it guts me deeper
Never returning to the past
Caressing scents of lilac
Pull like a tether
Guide me home
Like blinking lights of firefly
In the history of the twilight

I’m sitting on the edge of summer.
Sitting on the edge of thinking of a whole lot of things. The balance I so desperately crave. The fire I’m chasing. The rest of what this year holds— the scary, overwhelming, the exciting.
Last year felt like less growth than the one before that, though I think it was just a different kind.
This year I can feel it more again. Some letting go. Some settling in.
On the fringe of a storm and yet there is peace.
Peace in the quiet I find for myself.
I want to find my way in this strangely long/short life, but I’m also good with sitting in the now, in the sunshine, in the blush and breeze of a warming spring.
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Filmed on B2 MEMO, my purposefully crappy memories camera. Named in honor of my favorite SW droid.

I don’t give a rip who cares about these and who doesn’t. They’re making me so happy to write.
Decided to merge two prompts— retired on Pabu and bandana.
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#badbatchmay2025
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#thebadbatch #starwars #starwarsthebadbatch #badbatchfanart #starwarsfanart #starwarsnerd #thebadbatchfanart #hunterbadbatch #techbadbatch #omegabadbatch #wreckerbadbatch #crosshairbadbatch #clonetrooper #flashfiction #fanfiction #shortstory #badbatchstory #writer #author

It’s missing the bad batch hour!
My friend @artc.sky made her 2025 prompt list for Bad Batch May! Today’s prompt— Cadet Clone Force 99. I’m hopeful to do a lot of these. Skipped yesterday because any form of catching up stresses me the heck out. I didn’t think about this one much, just wrote, but I do like how it turned out. Hope you enjoy some flash fiction of baby Clone Force 99!
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#badbatchmay2025
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#thebadbatch #starwars #starwarsthebadbatch #badbatchfanart #starwarsfanart #starwarsnerd #thebadbatchfanart #hunterbadbatch #techbadbatch #wreckerbadbatch #crosshairbadbatch #clonetrooper #flashfiction #fanfiction #shortstory #badbatchstory #writer #author

Been thinking about how people (at least westerners) still buy warm colored lights even though there’s more energy efficient ones out there (I don’t know the technical stuff surrounding it). But we do, we like yellow tints and cozy feelings. I think lots of us, even if it’s secretly, like when the power goes out and we have to light candles to see.

That’s beautiful, right? Loving something despite inconveniences? Like getting caught in the rain. Or making time, real, intentional time, for God.

I wrote a new post. Full thing’s on my website.

It’s happening, guys. Forbidden is getting an audiobook. I’m self narrating and everything else for that matter. But what’s new? It’s already been quite the struggle even just getting one chapter listen ready (sorry you only get this one snippet for now) but learning curves are part of the process of new things. And I’m finally really happy with the quality of this first chapter. I praise God that he made me so heckin’ stubborn and gives me the strength to push through the struggles.
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Song at the end is an original by @duo.hansen written for Forbidden actually. It’s still so surreal to me that it exists and is so unimaginably beautiful.
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#audiobook #indiaauthor #recording #ya #yaadventure #yafiction #youngadultfiction #youngadultadventure #slowburn #mystery #dystopian

We’re talking about unsubscribing today.
From …
Emails
Fears
Junk
You’re gonna have to go read the whole thing on my blog because I’m not gonna extract the highlights for IG’s caption limit.
But if you can’t be bothered, the take away is an order to send your workaholic amygdala on a seaside vaca and start making some better business practices with your PFC.
Happy New Year, goobers!

34 books this year!
Favorites in no particular order—
To Kill a Mockingbird
Point of Origin
Forward as Always
The Silver Chair
Winter White and Wicked

All in read order—
Winter White and Wicked— @shanditty
The Warden and the Wolf King— @andrewpetersonmusic
Rebel Brave and True— @shanditty
Defector— @ce_stone
Shilo— Helena Sorensen
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea— Jules Verne
The Memory Index— Julian R. Vaca
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe— C.S. Lewis
Seeker— Helena Sorensen
The Recall Paradox— Julian R. Vaca
The Wild Robot— Peter Brown
Songbird— Helena Sorensen
The Horse and his Boy— C.S. Lewis
Cities of Smoke and Starlight— @alli_earnest_writes
Realms of Wrath and Ruin— @alli_earnest_writes
Prince Caspian— C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader— C.S. Lewis
Robin Hood— Henry Gilbert
The Silver Chair— C.S. Lewis
The Last Battle— C.S. Lewis
To Kill a Mockingbird— Harper Lee
A Comedy of Nobodies— @americanbaron
The Price of Freedom— A.C. Crispin
Why didn’t they ask Evans— Agatha Christie
The Return of Sherlock Holmes— Arthur Conan Doyle
The Valley of Fear— Arthur Conan Doyle
Blood Herring— E.H. Drake
The Bark of the Bog Owl— Jonathan Rogers
The Secret of the Swamp King— Jonathan Rogers
The Way of the Wilderking— Jonathan Rogers
Forward as Always— @olanrogers and Jake Sidwell
Northanger Abbey— Jane Austen
The Telling— Mike Duran
Point of Origin— @abigail_strange_

Maggie and Oliver are talking to me again.
Sam and Alex too.

It’s my Christmas story again, stomping off the snow on her boots, and knocking a merry rhythm on the door, come to visit with rosy cheeks and holly tangled in her hair.

Last year I was frustrated at how little progress I make on this story every year.
This year I’m grateful for my Christmas companions. They’ve become like old friends I get together with over the holidays. They always help me get in the Christmas spirit. Snowfield is a space where I parse out my tangled Christmas thoughts and there are many of them.

This year it’s a lot of this idea that I can’t make anyone have more Christmas cheer than they already do.
I look around year after year and get so sad to see less and less people celebrating. Even those that do, seem to have lost that spark. I think some of us close ourselves off to Christmas, cause sometimes Christmas hurts. The end of the year, the time we look at how much has changed. Sometimes it’s too much. It’s overwhelming, heartbreaking even. A loved one no longer with us. A dream come and died. Other times change is the one thing we want and the one thing we just don’t see. Another Christmas rolls around and you realize a whole year has gone by and everything is the same.
Stuck. You claim the word like it’s your only friend and not the exact opposite.
For me it’s always a little bit of both. Change is hard. But the things I want to change always seem to stay the same.
I know I’m a wheel in that machine. I have to spin one way or the other if I want something to happen.
But Christmas uncovers it all, like blood against snow, whether I’m moving or not, spinning or collecting cobwebs.
Continued in comments…

New skate shoez and freshly paved roadz😎

Forsaken is two today!
I almost forgot about both Forbidden and Forsaken’s birthday’s again. But Emilie reminded me.😂
So in true Ellie fashion, I last minute finished this piece that I started and teased a while ago. This is a scene in Forsaken that I hated for the longest time, it still isn’t a favorite. I actually drew it to see if I could get myself to like it better. LOL. I’m happy to say it helped a little.
Happy Birthday Forsaken!
And Forbidden turns 3 in just a few days🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

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#everyshadowlifted #bookbirthday #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest

Bloopers make me happy, so I thought I’d share my bloopers to try and make others happy. Haha.
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#bloopers #blooperreel #outtakes #writerbloopers #donttakeyourselftooseriously

IDK if this is the most cringe or brilliant thing I’ve ever made … probably neither. But whatever the case, HELLO! I’m Ellie Maureen, author of three books so far. I’ve been trucking through this adventure series full of all the lovely nature nerd moments mentioned in the video. I’m currently drafting the fourth and final book in the series and actively trying not to lose my mind. So come join the party if you think you’re chaos enough.
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I swear the demon robot voice wasn’t there at the end until I posted.😳

Look at me, I still have the ability to contribute not just consume.
Book four’s coming slowly but surely. A lot’s happening in Py’aoka, that I’ll try to keep quiet about.
It’s overwhelming and frightening as heck. I think I’m trying to think about way too much at once. But I’m terrified to get this wrong. So many ending’s fall flat and I’ve worked too hard, come too far to let that happen.
I see the butter roads up ahead AND the torn up, pothole inundated roads too. I see it all. And I shut down.
I hardly ever give myself grace to be new at something, or in some cases not so new but still not very great. ’Cause that’s okay too.
Anyway, I wrote something, and you can read the full post at the Hideaway

Bad habits have clever ways of sticking around, blasted barnacles on the hull of my ship. Slowing me down. Keeping me stuck.
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One thing I have held to is sharing less. I’m still online too much, but I’ve saved a lot more for just me, and that keeps wind in my sails.
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I wrote something. Full Message in a Bottle is on my website, The Hideaway.

Another Ely trip in the books.
The Blueberry Festival wasn’t as good as last year. Which is a bummer for sure, but us sisters made the best of it as usual. Anytime all together is the best time. Paddle boarding, having a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon, adventuring (maybe a little too hard on my part, hyped up on said Pirates marathon) staying up too late, and getting up too early.
What a Man Gotta do? inexplicably became the pump up song of the weekend. I got a new blanket sweatshirt at a grocery store with lots of bearsbearsbears on it. We set off the fire alarm the first night, because the cabin stove only heats on high. We jumped in the lake every evening after sweating all day at the festival. And had a fun grill out night with @arkstonemn Basically half the 4 hour drive back was in heavy rain and we had a wonderful Taco Bell experience waiting 30 minutes for one of our orders because jErEMy had to get a DoorDash order of 47 items.
Good times …

Walking in the city gets me thinking. Thinking about all the lives.
Lonely lives.
Full lives.
Thinking about their paths all intersecting like the traffic, but most times only ever stopping as long as the red lights. A few of us blowing through even those.
Red lights are okay. We shouldn’t be living only for every next green.
Gotta remember to stop.
Like the man throwing seeds and nuts for the birds, same time everyday.
Stop for sunshine.
Stop for rain.
Stop for those our paths run into.
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I don’t like the city much. Too much noise. Too much speed.
But walking in the city always makes me think.
And I like to think.

I don’t think it’s rare or unnatural to have a deep fascination for things that hurt us. Mentally at least. I don’t even think it’s wrong, because when we move towards our pain, shake hands with it, and look it in the eyes, then and only then can we move on.
I think of little kids hunkered in the basement, paralyzed by the fear of storms, but then growing up to be storm-chasing adrenaline junkies.

Not making sense?
Stick with me.

I am fascinated, obsessed really, with endings, with goodbyes. And yet, even the simplest of them usually make me cry, send pangs through my heart, and twist my stomach in painful knots. I’m not even sure when it started. I think it’s always been there, I just didn’t have a name for it when I was younger.

Writing Every Shadow Lifted, I unconsciously (at first) entangled it in Kiara’s make up. I wrote it into her character from the very start.
It’s a struggle, a back and forth fight. Endings hurt me, but they’re also sacred. Or should be. And I want to know why. I want to know why they cut me so deep and I want to search out where my reverence for something so painful comes from. I want to dive deeper, explore possibilities. I want to develop the ability to move on.

If you’ve followed the social media “updates” you know starting book four has been a grind. There’s a lot of pressure in an ending, but there’s also release … I just have yet to find it. So far I’m all struggle. And not all of it is from pressure, but that same avoidance of the pain of ending and moving on. This story has been my constant companion for eight years.

But I have plans. So many plans.

The Kiara waiting to be written in book four doesn’t even know what’s coming for her. But I look forward to exploring this concept, this letting go and saying goodbye. To the past. To childhood. To comfortable weaknesses. I want Kiara to come to this place of shaking hands with her pain, with her fear of pain. I want to see her come out on the other side of this wall.
Maybe I will too.

Blips. Dots.
Lights. Noise.
I think I’ve found myself in a corner of space where authenticity dies. In a corner of my mind where creativity looks like a stranger.
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Vacuums. Black holes.
What happens if I go dark?
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What if the world doesn’t end when I don’t do that one thing?
You know that thing. We’ve all got something that feels monumentally important until it doesn’t.
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Struggling with the balance that always should be.
Fighting to find the line between connecting and adding to the noise.
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Blind when my eyes are on me.
Muting the world around me when all I do is speak.
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I want my life to be a movie montage of sunshine, laughter, and running in the rain.
But moments come along when they do, softly, perfectly. Trying to jam them together only spits on where they fit.
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Missing specifics when I try to capture everything.
I don’t want to be caught outside, considering perception.
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I want to
Be
In
It.
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Living.
Breathing.
Living.
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Like wild daisies on the side of the road.
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#poetry #writer #lifeisametaphor #wilddaisy #inthemoment

The author event at @oblivioncoffeebar was fun.
It wasn’t a great turn out for customers, but us authors still made the best of it and it was great to meet everyone!
As they appear in the reel—
@joeprosit horror author
@aryrejin poetry author
And last but not least, the champ who put it all together, E.H. Drake (she doesn’t have instagram) with her vampire, buddy cop mystery.

The time to sip some coffee and meet some local authors is right around the corner! This Friday, guys. If you’re in the St Cloud area or maybe even if you’re not so much, come out and hang for a bit. This is gonna be a fun time, I know it.
Event details—

The event is at Oblivion CoffeeBar— 27 7th Ave N, St Cloud, MN 56303
A super vibe place, if you ask me. Just look up some photos.
Me and a few other awesome authors will be there Friday, June 14th from 4pm to 8pm! We’ll be chillin’, ready to chat, and sign books.
See you there!

Sometimes we ask God for blessings, but His favorite to give are the ones that take us by surprise.

It’s my party. I’ll cry if I want to.
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There is often an emptiness after highs. After goals end and adrenalin ebbs.
It’s this pouring my heart into something only for it to have the faintest flicker of a beep on the world’s heart monitor the day I set it free. To get a “Nice!” or “Congrats” before it’s forgotten entirely.
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Or nothing at all …
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Ironically it’s hearts that are what’s given. And they’re never enough. Dirty, rotting things, they’re a fabrication that corrodes what’s real. Never enough. That magic number you have in your head? It’s a lie. Just like the intangible world we live with one foot tangled up in.
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I bleed color, life, and tears, regrets, and secret fears into this culmination of somethings.
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I call it art.
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I give it to others because it was never made for just me. But I can’t make other’s want it, let alone see it.
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I sit at the party on abandoned fairgrounds— no, it’s a basement.
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Unfinished, cracked floors …
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We couldn’t afford a rug.
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There’s not much light. The boundaries of the room, wherever they may be, are lost in shadow. A few friends are there, lighting the space softly with their own little lights, but their expressions are vague. They are only ghosts of people I think I know.
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In the end. Even they go. One by one, each one taking their light with them.
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Until.
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Once again.
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It’s just me and this thing I created, lying bare on the table. It still has bits of my hair and skin stuck between its cracks, my blood staining it in splatters.
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Is it ugly?
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Should I have cleaned it up better before sharing?
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Does it matter?
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I turn to the door, taking the last light with me, off to bleed into something new. It’s all I know to do. But I leave that last something where it is. Because what I’m learning, or striving to learn, is that the gory, beautiful, imperfect, perfection on the table isn’t me and whatever happens to it doesn’t have to affect me.
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It doesn’t have to.

More soft content.
I’ve decided since we don’t have episodes on Wednesdays anymore I’m going to post something tbb related every Wednesday (but future posts will be on my art account @ellies_colorfulbrain ) until I’m okay with the fact that it’s over.
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#starwarsedit #thebadbatchedit #badbatchedit #tbbedit #thebadbatch #starwars #starwarsthebadbatch #badbatchfanart #starwarsfanart #starwarssong #starwarsnerd #thebadbatchfanart #omegabadbatch #hunterbadbatch #techbadbatch #wreckerbadbatch #crosshairbadbatch #echobadbatch #clonetrooper

Excuse me while I die of a cuteness attack. This is quite possibly the softest thing related to Every Shadow Lifted. While I’ve been trucking away at making a second addition of Forbidden, this scene started to dance around in my head. It’s not in the book, but I personally think it works better as an artwork anyway. The idea is— Kiara and Hadyn are looking through different kinds of translucent, blue gems to try and imagine better what the sky might be like. I know, so soft. Hadyn must have said something funny by the looks of things and in general it’s just a happy moment in the midst of their dark time in Caverna.
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I wanted to try a new art style here. Whether I accomplished that or not is a little hazy.

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#writer #writerslife #writerscommunity #writerscommunityofinstagram #writersofinstagram #story #author #adventure #ya #youngadult #youngadultfiction #fiction #fictionwriter #debutwriter #thecreativeprocess #creative #selfpublished #prose #fiction #forbidden #everyshadowlifted #elliemaureenauthor #character #characterdesign #protagonist #art #artist #digitapainting #digitalart #artistlife #ocart

Shepard’s Harvest, Sheep and Wool Festival.
Heck. Yeah.
Never been to a more chill festival, just a bunch of sheep people and wool crafters

“The sky’s awake.”
Went chasing down the fire in the sky last night and saw the aurora borealis for the first time in my life. Tear worthy. (Yes, I cried a little)
Absolutely awe inspiring, watching the lights dance directly overhead.
My neck hurt like heck from looking up, but I absolutely can’t wait to try to see them again tonight!
What a magnificent display of God’s creativity and glory.

Forgiven is here.

It’s not the story I would deem most exciting, most gripping. It’s not “swoony” or filled with trendy tropes (sorry “only one bed” fans). It’s not the story blazing a trail in a new “progressive” genre— Okay it’s a little swoony. But that’s beside the point.

It’s simply the story that was gifted to me. I say gifted because I have no idea what would have made me choose this tale, what would have made me choose these characters, besides the fact that I needed them as much as they needed me to write them.

You know me. I KNOW ME. I don’t stick with projects all that often. My brain’s as capricious as a little butterfly in a field of flowers.

This is rare.

This is miraculous.

This flower managed to keep the hopeless butterfly around.

And the thing about gifts and miracles is they often overlap.

It’s not a best seller.

Every Shadow Lifted is a miracle.

It’s a gift I will always cherish.

Soli Deo gloria
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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui #releaseday

Haha! You’re welcome. Now you have to know.

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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

1 day.
1 Day. Till. Release.
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I’m so excited to share this book. I get asked sometimes if I have a favorite of my books. To quote Enola talking about Sherlock’s favorite case, for me, it will always be “the one that came before.”
My favorite is my latest project and I am full on in love with Forgiven right now. I can see my writing and storytelling improving with every book in this series. Excuse me as I slip into sappy sentimentality, but it really feels like I’ve been growing right along with my characters. It’s special and surreal. It’s the playground and battlefield I’ve been navigating for about a year and a half.
And tomorrow it will be just mine no longer.
Until tomorrow 🤯
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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

Only 2 days now!
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Today I’ll start with a question. How do you feel about happy/play scenes, fluff if thats what you want to call it?
A lot of people say if it doesn’t move your plot along, cut it.
I don’t necessarily live by that. Who am I kidding? I definitely don’t live by that.
Some of my favorite episodes of shows and chapters of books are what people would call fluff episodes and chapters, respectively.
Maybe they don’t move the plot forward, but the best ones always place the characters in an environment or situation you just wouldn’t get to see them in without the “fluff.” They show a new facet to the characters, sometimes allowing us to see what the characters would be like at rest or just living life.
In my opinion, fluff can often times ground a story. Real life isn’t always fast past and action. And, no, we don’t read to get more of real life; we read to escape, I still am an advocate for deeply human stories. If that makes any sense at all.
That being said, I’m pretty sure Forgiven has the most “fluff” of the series so far. So much of the story has been heavy, I needed some happiness. Kiara and Hadyn needed some friends their age. I can’t wait for you to meet, Rayen, Katu, and Anigyha.
Until tomorrow 😵

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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

It’s the first Wednesday without The Bad Batch. The reality that we’ll never get another premiere again keeps sinking in more and more. You know I had to do something to cope. I guess that something made me brave enough to share another song.
I’m not even gonna get into how much it makes me want to throw up to share my voice and amateur talents. This one isn’t for those who would criticize or poke fun. This one’s for me and anyone else struggling to say goodbye. Yes, even though it’s through Omega’s perspective and very much about her, this is my own way of saying goodbye too. My own way of grieving and cherishing.
Oh gosh. This show means so much to me. I’ll never be fully over it. I know it will stick with me forever.
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The bridge of this song is one of the silliest and most favorite things I’ve ever written. If you know you know.🫡
This one’s for all the Bad Batcha’s
“I like you guys. You don’t fit in around here either.”
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Personal favorite line:
“Our war-chest is our memories. We’ll take this step by step.”
Because it’s true for us too. Step by step. And cherish those memories.
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#thebadbatch #starwars #starwarsthebadbatch #badbatchfanart #starwarsfanart #starwarssong #starwarsnerd #thebadbatchfanart #omegabadbatch #hunterbadbatch #techbadbatch #wreckerbadbatch #crosshairbadbatch #echobadbatch #clonetrooper

3 days!
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The river is a very important part of Forgiven, for part of the book it’s the destination they’re trying to get to and the other part of the book it’s their faithful guide.
I love rivers. The ocean is on another level, and lakes are one of my favorite things too, but there is something special about rivers— the distance they cross, the things they pick up and carry along from the lands they flow through. They’re like incredible roads connecting mountains to seas, forces of nature as they swell and recede, at times flooding whole forests or creating wetlands. They are stone masons, carving out canyons and wearing cliffs to powder. They move millions and millions of gallons of water a day.
But on a more individual level, sitting on the bank of a river there is peace. The world flush with so much life around the hearty current, one can feel their soul fill up just basking in it. There’s lessons to be learned in the diligence, in the rest found even in motion.
Needless to say, I enjoyed showcasing one of my great loves in this installment.
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I did a word search on Forgiven and “river” is referenced about 130 times. Opposed to any form of the word “forgive” which I think was maybe 30 when I checked a while back. Maybe I should have named the book River. Lol. Kidding.
Until tomorrow. 😲

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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

4 days!
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Jasper, the mighty Arokno!
Now I’m usually the one with fictional husbands, but @emilie_taylor has officially claimed Jasper as a book husband. AND I APPROVE.
Emilie (my sister) is actually very much to credit for Jasper getting to be such a big character. Long, long ago, when I hardly dreamed of a book three, I had written a scene planned further out in the story of Every Shadow Lifted. Jasper was in it, of course. Emilie hardly new anything about him, but when I had her read it to give me feedback, it brought her to tears. It was love at first sight. Lol. In all seriousness, I’ll forever remember that as one of the first moments I realized my writing wasn’t just a bunch of talentless, meaningless words. My work can move people. My words can touch hearts.
I was hesitant to make Jasper’s character work on a larger scale (because of certain complications I wasn’t sure I’d be able to write well), but Emilie really encouraged me to develop him and give him more page time. And thank God she did. The man is a treasure, and Forgiven wouldn’t be complete without him!
Until tomorrow😧
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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

5 days!
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So what’s the deal with this monkey? To be completely honest, I don’t even like monkeys😆 but squirrel monkeys are one of my few exceptions. They’re pretty cute.
Like Suze, this monkey used to be a different “character” (I’ll leave her name a surprise).
She used to be an injured jaguar cub.
See, of all the scenes I chopped there were two in particular that it was glaringly obvious they had to go.
One was this ridiculous scene where all sorts of monkeys chase Kiara through the forests🤣🤣🤣 and another had to do with the rescuing of said jaguar cub. The monkey chase was, as I said, ridiculous, and the jaguar caused too many complications. But I had become too fond of the idea of an animal sidekick in this book. Thus she’s introduced where the chase scene used to be and fills the role (sorta) of the jaguar.
It’s actually incredible how much I’ve come to love her. I can’t imagine Forgiven without her.
Until tomorrow.😯

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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

6 days.
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Though both Hadyn and Kiara have their respective redemption moments in Forgiven (I think it’s pretty obvious from the title), that doesn’t mean all their problems are magically solved.
We all still struggle with sin, our scars don’t just disappear, but with Jesus we have a divine comforter, we have forgiveness from those sins.
Hadyn’s struggles through Forgiven were one of the more difficult things for me while drafting. With three characters on a journey and wanting them all to have some sort of “arc,” I started to get a little lost. Until I remember this isn’t the last book. I don’t have to wrap up anything yet. So though Hadyn’s struggles will seem a quite unresolved by the end of Forgiven, there’s one more book coming and I have a feeling tying up loose ends is gonna become a favorite thing of mine.
Until tomorrow!😆

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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

7 days
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I spy some Arokno feet. Happy Birthday to @emilie_taylor she gets her favorite character’s feet.😆
But we’ll save Jasper for another day and talk about a few other characters with big rolls in Forgiven.
Suze, yes, Gypsy Suze from Forsaken, believe it or not, used to be two different characters. She was a minor, flat character with one scene in Forsaken and a kind, grandmotherly gardener, named Nadie, in Forgiven. How she became the feisty, multilayered woman with fabulous hair and a stubborn will to rival Kiara’s, God only knows. To say I simply merged the two previous characters is an understatement. Whatever the case, Suze solved so many problems for me and made Forgiven 100 times better. I love her to pieces.
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Aaron, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated. Love him too, but for some reason he wasn’t as easy for me to write. When I first created him way back in what? Possibly 2018? He was nearly perfect. And if you know me, you know I don’t mean perfect in a good way. He was so bland it was painful. So I put him back in the blender, dug through the “flaws” cupboard, and started throwing random ingredients in.
(If you’ve been here a while, you might know a similar thing happened with Kiara.)
I don’t think I knew exactly what I was doing because I created a new problem for myself. Now he was borderline unlikeable. I didn’t want people to hate Aaron, I just wanted him to be less plastic. I ended up sticking with the flaws, if not tweaking them here and there, and it made for one of the best and most heartwarming arcs in the series.
Until tomorrow. 😬

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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

8 days
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Standing on the edge.
In some ways writing Forgiven was a lot like this one scene standing at the cliff edge of the tepui— terrifying but exhilarating.
This scene was so much fun to write. It was one of my “carrot on a stick” scenes, you know, the ones you look forward to writing so you get through the less likable scenes a little easier?
When I got back into drafting Forgiven, all I had of Kiara so far was a bit of a mess. But I had this image of her at the end of the book in my head and it looked completely different. I didn’t see that as an error, but a challenge to write, write, write until I had an arc I was proud of. The climb and eventual breathtaking view of the tepui is kinda symbolic to Kiara’s journey and I love how that turned out.
Until tomorrow.😉

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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

9 days till release.
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I’m gonna try to share something Forgiven related every day leading up to release.
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First “behind the scenes” nugget:
Nearly half of Forgiven was drafted before I published Forsaken and Forbidden for that matter. There was a time when I just kept writing and writing before I realized I had two books down and a third well on its way. Finally I made myself finish the first two, but then Forgiven still needed a lot of work. Parts of it were a hot mess and so much of it was unexplored. But when I finally “finished” editing the chunk that I had (are we ever finished?) and continued drafting, it was surreal when I realized how long I had had certain scenes in my head that were just now getting there place on the page. We’re talking YEARS, man. No wonder writers tend to go a little nuts. I like to call it pleasantly insane.😉
Until tomorrow 🫡
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#everyshadowlifted #bookrelease #booklaunch #newrelease #newbook #forgiven #ya #selfpublished #youngadult #youngadultfiction #adventurefiction #yaadventure #amazonrainforest #tepui

Gotta say, it means a lot that you guys stick with this derpy derp of a person.
Forgiven definitely was my most difficult and challenging cover yet. I give all the glory to God that it looks as good as it does.
I have a tendency to give up when things get hard, but those times I don’t are always so, so surreal. It’s always worth it.
I always think it’s neat to see artists’ finished products compared to the reference(s) that they used. My own artworks are no exception, hence the “reference peel away” in the middle of the vid!

@emilietaylorart and I left for Ireland and cheersed our way across the country a year ago today.🥹🫣

Worms pile on the sidewalk
Stop signs glisten in the rain
Signin’ in the rain
Or so I thought I should always be
Tomorrow promises more of the same
Maybe the forecast has nothing to do with the clouds
Sun comes out eventually
Annelid corpses bake under baby blue skies.
Death and life
Growth in decay
Maybe it’s just spring
Maybe I’m just testing my voice again
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Is this a poem? You tell me. I’m not sure.
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#poem #poetry #spring #testingtesting #lifeisametaphor

RELEASE DAY is only a month away. Forgiven is almost here!
I’m now in that sweet period with Book 4 where everything is just vibes and certain songs on shuffle are “so (insert charter/scene here) coded.” The pressure hasn’t started yet and I’m free to dream. I told myself I’d take a break before diving into book 4. A real break. I’m forcing myself really. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Paperback pre-orders are now live. Link in my bio.

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Not all Rides can be Butter Roads

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