A Quick Chat with Elexis Bell

About Elexis Bell

Elexis Bell writes gritty and emotional novels. Born and raised in the Midwestern United States, she dreams of a cabin in the woods rather than a house surrounded by cornfields.

She loves writing well-developed characters facing real problems in vibrant, magical worlds. Armed with a degree in psychology and a roller-coaster past, she sprinkles gut-wrenching emotions over high fantasy romance, science fiction, and the occasional thriller.

Which of your novels can you imagine being made into a movie?

For most of them, I see them play out in my head like a movie as I write them. So honestly, any of them. I’d love to see them all on the big screen.

A Heart of Salt & Silver, Allmother Rising, World for the Broken. Even the series I’m writing now, The Regonia Chronicles.

It’d just be amazing to see them played out on screen.

As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

The octopus, for many of the same reasons that make it my favorite animal. They’re smart and weird. They’re great at multitasking and problem solving. All of those are vital for writing a cohesive novel and then publishing it.

And of course, they’re rather reclusive. Yes, that might be a stereotype for writers, but it applies to me.

I can never get enough of these strange little creatures.

What inspired you to write this book?

Sometimes, when I can’t sleep, I imagine a character, just… a random person. Maybe two. Then, I just see what they do, where they go. It centers my mind and stops me from worrying about all the things that happened that day or that week or that year. (Hello, anxiety.) Eventually, with my mind sufficiently soothed, I fall asleep.

The next day, I file away whatever I came up with for future use in a story. Sometimes I like the character but the world doesn’t fit them. Sometimes I like the world but not the character. Either way, I remember these things, and they just kinda float around in my head.

But if I really like a character and world combination, I’ll come back to it the next night while I’m trying to sleep, picking up with the scene wherever it left off before I fell asleep the previous night. I’ll do that a few times, just seeing where the characters lead, how the scene unfolds. Then, once I have a decent foundation for a scene, I start writing.

That isn’t how I get the idea for all my books, but that’s where this one came from. The scene that helped me focus and drown out my anxiety for a few nights running became the start of chapter three. Of course, once I wrote chapters one and two and got a better feel for the characters’ personalities, I had to adjust that initial scene a bit.

But the foundation was rooted in fending off anxiety so I could actually sleep.

What can we expect from you in the future?

I always have a lot of projects going on at one time, so in addition to releasing Allmother Rising, I’m also editing and writing. All my books are intensely character focused, so their internal struggles are always in the forefront.

My current projects in editing:
Second to None, a dark thriller romance with murder, an abusive relationship, star-crossed lovers (not the abusive relationship), and ghost stories.

A Blessed Darkness, a dark romantic fantasy featuring a fated couple, blood magic, power that makes even the gods wary, and the dangers of losing yourself in love.

My current writing project:
The Regonia Chronicles, a dark romantic sci-fi series full of unethical experiments, genocide, aliens, alcoholism, and a very close look at the ways that families break apart (and break the people within them). Books 1-3 and one of the prequels are written. I’m currently writing book four and the other prequel.

After all that, I have an idea for a second standalone novel in the universe of my last release, a dark paranormal fantasy romance called A Heart of Salt and Silver, as well as several ideas in new worlds.

About the Book

Allmother Rising by Elexis Bell
Genre: Dark Fantasy with Straight and LGBTQ Romance

Synopsis

A broken-hearted priestess and a deposed prince team up with a ranger and a rebel with one too many secrets. In the name of The Allmother, they go to war to save their lands.

A coup in a neighboring kingdom brings threats of invasion and fire to Priestess Rising Veliana’s home in the forest. Under the guidance of her goddess, The Allmother, she forms an alliance with the deposed prince, Tyrvahn, and his ex, Garle, the leader of a rebellion that’s been brewing for years.

But Garle has many secrets, one of which could unravel Veliana and Tyrvahn’s budding romance and the future of these uneasy alliances. Veliana’s best friend, Kivala, tries to soften Garle with the ways of their fallen homeland, but what she learns chills her to her core.

At war with a vicious man twisted by the god of greed, they can’t afford to fight amongst themselves. Can they overcome their differences to save their home and their goddess from the new king? Or will the forests burn over blood-soaked earth?

Fans of magic and grit, high stakes and godly secrets will love this dark high fantasy novel with straight and LGBT romance.

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