Daily Inspiration: Meet Elizabeth Bird

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Bird.

Hi Elizabeth, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Buckle up, because this is a long one.

I started storytelling as far back as I can remember. It started with my Barbies. Usually, Barbie was sent off on some magical adventure to save Ken because he’d gotten stuck in a tree, or kidnaped by an evil queen, or surrounded by pirates, or found himself in some other nefarious trouble. And, through her kindness, cleverness, and wits, Barbie always managed a daring rescue. My older brother raised me on ‘X-Men’, ‘Mighty Morphing Power Rangers’ and ‘Batman The Animated Series’ in the early 90’s because he got the remote and, back in that day, there was only one television. I saw all these stories of courage and cunning. I would play pretend with my brother, happy to be a part of the rescue, but somehow, I was always sidelined. I was the sidekick, or the villain, or the damsel. Never got to be the hero of the story. I desperately wanted a girl to be the one to save the day. At that point, I’d never seen it.

So, being resourceful, I made the story that I wanted to hear. I made the girl the hero, the one who could swoop in at the last minute and save the world. She did the same thing as a typical hero because she could, and she was capable. This desire stuck with me all through my childhood into my adolescence. I searched through the media of the day, siding with Jubilee, Kimberly, and April O’neal, all the while still longing for a heroine to call my own.

Back in the early 2000’s, my hometown got a Borders Bookstore. I was thrilled! That summer, I was there about twice a week. I read through every young adult book I could find. My mother commented it was the easiest summer ever! I would do nothing but read all day, following the sun around the house like a cat. She always knew where I was, and that I wasn’t in any trouble, which is all any mother can ask during summer break.

It was in this summer I found the works of Tamora Pierce. Specifically, her ‘Wild Magic’ series. It is the tale of a young girl who is a kind of demi god and how she uses her power to shape the realms. I had finally found a story where the girl was the hero, where she stood alongside the knights of old. Pierce’s world of magic and medieval legend captivated my imagination. I thought about it night and day until the ideas wouldn’t leave me alone, so I wrote them down. It was the first story I ever completed.

And it was awful.

I had never heard of a paragraph break, of punctuation, or plot development. They were all random scenes loosely strung together with a paperclip and chewing gum. The characters were never in any peril or forced to change anything about their lives. They all ended exactly as they began. It was horrific, trite and boring.

But you have to start somewhere.

Something took hold of me while I was writing that first story. I was having fun. I felt just like that little girl who played with her Barbies, creating hours and hours of stories where the girl was the hero. I couldn’t find the heroine I needed in media because she wasn’t there, but she was in the words on that page. She wasn’t real yet, but with a lot more polishing, she could be.

Then, two very important things happened in my life, almost simultaneously. The first was that I was introduced to JRR Tolkien and ‘The Lord of the Rings’. ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ film directed by Peter Jackson released in the winter of 2001 and I loved it! I couldn’t get enough. I was the only twelve-year-old I knew who was elbow-deep in ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Silmarillion’. I loved how Tolkien built his world, how magic worked within it. I wanted to learn how to build worlds like him. Worlds full of people and magic and places just waiting to be discovered.

And we all know JRR Tolkien is a direct pipeline to The Kansas City Renaissance Festival, and Live Action Roleplay (also known as LARPing). This led to my second discovery, which was the tempestuous landscape of the early internet website known as Fanfiction.net.

I became a prolific fanfiction writer. My tales never focused on any romance or “lemons” that were considered typical of fanfiction, but rather a love of adventure and female heroes. I read plenty of fiction too. These early years taught me how storytelling was truly done, even if it showed me how it’s done badly. It taught me about pacing, and tropes, the importance of a roadmap, the reason you finish some things and why you don’t finish others.

It was incredibly freeing to be able to write without expectation. Storytelling is a muscle, one that must be stretched. In that strange little community, I was able to try and try and try until I got it right. I would get feedback about how to plot a tale, typical story beats, outlining, my voice and characterization. I learned about research and when it’s more fun to ignore it. I learned about tropes and genres and how to break them well. I soaked it all in to make my next story better.

This is when the idea for ‘The Dreamers Saga’ began to form. It was a combination of the things I loved; a medieval fantasy setting, magic, courage, a girl who could become more. These ideas slowly slipped into my LARPing, which helped me flesh out my heroine even more. My friends at the time encouraged me. They wanted to read that story too, offering feedback and suggestions where they could. So, I launched into the first draft in 2004, when I was just thirteen years old.

My heroine was finally coming to life. She still wasn’t fully real, not just yet, as there is only so much life experiences a teen girl in suburbia can have. It’s not enough just to tell a story. You need to know what the story is about, who it is about. I had coherency, and characterization, but there was still a lot of roughness around the edges. She was there, ready and waiting. But it wasn’t time yet.

And then, life happened.

The next decade and a half saw me put writing on the back burner. I had a brief, but terrifying fight with cancer. I was forced to miss half my senior year of high school. When I was too sick to do my schoolwork, writing wasn’t a priority. Thankfully, I beat it and was able to move away for college. I earned a master’s degree in architecture and became a designer. Creativity and long hours left me too drained for much else. Then, I got married to my incredible husband. At this point in my life, my writings felt like a childish part of my past. I was an adult now, with an adult job, and adult responsibilities. These silly little fairytales shouldn’t be a priority.

But I couldn’t let it go, not entirely.

I wrote short stories for my friends, little guilty fanfictions only I would see, and continued to make notes on ‘The Dreamers Saga’, which was going by another name then. At this point, it was never supposed to be anything more than something that made me happy. And it did. My heroine and the world of Avani was slowly coming out of its shell.

I listened to paranormal podcasts while I worked my corporate job. I loved ‘Buffy’, and Jim Butcher’s ‘The Dresden Files’, so it seemed like a natural place to start. I jotted down ideas for creatures, places, and lessons for my heroes. My ‘Aha!’ moment came when I learned about Stone Tape Theory. The theory states that certain places that experience heightened and extreme emotions can retain and, possibly, playback memories. That spark of intense human emotion leaves a mark. It’s the reason prisons and asylums are usually haunted. What would happen if that were true for everywhere? What would happen if the magic in the land remembered?

And thus, my magic system was born, and my hero was complete.

So I wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and never finished anything.

One day around 2017, a friend in my local theatre troupe approached me with an idea. He loved the podcast ‘The Thrilling Adventure Hour’ and wanted to make something like it, an old-time radio show filled with segments of comedy, horror and adventure. He knew I was a writer and wanted to know if I’d be interested in helping him write it. I said ‘yes! Of course!’ A week later, I had become the head writer to a tiny, ragtag group of performers, in charge of producing an hour of new content every month.

It was chaos, and fun all rolled into a stressful, but delightful mess. Due to the tight timeline, there was no chance to second guess myself. I had to write it, get it done, maybe get in one revision, then let it go. When writing, one of the hardest things to do is to finish things. While doing this, I had no choice. If I didn’t finish, there was no show. For the first time in my writing, I had to trust my instincts. I had to believe that what I was putting to paper was good.

Confidence is a muscle too and must be exercised.

Through this, I teamed up with a fellow actor to write two plays. One was called ‘Terminal’, a play about women’s health and the struggles of women’s healthcare. The other was called ‘A Caffeinated Carol’ a modern spin on ‘A Christmas Carol’ where a pastor who runs a coffee shop for underprivileged youth has a crisis of faith. I was finally writing professionally. It didn’t pay, but I was writing. All the while, my hero and her world patiently waited. It wasn’t time yet. They were ready, but I wasn’t. Not yet. Still, I was happy to write and perform, and write some more.

The COVID pandemic shut all that down.

I was a first-time mother. Not only that, but a mother of six-week-old, premature twins when the world went into lockdown. There were no shows, no radio variety hour, no plays. Even if there had been, I was not going to risk the health of my babies by going. All my work had vanished in less than 24 hours. I was trapped inside with two very at-risk babies, and no village to help me.

There were nights I still don’t know how I did it. If it weren’t for my husband, I’m sure I would have gone insane. I was ‘mom’ with no possibility for any other definition. I was and still am thrilled to be ‘mom’. But I began to lose myself. I saw no value in myself outside my relation to these beautiful children. You could say post-partum and sleep deprivation hit me like a truck. I was not in a good place.

Then, my husband said “Why don’t you write that book? You always write for other people. And now, you have time to write for yourself. Maybe it’s time.”

He was right. Even if it never got published, at least I would have written it. It would finally exist outside of myself. It would be able to live a life of its own. And who knows? Maybe, just maybe, one day, someone would read it. To quote my favorite green witch “Until I try I’ll never know”.

So, I decided to try. My heroes were ready, the world waiting. It felt like I was gearing up for a quest. I just had to gather my party. Letter by letter, I made my roadmap during nap time and after bedtime. I built my magic system over lunch on post-its and napkins, the world of Avani scattered across sketchbooks, it’s people and it’s politics on Pinterest boards. My husband was an invaluable soundboard, even when I just needed to talk something out. I could see my characters as real; a waitress turned hero, an elf guard, a warrior ranger, a crazy wizard and a handsome thief.

It was all finally coming together.

By April of 2021 I had the entire trilogy outlined and the first draft of the first book.
I had finished it. It was a rough draft, but rough drafts only have to exist. One can’t edit an empty page. It was there, it was real. My story where the girl got to be the hero finally existed.

Then it was on to the second draft.

While I was drafting, the pandemic came to a close. I left architecture for good, and got a new job teaching at my children’s preschool. I went back to acting while I continued to raise my children and miraculously, maintain a marriage. I would wake up, get my kids ready for school, work all day, come home, play with my kids, write while my husband played with them, go to rehearsal or a show, come home, and finally write more after the household had gone to bed.

Sleep is for the weak.

I was my first editor. I did three additional drafts of my book; one for clarity, one for consistency and one for emotion. After this, I gave it to two Beta readers, my husband and a close friend. Then, I did another draft based on their comments.

Seriously. So. Many. Drafts.

The world and words finally came to life. My husband and my therapist encouraged me to publish. My father-in-law is a published author too. He helped me as best he could, but he writes non-fiction history books, which is vastly different than carefully crafted fantasy. All the same, I’m still forever grateful for his advice.

I started my research into becoming traditionally published. Getting an agent was impossible. I tried for a year. While I was trying to get an agent, I was also sending my manuscript to publishers. None of them would touch my manuscript. It was just over 130,000 words, and they all wanted it cut down by a third. I was untested on the market and they weren’t willing to take the risk. I would have no control over cover, or edits, or marketing.

This was a problem for me because I have glorious authority issues and a deep distrust of anyone who didn’t even read the book telling me how to fix it.

I decided to investigate vanity publishing, something my father-in-law warned me against. And all my research led me to one solid conclusion: it’s expensive! Vanity publishing makes their money off the author buying their services, like art, an editor and marketer. If I had that much money lying around, I would be buying a second house, and I wouldn’t have to worry about my book selling.

The public lawsuit about withholding royalties from authors was the final nail in the coffin.

I was choosing the path of the indie author.

Every penny I made acting went into my book. I saved up for months to be able to afford an editor and a cover artist. I knew it was going to be worth it.

My theatre troupe became a great resource for me. Through them, I was able to find an artist for my cover. She is phenomenal, and being a longtime friend, knew exactly what I wanted. I ran around my house screaming excitedly when I saw the cover for the first time. I never could have imagined anything so beautiful.

I was also lucky enough to find an editor hiding amongst my team of thespians. She really is a blessing. That woman truly makes me look like I know what I’m doing. When she told me she usually doesn’t read my genre, but loved the book and wanted all my work from here on out, I may have squealed. Only the dog heard it, so I can’t be sure.

Which led to even more drafts.

I started posting on social media, hoping to drum up interest for my book and it’s impending release. That’s when I learned that not everyone was happy for me, and that broke my heart. The excitement I had, the pride I had in my work was stolen from me. I knew the internet could be negative, but I had no idea how downright hateful people could be for someone they didn’t know. It took me a long time to move past it. In the end, haters are going to hate, and get blocked.

I received my first author copy in mid-August of 2024. I was in utter shock. I knew what I had been working towards. Still, my heroes and my world stayed locked up, reserved for myself and the small circle around me. Now, it was a real book. After literal decades of hard work, every word I ever wrote, all those late nights, it was finally a real book. It was something I could hold in my hands. It was something I could give to others, a story to share with the world and my children. There simply are no words to describe the elation I felt the first time I held my book in my hands.

I cried a little. Oh, who am I kidding? I cried a lot.

‘The Azure Crown: Book 1 of The Dreamers Saga’ released in late September of 2024. I held the launch party in tandem with my 35th birthday at a locally owned wine store. It was everything I could have hoped for. There was wine, good friends and a good story where the hero was, finally, a girl. I had the heroine I always wanted, and now my daughters would too. However, being only four at the time, they were more interested in the ice cream truck.

I sold out on my first day.

In the six months since my first book has been released, it has over four stars on Amazon and Goodreads. I’ve made amazing author friends in Kansas City through KC Book Beat, who helped me vend at Planet Comicon Kansas City, and The Dark Flame Society, who’s fantasy ball and book market I will be vending at this April. I have participated in The Gilded Page’s Boozy Book Fair, which hosted nearly 4,000 readers, and I will do so every chance I get. I’m even in a bookstore, KD’s Bookstore in Lee’s Summit.

I realize how lucky I am to be what I consider successful. It has allowed me write full time and to record an audio book of ‘The Azure Crown’ with the amazing Devlin Lake. If all goes well, it should be releasing this July.

For now, I will am deep into the second draft of the sequel, ‘The Crimson Kingdom’ which will release in the fall of 2025. I am continuing to travel to events, like The Flame & Fantasy Ball in Kansas City, The Twisted Tales at the Winery in Lawrence, The Artisan Sip & Shop at Isinglass Winery and The Topeka Renaissance Festival with many more hopefully on the horizon.

I’m not really sure how to end this, because this isn’t an ending. Far from it, actually. It’s simply a long-winded beginning, and I look forward to the rest of the tale.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I would say my greatest challenges were simply learning the art of storytelling. I had this grand adventure in my head from a really young age and any work I did on it didn’t convey that. It was frustrating that I had to wait for my skills to catch up with my vision. It took literally two decades for me to learn all the skills and techniques I needed to write the story I wanted to write.

It was also difficult to ‘kill my darlings’ so to speak. There were whole characters that I loved that had ended up scrapping for the sake of the story. And scenes I wanted in the book that had no relevance or slowed down the plot that had to go. It was hard for me to cut things I really cared about.

Finding the time was a challenge. It’s been a balancing act of writing, motherhood and marriage. I believe it was Nora Roberts who, to paraphrase, said in a juggling act, know which balls will break and which will bounce. Forgetting pajama day at school will bounce while missing an editing deadline will break. I’ve always liked that analogy for figuring out priorities.

Then, I had to figure out the non-writing aspects of being an indie author. I had to figure out ISBNs, copyright, Amazon KDP, timelines for printing and shipping. Formatting the book took me the longest time to master. I still haven’t mastered it well, honestly. I write in Microsoft Word, an older version before they installed their little AI helper that does anything but. The headers and footers are more temperamental than a leading soprano in the opera. You edit one little thing and it messes with the entire manuscript. I wanted to bang my head against the keyboard and scream.

I also suffer from an insane amount of imposter syndrome. Its hard to feel like you belong when the author at the booth next to you has twenty books and is five years younger than you. Luckily, all the authors in the Kansas City community have been welcoming. We recognize that when one of us succeeds, we all do.

And my husband kept wanting to name the dragon something atrocious. I can’t remember what it was now, but it was some horrible dad joke pun I’ve since blocked from
my memory. I’m not sure if he was serious, but I firmly put my foot down.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I write fantasy books. Currently, I have one novel and one short story out. ‘The Azure Crown’ is my debut novel and the first in ‘The Dreamers Saga’. The trilogy should be complete by spring of 2026. with the second book ‘The Crimson Kingdom’, coming out this fall/early winter. The series is a high fantasy like Lord of the Rings told in the style of Percy Jackson.

Essentially…

“Nessa Everette believed her greatest adventure would be moving across the country to start college, not a near kidnapping by a deranged bounty hunter. Or falling through the Veil into the land of Avani.

And yet…

The rules are different in this new world. There’s magic, lots of it, and a kingdom that will stop at nothing to take it all. Now, Nessa must run for her life amidst a devastating war. Luckily, she has an elf guard, an infamous general and a roguish thief to help her along the way. The wizard, however, may not have all his marbles.

Nessa must come face to face with a past she’s never known and discover the power that lies within her.

If she doesn’t, Avani will fall.”

I’m proud of my books. ‘The Dreamers Saga’ is all about love, courage and home. My main character, Nessa, is known for her compassion and kindness. I love how I got to show those two characteristics as a strength. In a world of selfishness, compassion is a radical choice.

I wanted Nessa to not be a typical heroine in that she’s not instantly good at everything. She has to learn and make mistakes. She’s not instantly an amazing warrior or ultra tough in order to earn her reputation. I wanted the duality of the amazing and the mundane together. She likes to bake, but will also fight off a goblin horde. I never saw that in the YA books I read growing up. The heroines I read growing up scoffed at feminine things. Nessa can be feminine and still save the realm.

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Spelling was difficult for me. In kindergarten, I mixed up a all my vowels. It made spelling tests a pain. Like in the word ‘read’ I would switch the ‘a’ and the ‘e’ so I would spell it ‘raed’. I’m not sure if it’s something I grew out of, or I just learned to spell after several hundred spelling tests and spell check. I can still read words like that, with a mixed up middle, and understand them just fine. As long as the first and last letter are still in the same place.

I also learned to speak Sindarin, JRR Tolkien’s language of the elves, and used it to pass notes in class in middle school. This is astonishing because I barely passed Spanish.

Pricing:

• The Azure Crown Paperback $15.95
• The Azure Crown Hardback $21.95
• The Azure Crown Kindle $8.95 or Free with KindleUnlimited

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elizabethbirdwrites.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethbirdwrites
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560187119297
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ElizabethBirdwrites
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@elizabethbirdwrites
• Email: [email protected]
• Other: https://linktr.ee/elizabethbirdwrites?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=e4ebc772-7670-4a65-9813-f7443b1b0858