E. L. Bates

Just a heads-up to everyone here—as a direct result of Meta using my pirated book as well as the work of thousands others without permission or compensation to train their AI model, I will be deactivating my accounts on Facebook as well as Instagram early next week. I hate to lose touch with my friends here, but I cannot continue to support a corporation who has stolen my creative work. For those who want to keep up with my writing news, feel free to subscribe to my newsletter using the form on my website.

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I am absolutely sick with fury and betrayal. My creativity and work have been stolen by Meta to train their AI model. I can’t make enough money off my books to earn a living—but I guess they can contribute to putting billions more in the pockets of a guy who already makes more money than many small countries. I’m not sure what my next step will be—but there’s a good chance I’ll be closing down my accounts on IG and FB. I don’t think I can stomach continuing to utilize sites that have stolen my own work as well as the work of countless others.

Hey look, a blog post! Exploring the possibilities of clothing/fashion magic in the world of Whitney & Davies ...

World-Building Magic: Clothing & Fashion - StarDance Press When I first wrote Magic Most Deadly, I had intended Julia to be Maia's friend-and-sidekick throughout the series, but when that book ended with (mild spoiler) Maia trotting off to London while Julia stayed in Hertfordshire, I realized that was not going to work. So when I started Glamours and Gunsh...

What could be better on a snow day than to light some candles and get lost in one of the finest books ever written?

W&D4 has stalled at 18k words, so I’m going old school to break the slump—ignoring all 18k words AND the computer to hand write a skeleton draft. Can’t wait to get going on it!

This week has been a good time to be cozy inside with a good book (or three) by the fireplace. Have you tried the Whitney & Davies series yet? Magic, mystery, and mayhem in 1920s England—if you’ve ever wondered what an Agatha Christie novel might look like if it had magic woven into it, these books are your answer!

This sculpture, on display in the Portland Museum of Art, may or may not have inspired the central idea behind Part 2 of my PICTA … which I may or may not have started writing yesterday. Yes, I haven’t even started turning the skeleton draft of Part 1 (which I initially thought was going to be the entire thing!) into a typed first draft, and I’ve begun writing Part 2. On the other hand, wow is it fun to play with a story like this and to just let myself be free with no expectations.

That is the back cover of my PICTA notebook, and you are seeing it now because I FINISHED THE SKELETON DRAFT. Now to type it up and turn it into a first draft (I call this the skeleton draft because it really is just the bones of the story), then I can send it to my editor for beta reading and then—then I can talk about it. Maybe.

https://stardancepress.com/2025/01/13/world-building-magic-intro/ New blog post alert!

World-Building Magic: Intro - StarDance Press I thought it might be fun to do a blog post series that gives a deeper dive into some of the magical aspects of the Whitney & Davies world. Just as writing Julia's story (currently available only to newsletter subscribers--if you subscribe to the newsletter and have not gotten the links to all three...

Check out the link in my profile to read more about the word that sort of sprang at me for this year!