Stories are never created in isolation.
Friends of Eldria and Beyond is a place to celebrate the indie authors, artists, creators and wonderfully imaginative people I have met along the way.
This is not a paid promotional space. These are people and works I genuinely enjoy, admire or simply think deserve a little more light shone their way.
Have a wander. You might just discover your next favourite story, artist or creative obsession.
The early self
The Early Shelf is a community marketplace designed to connect emerging authors with readers before publication, creating a space for honest, structured early feedback.
Authors can privately share as much or as little of their manuscript as they choose, while readers access the work through a protected in-app reader rather than receiving the manuscript file itself. Authors can set release countdowns, limit advance-reader numbers and direct readers towards their eventual release or pre-order.
For readers, it is an opportunity to discover stories before they reach the shelves, support emerging writers and provide feedback that can genuinely help an author understand how their story is landing.
Why they’re a Friend: I love the idea of creating a space where indie authors can find genuine early readers while remaining in control of their work. The Early Shelf is building something intended to support both sides of that relationship — writers looking for meaningful feedback and readers who enjoy discovering stories before everyone else does.
Girl in the Mirror
Kelly Thompson is a Friend of Eldria because her story, while heartbreaking, reminds us that we are not alone.
Some of us write horror and fantasy to give shape to our fears, sadness and the things we find difficult to say aloud. Kelly takes a different path. She jumps straight into the heart of those things and tells her story with an openness and vulnerability that stayed with me long after I finished reading.
Girl in the Mirror is heartbreaking and, at the same time, incredibly beautiful.
This is Kelly’s story of being hurt, but it is also the story of the journey she is taking to discover who she is now.
She writes about the girls she was before — the girl who wasn’t afraid, who made plans for the future, and who was always the person everyone else could come to and talk to.
Then there is the girl after.
The girl who cannot even look at herself in the mirror anymore.
That contrast stayed with me.
There were parts of this story that spoke to me on a very personal level, particularly that idea of being the person who listens to everyone else while carrying so much of your own story quietly.
This isn’t a story I would describe as easy to read, nor should it be. It is vulnerable, painful and deeply human. But there is beauty in the way Kelly has chosen to tell it.
She took something horrible that happened to her and created something beautiful from it.
And I think there is something incredibly powerful in that.
For readers looking for a book they can resonate with — a story that may help them recognise pieces of themselves in someone else’s journey — I highly recommend Girl in the Mirror.
Sometimes knowing someone else has stood where you are standing can make the world feel a little less lonely.
