An Appetizer:
Hi, I’m L.T. Elliot (Laura). I love books, even if the dusty bookshelves don't show it. My streaming queues are full of anime, K-drama, and dark mysteries. I have the world’s best dog, two of not-the-world’s-best cats, twin fantastic kids, and a husband I adore. Curry of all cultures has a standing invitation at my house. Oh, and I write Adult/YA fantasy.
The Main Course:
L.T. Elliot was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. At three years old, she learned to read while sitting on her father’s lap as he read the newspaper and any number of books. He taught her two great truths: reading soothes the soul, and the back of a horse is good for the heart of a man (or woman). Laura took both sentiments to heart and as a result, spent most of her growing years reading when she should have been working, and racing the horses when expressly forbidden by her mother. She regrets neither.
Laura credits her love of the fantasy genre to Malificent from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and later to an intuitive substitute teacher who spent six months exposing students to a myriad of genre fiction. It was during this experiment that Laura first read Anne McCaffery’s Dragonsong. That book was chased up by Mary Herbert’s Dark Horse series, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and countless others. She blames the back wall shelf inside Waldenbooks and the couches inside Barnes & Noble for being gateway drugs to deeper thinking. She mourns the loss of Waldenbooks—and B&N’s couches.
At eight years old, Laura’s first attempt at writing resulted in a dark fairy tale about war and interracial relationships, the fruit of which birthed magic itself. From there she moved on to designing her own comic books and her “doodles” earned her many a low grade and extra chores at home. All these years later, she still can’t help filling up the margins with drawings.
During middle school, Laura first exhibited symptoms of severe depression. Another wise teacher showed her how words—written and read—could bleed oneself of dark thoughts and help connect to other people. Words alone can never measure the depth of gratitude Laura feels for that wise and caring teacher.
Throughout high school, Laura continued to write. While she managed to get into plenty of trouble, she might have done worse if she hadn’t been so preoccupied with The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Her yearbook is littered with instructions to “lay off the heavy books.” She willfully continues to ignore them all.
Laura married her best friend, Brian, and he remains the truest and most beloved of companions. Their lives were blessed with identical twin sons and Laura immediately set to indoctrinating them with Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and mock battles with knights and dragons. She considers their geekery and love of reading to be some of her greatest accomplishments.
In the following years, Laura has had two non-fiction short stories published, won multiple awards for First Chapter contests, and continues to work on novels. Laura’s most recent project is a runaway home remodel. But behind the construction, new ideas are brewing, which—of course—feature all things dark and magical.
