iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 16/10/2026

I will share more about this new tale in the next few posts. And it will release wide this November, as ebook, illustrated paperback, and audiobook. If you want the news ahead of everyone else, my newsletter is the place to be. 🔗👉🏻 liviajelliot.com/newsletter 7/7

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 16/10/2026

But the TALES OF THE BOOKSHELVES don't end here. A new standalone tale is coming soon. A new wound, a new someone struggling with how life has chipped her. 5/7

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 16/10/2026

OUR OWN RHYTHM is the story of someone whose wounds—the ones she acquired to survive—became the reason why she was outed... and rescued. This is the story of someone coming to terms with how life changed them. 4/7

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 16/10/2026

"Life will chip you, little one. Crack or blind you. Fracture you, and leave its mark. It affects us all, except some do not want to accept it." What Sougo tells Lyra in DANCE WITH ME is the truth underlining my series, TALES OF THE BOOKSHELVES. 1/7

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 14/10/2026

A cautionary tale. A mirror. Would you even notice decay, if the society around you had already decayed? I can't answer that for you, but I can show you the underpinnings of Orwell's fear. Books Undone: youtu.be/XN9ecm8gj18 2/2

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 14/10/2026

What if the legitimacy of a government could be manufactured on-demand? What if this is done to hide the decay in a political order where principle and practice no longer align? These are the questions that George Orwell was asking in Animal Farm. 1/2

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 13/10/2026

Would you? OUR OWN RHYTHM is available to read-play in UNEARTHED STORIES. A one-time payment, like an ebook, and you can read it as many times as you want. Here🔗👉🏻prowessgames.net/link 8/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 13/10/2026

No longer narrating a story in first-person present-tense, but watching as the anxiety... becomes the narrator of your life. Literally so. 6/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 13/10/2026

This is also an #InteractiveFiction novel, so again I used the mechanic of interactivity as the fundamental piece to let the reader experience what anxiety and depression can do to someone. How they make you powerless. 4/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 13/10/2026

OUR OWN RHYTHM follows Nina: A doll enchanted by an owner, living in a shelf with a beautiful façade that would hide a dark truth: bullying, isolation, expectations to be always happy and unchanged. It's a story about struggle. 2/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 13/10/2026

Anxiety and depression can become someone's crossbars: controlling her as if she were a puppet to their whims. I wrote another #InteractiveFiction fairytale around that metaphor: OUR OWN RHYTHM 1/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 11/10/2026

You can find DANCE WITH ME wide, in ebook, illustrated paperback, and audiobook at 🔗👉🏻liviajelliot.com/my-books Or for the interactive version 🔗👉🏻prowessgames.net/links 8/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 11/10/2026

I kept the strike-through text, but added more of it to show which thoughts the denial overrides, which the depression refuses, and the moments in which a decision nears... then becomes impossible because hoping is easier than facing reality. 6/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 11/10/2026

Cadenza would have been the 'logical' choice—a true replacement. I decided to keep Dorian, because he later becomes Lyra's love interest and I wanted to show that men can also be kind and emotionally aware. 4/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 11/10/2026

When the elven boy owning Lyra opts to replace her, he brings another figurine... and who that is varies based on what the reader-player chooses for Lyra to see. Cadenza, a replacement ballerina. Or Dorian, to bring someone 'better'. 3/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 11/10/2026

DANCE WITH ME is one of the most personal stories I've written. When UNEARTHED STORIES's second anniversary was drawing near, we thought it... deserved to more. But how to novelise a story built for interactivity? 1/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 09/10/2026

If you want to experience this version of DANCE WITH ME you can do it, for free, through the mobile app UNEARTHED STORIES. I developed it with my partner, @prowessgames. Here🔗👉🏻prowessgames.net/links 6/6

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 09/10/2026

In DANCE WITH ME, in the interactive version, the reader controls Lyra. Your choices guide her thoughts, her actions, her responses. Her depression... denies you. Strikes-through your choices and makes her do something else. Lyra's depression has power over her... and you. 4/6

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 09/10/2026

Because this was an #InteractiveFiction piece, I wanted the mechanics to enact that denial. To make the reader-player part of it. I did it with strike-through text. 3/6

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 09/10/2026

Because DANCE WITH ME was an #InteractiveFiction novella, I wanted the reader-players to *experience* Lyra's struggle. To be part of it. To feel what she felt. 1/6

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 06/10/2026

The truth is that to live is to struggle--and it found me again, bringing the need to write about a different struggle. A new release. A new book. I'll tell you about it soon. 8/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 06/10/2026

Except, sometimes, something overrode those choices. Struck them through, literally. The strike-through was born of my need to use the mechanics of interactivity as an intrinsic part of the story's theme—to bring it closer to the reader. It stayed on the page when I novelised DANCE WITH ME. 5/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 06/10/2026

Eventually, I gave that metaphor a twist. I imagined a ceramic ballerina—the kind that one finds atop a music box—enchanted to life and set to dance, dance, dance despite her fractures. That's how Lyra was born. 2/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 06/10/2026

A ceramic teacup. Fractured. Glued together and set to work again. That's how I felt for a long time. That's how the metaphor of DANCE WITH ME began. 1/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 04/10/2026

Same question, same theme. Different ways of approaching the same answer. TALES OF THE BOOKSHELVES. Another approach, another entry, comes soon. 4/4

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 04/10/2026

RECORDS OF THE ORDERS asks this question through immortal beings studying humanity from the outside. For them, the answer is simple: “to live is to struggle.” What that struggle creates is the core of their research. 2/4

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 04/10/2026

“What is to be alive?” It is the theme underlying both of my series. 1/4

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 02/10/2026

Struggle. Indivisible from life, from identity. Fundamental to Soul Alchemy. Discover why 🔗👉🏻 liviajelliot.com/my-books 2/2

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 02/10/2026

“What is to be alive?” Verve, an alchemist, asked a human—a physician all too acquainted with death. His response? 👀👇🏻 1/2

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 30/09/2026

I wrote an essay about this 🔗👉🏻 www.booksundone.com/p/fiction-i... 3/3

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 30/09/2026

"I didn't understand a thing." One of the most common lines in low-rating reviews — often paired with "it's poorly written." Could these readers be correct? 1/3

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 29/09/2026

THE GENESIS OF CHANGE is where everything begins. Discover the moment The Orders of Alchemists will begin to change. Find it in: ➡️ebook (free to newsletter subscribers), ➡️paperback (released wide), and ➡️audiobook narrated by Sarah Kempton (also wide). 🔗👉🏻liviajelliot.com/my-books 2/2

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 27/09/2026

Begin where everything begins: at THE GENESIS OF CHANGE Free for newsletter subscribers 🔗👉🏻 liviajelliot.com/newsletter 8/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 27/09/2026

This is why, in THE GENESIS OF CHANGE, The Rector sends Verve to investigate one particular human: to discover whether his mind holds the connection that alchemy is still missing. The answer runs through every book in the series. The timelines, as ever, are not straightforward. 7/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 27/09/2026

To The Rector, a disconnection is just an unanswered question. The problem: alchemists who have existed for tens of thousands of years gradually lose something essential. The longer you live within accumulated knowledge, the harder it becomes to think outside it. 5/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 27/09/2026

One Order of Alchemy has exactly this problem: it’s knowledge is disconnected from the rest of alchemy. Every alchemist accepts this as given—a kind of dogma, unexamined and unchallenged. Every alchemist… except The Rector. 4/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 27/09/2026

To any alchemist, the pursuit of knowledge is the only worthy quest for their endless existence. The reason they are what they are. Yet knowledge, by definition, expands what you don't know. 1/8

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 24/09/2026

Sometimes, the past isn't remembered. It returns. THE ECHOES OF YORE is another prequel to my series, RECORDS OF THE ORDERS. Start here for unsettling psychological horror. 🔗👉🏻 liviajelliot.com/my-books 2/2

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 23/09/2026

We can say, therefore, that if a narrator is a camera following a subject (character) quite closely (limited or first-person narratives), then the character's biases are the lens through which that camera sees the world. I wrote an essay about this 🔗👉🏻 open.substack.com/pub/liviaje... 3/3

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 23/09/2026

Unreliability is a condition of subjectivity. Therefore, there are no truly reliable narrators (third-person limited or first-person) because if the narrator is a person, that person will be subjective--despite them claiming otherwise. Because of that, narrators are like camera lenses. 1/3

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 21/09/2026

What Élan frames as philosophy in THE GENESIS OF CHANGE, Amok deploys as method in THE ECHOES OF YORE. Same framework. Different hands. Darker consequences. 🔗👉🏻liviajelliot.com/my-books 6/6

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 21/09/2026

The result is in Philip K. Dick territory: reality becomes genuinely indistinguishable from unreality, and the novella offers no comfortable resolution of the two. THE ECHOES OF YORE are real. The present is real. Both are happening. 5/6

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 21/09/2026

The past isn't remembered. It returns. As one veteran experiences it: "That battle on the forest of Eryndor's north, survived half a year prior but fought again mere hours ago. The one he'd never wanted nor craved, yet signed for it the moment it was announced." 3/6

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 21/09/2026

Élan teaches ‘Aurea that emotions are atemporal—ungoverned by sequence, alive across time, returning without permission. Amok doesn't teach this. They test it. 1/6

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 18/09/2026

Those questions are the lesson. Emotions don't arrive from the present. They arrive from wherever their cause lives—which may be decades behind you, buried in a memory. Élan's branch of alchemy is built on knowing exactly how to find them there. 🔗👉🏻liviajelliot.com/my-books 7/7

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 18/09/2026

What she lives through is a veteran's final moments. The certainty of death building in a body not her own. The specific, physical terror of a mind convincing itself it is about to cease. When it ends, she tells Élan: "You almost killed me." But the alchemist… laughs. 5/7

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 18/09/2026

As Élan explains: "Because one event in your time-framed sequence of a lifetime can spark fear further as you live on. Likewise, a joyful afternoon can bring a smile years after the fact. Emotions are not linear." For the Alchemists of The Orders, this is a working principle. 2/7

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 18/09/2026

Emotions always have a cause. That much seems obvious. What Élan teaches Áurea in THE GENESIS OF CHANGE is a… less intuitive truth: The cause of an emotion is not constrained by time. 1/7

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Livia J. Elliot ~ Author & Podcaster @liviajelliot.com · 16/09/2026

The necessary and the sufficient conditions for a leader's character. But what are those conditions? Join me in BOOKS UNDONE as I seek to provide an answer... while discussing that, perhaps, the Gom Jabbar Test is flawed. 🔗👉🏻www.booksundone.com/p/gom-jabba... 2/2

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