About — Ephie Risho

The spark

It started with a third-grade homework assignment.

My oldest came home with a blank worksheet titled "Write a Story," and instead of dreading it, they said, "I have an idea for a great story. Want to write it with me, Dad?" One idea led to another, and before long, we were building worlds, crafting characters, and drawing maps. That moment became The Elementalists.

Handwritten synopsis on notebook paper: 'A strange creature attacks Amber's village and burns one of the fields. Amber bravely goes on a quest to find the creature and learn how to stop it. But the journey turns out to be far more important than she ever imagined.'

— Blue's synopsis of Phoenix Rising, in blue pen

Dragons, prophecies, five books of adventure — all grown from that first spark. Co-authored by a kid with boundless imagination and a dad who never quite stopped believing in magic.

Bozeman, Montana

A quest, bravely given.

I'd been telling my kids bedtime stories for years. Blue said, "Dad, we should make this into a real book." A little while later they handed me this page.

It read: "A strange creature attacks Amber's village and burns one of the fields. Amber bravely goes on a quest to find the creature and learn how to stop it. But the journey turns out to be far more important than she ever imagined."

I've written a lot of things in my life. Nothing has ever hit me quite like that paragraph.

We outlined five books on a napkin. Years later, we've lived inside that napkin every single week.

Ephie and Blue smiling, holding an advance copy of Phoenix Rising

Holding the first proof copy of Phoenix Rising — April 2020. The guitars on the wall have heard most of the plot out loud.

The Elementalists — a family project

Creative chaos, in the best way.

Blue and I wrote The Elementalists together for the first three books. We debated plot twists like philosophers. We invented brand-new spells. We laughed our way through world-ending scenarios. My brother Sam joined us to help shape the rules of magic. My younger kid Joshua brought a different spark — and a teenage appetite for danger — to book four.

The co-authored credit on books one through three isn't a marketing flourish. Blue genuinely built that world with me. When they eventually told me, at fourteen, that they'd moved on to other things, I had to figure out how to keep the story alive without them. I did it the only way I know: I kept showing up to the page.

Blue wide-eyed and astonished, holding an early copy of Crodor the Ancient

The face every author wants to see. Opening the first box of Crodor the Ancient — our second book.

June 2020 — A box at the door

The day the books arrived.

There's nothing quite like finally having half a dozen heavy boxes show up at your doorstep, filled with books you've written.

It was almost 8 p.m. The dog started barking. Blue, who'd been waiting all day, dashed to the front door and started jumping up and down. "They're here!" They ran up the stairs to grab my sleeve. "They're here, Dad!"

We hauled the boxes up to the dining-room table. We put on a Vetiver album. We practiced our signatures — Blue hated theirs — and we said a small blessing over every book we signed, for whoever would eventually hold it. It's one of my favorite memories of the whole decade.

Writing with my kids changed everything. It reminded me that storytelling isn't about following a formula — it's about connection. About laughing out loud. About getting goosebumps when a twist lands just right.

— Ephie Risho, on the craft

Backyard book launch party in Bozeman, Montana, June 2021

Book launch in the backyard, June 2021. Michelle cooked a feast. The thunderstorms on the other side of the valley held off just long enough.

2020 – 2021 — Launch in a pandemic

We launched a fantasy series during the worst year to launch anything.

We published Phoenix Rising in summer 2020. Bookstores were closed. Schools were closed. The only parade we were allowed to throw was a signing table on the patio, under a red umbrella, with neighbors showing up in masks and asking if we had extras.

We sold out of every copy we'd ordered inside of two events. Crodor the Ancient followed a year later, then Secret of the Kraken, then The Twelfth Scepter to close out the arc. The local paper ran a feature under the headline "Just keep writing." That's exactly what we did.

Newspaper feature in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle titled 'Just keep writing,' with a photo of Ephie and Blue at a book-signing table

Bozeman Daily Chronicle, October 2022 — "Just keep writing." Still the best advice anyone's given me about the craft.

Craft

Writing a different sort of book.

I love getting into the thick of it — struggling over how to make a scene come alive. It doesn't happen on the first try every time. Sometimes it takes a few runs at it. But eventually, every line, I can sit back and think, yes, this is what needed to be written.

I write heroes because I want to remind myself, and my kids, and whoever picks up the book, that we get to choose the kind of story we're in the middle of. The weather is out of our hands. What we do inside the weather — that part is ours.

Ephie holding an advance copy of The Unbearable Luck of Being Mitzy, Book 1 of Stone of Amun-Ra

With an advance copy of The Unbearable Luck of Being Mitzy, Book 1 of Stone of Amun-Ra — a new series, a new voice, a new palette.

2025 — A new series

From dragons to luck.

After finishing The Twelfth Scepter, I returned to the page with a thrilling new voice. Still fantasy — but with a modern twist: ancient secrets buried in alleyways, supernatural luck, found family, and more than a few explosions.

It's a PG-13 adult thriller. It's funny. It's mysterious. The narrator has luck as his special power, and learning to write that honestly — not Mr. Magoo, not deus-ex-machina, but real magical luck — was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. Seven full drafts to get it right.

Some of the characters are misfits. Some are reluctant heroes. All of them carry a spark of that first co-written dragon. Book one is The Unbearable Luck of Being Mitzy. Book two, Wrath of the Raven and Other Inconveniences, releases alongside it. Book three, coming in 2027, has the world on the line.

I write the books I wish I'd found in a quiet corner of the library.

It started with a third-grade homework assignment.

A quest, bravely given.

Creative chaos, in the best way.

The day the books arrived.

We launched a fantasy series during the worst year to launch anything.

Writing a different sort of book.

Hats, cats, canoes, and Montana wind.

From dragons to luck.

Start with The Elementalists.

Or step into Stone of Amun-Ra.

I write for anyone who's ever longed for adventure.