Elly Magdaluyo

      The granddaughter of two English teachers and the daughter of a hardworking single mother, Elly was born in Minnesota and grew up between there and the Black Hills of South Dakota. From a young age, books were always part of the picture. Determined to read and write as quickly as she could, she dreamed of having a desk of her own where she could create and do “paper-related” things. At six years old, she finally got one—an ugly pressboard desk that she adored all the same.

In the fourth grade, Elly met the teacher who would change her life forever. Ms. Moschkau introduced her to a true love of reading through Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. The following year, Elly’s fifth-grade teacher assigned a weekly short story. Instead, Elly turned in a new chapter each week of what became a handwritten 743-page novel. When her teacher refused to teach her how to write dialogue, Elly went straight back to Ms. Moschkau, who happily did. To this day, they still exchange letters by snail mail, and Elly continues to honor her beloved teacher in all her works.

From that point on, Elly never stopped writing. Notebook after notebook filled with the worlds and characters that lived in her imagination. It wasn’t until she married in 2010 that she finally upgraded from pen and paper to her first laptop. In 2015, after a few family tragedies, she went to bed one night thinking about a high-school friend and his mother’s home nestled in a quiet patch of the Black Hills. Her imagination took over, and two weeks later, the first draft of Your Life Will Have You Back was complete. She spent the next seven years reshaping its ending until it matched the story she had always envisioned. Nine months after that debut, she released her second book, Say Nothing.

Elly’s goal is to publish every book she writes—until she runs out of stories to tell. Sign up for her newsletter to be the first to hear about upcoming releases and behind-the-scenes updates.