Welcome

Welcome to StarDance Press, where books born under dancing stars can be found. In other words, the home of stories where there may be tears and trials in the middle, but the reader can trust there will be hope, joy, and love at the end. Or as Madeleine L’Engle put it:

A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.

Madeleine L’Engle, Troubling a Star

E.L. Bates is an independently-published author of fantasy and sci-fi. Her debut novel, Magic Most Deadly, is the start of her Whitney & Davies magical mystery series, a combination of magic and Golden Age detective fiction. The seed for the series was planted one day upon finishing an Agatha Christie novel and idly wondering what it would be like to add magic into that sort of story.

She has also written the stand-alone space opera From the Shadows, a story born out of her love for Star Wars, Star Trek, the Vorkosigan saga, and other stories of that ilk.

Under the name Louise Bates (in order to avoid confusion with her speculative fiction), she has written the historical mystery novella Candles in the Dark, the first of a planned series of mystery novellas set in her hometown of Canton, NY and the surrounding region.

When not writing, Louise teaches her two children at home. In her free moments, she enjoys knitting, ice dancing, discussing the implications of Story as Truth with her theologian husband, and trying to love the outdoors as much as she ought. She is usually seen with a cup of tea in hand, and keeps a stash of dark chocolate hidden in her desk for emergency inspiration.

Perhaps as a result of reading and writing so many adventures, she can’t help but feel that life is best lived with a sense of anticipation, seeking adventure around every corner, looking for the magic that still lurks in the hidden places of the world, waiting for those with the eyes to see it.