About the Author

Hey, thanks for stopping by!

My name is Amy R Harwell. I write under various pseudonyms: Elysia Strife, E L Strife, Sybur Phyre, and Rylee Z Helion. I will have more as soon as my other genres get published. But for legal purposes, I operate as Amy R. Harwell Writing and Publishing.

Do I make a living? No. Do I love what I do? Definitely. I have to. It is a lot of work. I mean it’s a full-time job that doesn’t pay the rent. Not yet. Maybe someday. My hope is to be able to work from home and retire my husband who has worked hard jobs to support us while we tried to start a family. Writing was an easy hobby to keep me going while we traveled the country for his job. Now it fills the silence.

All of my books are meant to inspire and entertain. I don’t write about hot topics like politics, wars, gender, or race issues. My opinions are kept out of my books (I don’t have that many anyway). I believe entertainment should leave us feeling better and provide an escape from the “real world.” I only write HEAs with characters who come together in the end.

I prefer being casual. If you’re looking for the professional PR About section, scroll down.

Donations

A portion of my royalties has been donated to:

Save the Children US
Wounded Warrior Project
UNICEF Ukraine
Philomath Frolic & Rodeo (Rebuild the Grandstands)
St. Jude Children’s Hospital
ASPCA
First Responders Children’s Foundation
Feeding America
Samaritan’s Purse

I hope to donate to Sarcoidosis research among many other organizations.

I’m one of those crazy chicks that loves to do (or try) everything herself. I’m also the “majestically awkward” type… the kind that falls gracefully on her face when she doesn’t see that dog toy on the floor.

I’m a high-energy introvert that loves learning new things and challenging myself. I am, conversely, totally comfortable talking to perfect strangers in the grocery store. I do everything from writing and editing to cover design, formatting, marketing, and helping others who are just starting out.

I love dubstep and trance as much as heavy metal. I’m addicted to candy, coffee, warm puppy scent, and exercise. I’m the queen of randomness, tangents, and organized chaos. …And spectacular flails… Did I say flails? I meant fails… except that one time it tomahawked down a mountain on my snowboard. Yeah…

Yes, I use self-deprecating humor because it works for me. I laugh at the irony of things, my stupidity, my mistakes. I laugh through pain, but I also find scars beautiful and empowering.

I have a code I live by. I won’t do just anything for money or likes or follows. I have given away thousands of books. I’m not kidding. I want prospective readers to be able to try a book for free and decide if they like my style or not. Every genre I write in has (or will have) a free book you can try before you buy.

I love suspense plots and close-knit characters that have to fight fate together. A lot of my female characters kick a$$ – literally. But they can be sweet and sensitive too. There is a heavy influence of military themes and content in my books as well. I’m a veteran of the USAFR and am honored to have worked with so many wonderful people. (I miss you all dearly. I should’ve never got out, but I did. And now I’m too old.)

My scifi contains a lot of biopunk and cyberpunk elements. I love futurism and toying with what the universe might be like elsewhere or in the years ahead. I also love magic, so I enjoy putting fantastical twists on stories. And I write romance (in suspense, sweet, holiday, small town, steamy scifi, and dark subgenres.)

I love symbols and use them a lot in my stories. I often pull from the places we’ve traveled to and the people we’ve met when writing. I’m a pantser. Never know what I’m going to get. So it’s a surprise for both of us!

If you have any thoughts or questions on any of my work, don’t hesitate to email me at contact@elstrife.com

I love connecting with readers!

Bachelor’s Degrees (2)
Public Health and Human Sciences
Exercise Sport Science
Interior Design

USAFR Veteran (SSgt)

Courses:
Writer’s Digest University (1)
Copy Editing Certification (click here to view)

Editorial Freelancers Association (3)
Book Mapping
Developmental Editing
Line Editing

Writers’ League of Texas (4)
Intro to the Picture Book: Writing for Young Children
Word Alchemy Lab
Mastering PR and the Media
Self-Publishing Go Bag: What You Need to Know to Get Started

Fiverr (5)
Stories that Sell: 7 Secrets to Creating Killer Content
Viral Marketing: 7 Secrets to Promote Any Product
Social Media Content Strategy
Create and Self-publish your Book or e-Book
Online Freelancing Essentials

Elysia Lumen Strife, Amy R. Harwell, hold’s a Bachelors of Science from Oregon State University in Exercise Sport Science and a second in Interior Design (both Public Health and Human Science Degrees). She studied art therapy for her Health Occupations and Arts and Communications Certificates of Advanced Mastery in high school. She has spent several years as a personal trainer and holds a certification in Safe Return Personal Training and Kinetic Integration acquired through Guido van Ryssegem and his Kinetic Integrations program prior to it’s development into the Kinetic Integration Exercise Professional (KIEP) certification program that it is now. She has also acquired training as a chiropractic assistant.

Now, for the traditional PR About section:

An optimist and opportunist, Amy R. Harwell is a self-made author, cover designer, and editor. Best known as Elysia Strife, who writes primarily sweet holiday romance, she most loves writing dystopian science fiction fantasy novels under the pseudonym variation E. L. Strife. Harwell also writes steamy Sci-Fi and Paranormal romance as Sybur Phyre. She is an upcoming author of young adult fantasy (which will be under another pen name) and looks forward to diving deeper into the world of magic.

Strife has toured castles, haunted houses, frozen caves, lava tubes, and concentration camps. She enjoys reading on rainy and snowy mornings with a fire going, even if it’s just the fake one in her RV. She craves learning new things, like how to work on her 1981 Corvette. She’s trained to race BMWs at the Southern California track, served in the Air Force, and done a wicked (and unintentional) backflip on her snowboard. When not writing, she is most likely to be found at the gym, camping in the mountains, riding ATVs at the dunes, or simply playing with her rescued dog in the park.

Strife lives with an amazing man who can build anything he puts his mind to and a rescued dog that steals socks and chases the vacuum. Together, they travel the country—from the golden plains of North Dakota to the warm ocean of the southern Texas coast and back to the green valleys and vineyards of Oregon. Anywhere is home as long as they’re together.

If you’d like to know when Strife’s next books will be out, and to ensure you hear about her giveaways, visit her website: elstrife.com and subscribe via the links on her homepage.

You can also connect with her on these other channels:

BookBub Romance: Elysia Strife

BookBub Sci-Fi Fan: E L Strife

BookBub Sci-Fi Romance: Sybur Phyre

Goodreads: Elysia Lumen Strife

Goodreads: E L Strife

Goodreads: Sybur Phyre