"The Frost Dragon's Tavern" by Rachael Dunn

Current Tags

dragons, fantasy, magic, elves, racheal dunn, strong female lead, dwarves

Categories

Fantasy

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The Frost Dragon's Tavern

Author's Description

Updated every Monday through Friday! Ruth runs the most popular tavern in the city of Tarra's Key. The beer is always cold no matter what. But when she discovers a stash of gold beyond the cellar wall, she has to take it. Her half-elf daughter needs an education at the magical academy and tuition isn't cheap. But the gold belongs to a slumbering frost dragon and they are not known to share. How will this tough, streetwise, single mom handle the biggest, rudest patron the bar has ever seen?

Why I Chose it

This is inspired by D&D, but it's the characters that pulled me in. At the heart of the story we have a single mother trying to figure out how to keep her daughter safe, and — given the daughter's uncontrolled wild magic — how to keep the town safe from her daughter. The writing is solid and I've added this one to my list of stories to follow.

[5 episodes, 5 in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

If a D&D-inspired tale of a mother trying to keep her daughter safe while dealing with a grumpy dragon sounds like your favorite brew, give this one a try!

Unrelated Griping

Wouldn't it be nice if you could click on the author's name in Vella and automatically be taken to a list of their other stories? Hard to believe that doesn't yet exist.

"Simple as Time: A Wizard Repairs the Past" by Judy Shank Cyg, William Horn

Current Tags

timereaper, time wizard, holy knights and wizards, tracking evil beast, wizard priest, dragonrider and wizard, plotting time

Categories

Fantasy / Action & Adventure

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Simple as Time: A Wizard Repairs the Past

Author's Description

Wizard Allen crosses spacetime and the past to track and destroy a timereaper, a nightmare creature that devours events and people who accomplish positive outcomes, including the path that contained his parents. He plots his steps and enlists knights to help him, including one who will create more trouble and assistance than even a time wizard could predict. Dedication, loyalty, and love prove to be more powerful than the best-planned spellcasting. A time wizard rescues the past

Why I Chose it

Though I usually avoid time travel stories (personal preference!), this one has the distinct advantage of being set in a secondary fantasy world, so I'm not expected to automatically know where reality and fantasy diverge. In the first episode, our wizard is assembling a team to fight the terrible beast destroying timelines. You have to love a "gathering the group of people who hate each other" trope!

[Complete at 18 episodes.]

Who Might Like This

If secondary world fantasy involving wizards, (female) knights, and dragons is your thing, check this out!

Unrelated Griping

This isn't really a gripe, but since "what happens in Vella stays in Vella" (ie, there's almost no audience crossover between Vella and books), I've decided to go ahead and release some novels in Vella that I love but don't quite fit with my current brand. I don't know if I'll ever put them in book form, but they fit a serial form reasonably well.

"Dragon Ranch" by Liz Rockrose

Current Tags

dragons, western, alternate history, texas, contemporary fantasy, young adult, fantasy

Categories

Teen & Young Adult / Fantasy

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Dragon Ranch

Author's Description

Charlotte Morgan's got a policy against attending any tourist trap where the main attractions can fly, breathe fire, or crush you with one pinky toe. Unfortunately, her father's arranged for her to spend the summer helping out at her cranky aunt's Dragon Ranch in Texas.

Why I Chose it

The first episode has at least three different tropes my teen self would have killed to read. (For the record: troubled teen being dumped on a stranger by uncaring parents, a horse dragon farm, and dangerous animals rescued from an abusive past who will learn to trust the protagonist.) 

[29 episodes, 4 in the last 9 days]

Who Might Like This

It's a dragon story for your inner horse girl!

Unrelated Griping

I saw yet another "non-fiction written by people who drive around in RVs" story today — seriously, there ought to be a separate genre just for that. Anyhow, it was a masterclass in an unreliable narrator, except, again, it was supposed to be non-fiction. Very interesting in a grin-while-backing-away sort of manner.

"Beyond the Thistlethorn" by Taverlee Shaw

Current Tags

hedgewitch, tinydragons, naturemagic, yafantasy, witches, fairytail, folklore

Categories

Fantasy / Teen & Young Adult

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Beyond the Thistlethorn

Author's Description

A bright and charming magical fantasy about a young witch sent to the wild and magical Kingdom of Kittlewick to become the new Hedgewitch. A magical romp with tiny dragons, opinionated imps, suspicious elves and one very determined Hedgewitch!

Why I Chose it

This starts with a tiny dragon (unsuccessfully) stalking a bird on the slate roof of the girls' school where the main character lives, and it's just a nice touch that won me over despite being designated a prologue.

[6 episodes so far, with 6 updates in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

The cute & likability factors are off the scale -- you should check this out!

Unrelated Griping

Today I saw a post from someone whose story is in the top 25 and I think she's spending over $500 per month on Facebook to achieve that. I guess it makes sense, but I worry that indie publishing margins are just going to keep dropping as it becomes a requirement to keep dumping that kind of money into advertising.

The thing is, if the Vella interface were improved, with better searching and categories that niched down to the level that would be useful for someone looking for a new story to read, it would be possible for Vella readers to go to Vella to find something to read. As it is now, all the readers are being drawn in directly from some external site to one story by the author, which isn't really building the platform.

"Dragon Freehold" by T.M. Baumgartner

Current Tags

dragon, magic, thief, adventure, romance, fantasy, slow burn

Categories

Fantasy / Action & Adventure

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Dragon Freehold

Author's Description

In Harbor Crag, dragon magic protects the city, and the greedy duke controls the dragons. Lisette climbs the tower with a perfect plan: steal the duke's money to pay her shop's taxes. But a second thief complicates everything, plunging her into the dragon warren. Bargaining with the dragon could end Lisette's life, or save them all. As Lisette races to finish her quest, she gets unexpected help (and a little attention!) from the mysterious thief. New episodes every Tuesday & Friday!

Why I Chose it

I'm cheating a bit today by picking one of my own stories, but I'm currently hosting a virtual NaNoWriMo write-in and I don't have the energy to search through what's available.

But honestly, I really love this story! It has a watchmaker who gets stuck helping a grumpy dragon when all she's trying to do is make things better for her community. And she's falling for a thief, who may also be a mage -- and everyone knows mages are trouble. Plus, someone has chained the dragons...

[34 episodes so far, with 9 updates in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

Are you a fan of high fantasy with underdogs trying not to fall in love? And dragons? This could be your thing!

Unrelated Griping

I don't mean to accuse anyone of gaming the system, but there's some dude who has dumped at least six novels on Vella that are really low quality. None of the stories have more than one or two thumbs-up (and most have none, which as I mentioned before, is usually a really bad sign).

Yet somehow today at least two of his stories have crowns indicating they've been faved.

I call bullshit.