Smlx Books

"Countries do not fight each other. Men fight each other. And they only fight so that they can stop fighting and go home. It is the most horrific irony in the world." The once-peaceful nations of Mitoch and Fairgos are locked in a bitter war. Lady Aurora, however, has known only quiet privilege for her 21 years inside the walls of the Cavalcata manor house. As the educated, eavesdropping daughter of the Fairgosian Royal War Master, she is confident she knows more than most . . . except when the promised Fairgosian victory will bring her father home for good. But when the currents of war sweep her, half-dead, to the shores of brutal, backwards Mitoch, Aurora will unlearn everything she thought she knew-about the war, her country, her father, and herself-and discover what is really worth fighting for. The War Master's Daughter tells the story of battles we all fight-those we wage with each other and also within ourselves.

Elly Zupko is a professional writer living in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. She grew up in rural Harford County on a four-acre property and now doesn’t even own a plant. Studying under acclaimed novelist and National Book Award finalist Madison Smartt Bell, she graduated Goucher College in 2003 with a degree in English/writing. She has had both her fiction and non-fiction published in a variety of outlets, including Preface, The Eloquent Atheist, The Baltimore Writer’s Project, Why Vandalism? and APMP’s Executive Summary. Her short stories ＂What It Means to Be Alone＂ and ＂Fixed＂ are available to read online through their respective publications. Elly has been making things up since she was old enough to hold a crayon and turn Big Bird purple. Her passion for fiction extended into middle school, where she learned to forge signatures on bad progress reports, and through high school, when she finally began her first novel-incidentally, a very early iteration of The War Master’s Daughter. Her first job out of college was at a small Baltimore publishing house, where she edited 11 novels that would go on to publication. This experience has given her an edge on navigating the rapidly changing publishing world, and she shares her experience and knowledge on her blog, Stuff Your Eyes With Wonder. Independently published under the SMLX Books imprint, The War Master’s Daughter is Elly Zupko’s first novel (...that you know about).