Description

Guest Bio

Elizabeth Chaffin is the creator of Bearded Rat Mysteries, through which she has written over 14 digital-download murder mystery games that have been sold around the world. She is also the author of two novels, Dead Man's Swamp and Newfangled Madness, published under the name E. M. Chaffin. Both books feature homeschooled protagonists and explore themes of friendship, courage, and the pursuit of truth. She lives in Oklahoma, USA with her own personal creatures Paisley and Tricki Woo. She enjoys eating mashed potatoes, adventuring to beautiful places, and taking vitamins. There was this one time she floated on the Yellow River on a raft made of inflated sheepskin, but that doesn't have anything to do with this podcast.

Links

Contact Elizabeth

Website: https://www.emchaffin.com/

Instagram for EM: https://www.instagram.com/emchaffinwrites/

Instagram for BRM: https://www.instagram.com/beardedratmysteries/

Facebook for EM: https://www.facebook.com/emchaffinwrites

Facebook for BRM: https://www.facebook.com/beardedratmysteries

Etsy: https://beardedratmysteries.etsy.com

Things you can enter

TREASURE CHEST GIVEAWAY

From Poppy: 1 e-copy of Woken Kingdom and d1 e-copy of How to edit your own novel.

From Elizabeth: Winners Choice of any 1 thing from her etsy store/a copy of her book.

From BCP: A copy of one of the BSP Low/Medium Content Journal range

Treasure chest Give-away 3: (open 30/07/2025 closes 8/10/2025)

 https://www.bushlandcastleproductions.com/treasure-chest

Contact the Team

Finding Elara Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FindingElara

Discord: https://discord.gg/Ap8EWpPn

BCP Website: www.bcpcreative.com.au

BCP Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bcp.creative/

BCP facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577758720164

Contact Dianna

Website: www.dlnix.com

Facebook: (DL Nix) https://www.facebook.com/Faepatriantales

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findingelara/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@findingelarapodcast

Sponsor Info

Shadow Lair: https://ko-fi.com/findingelara

Selva's Ality: https://www.facebook.com/awakinningality

Selina Shapland: https://empoweredwords.com.au/

Show Notes

• For the Games – She starts with theme + setting followed by murder motivation. Then the characters with the motivation around the victim.
• For the novels – She starts with character, what story she is after first
• Didn't start out as a plotter but has started plotting more each project. After she started doing that she realised that the more plotting the easier it was for the next steps.
• She always makes sure that the plot is flexible and is kind to herself if things need to change.
• Worldbuilding = Settings are a character
• First novel Dead mans swamp has 3 different timelines.
• New Fangled Madness – has a magic ring to talk to birds.
• Self published both books – was advised that if she had an audience, to stick to the same sort of theme.
• Marian – Character from new fangled Madness went on adventures in Elara. She was very brave.
• Goes on a lot of sidequests when researching games, aske her about circus lore!

Fast Fire Questions

1. What's your favourite Colour? Grey
2. Would you rather draw a Sun or a Moon? Sun
3. Would you prefer to live near the beach or a river? River
4. Dream Holiday Destination? New Zealand
5. Favourite Fairy Tale? Beauty and the beast

LINKING TO ELARA

Ryan: How do you get their inspiration for the scenes especially murder scenes? Don't have a good answer! They either come randomly or it is just the first idea when in her writing headspace. Loves Brainstorming.

Julz: How do you cope with life after some of the murders you have written about? None of them are to serious in the end. Has had to put it away before and move on to something else.

Garry: What originally drew you to irish guacamole and will they be tackling any other river on the sheep raft. Her mum makes the best. Grew up skin off and now has skin on.

Joel: You develop such unique and quirky characters. Do you start with the murderer and their character first? For the books definitely the main character.

When Developing the victim do you want them to be innocent or do you want them to be more of an antihero? In the games the victim tends to be the worst person. In the books it's a mixture.

Dianna: How do you deal with the emotional resonance in a murder mystery? I like characters each person answer a number of questions. This develops this web of depth.