With ten books published, 151 mysteries planned and a head full of stories waiting to be told, Logan author Rhiannon D. Elton is proving that imagination has no limits.
FOR Rhiannon D. Elton, storytelling isn’t just a career but it’s a calling. The Crestmead-based fantasy author has spent years building an intricate fictional world filled with mysteries, magic and memorable characters.
Through her popular The Wolflock Cases series, Elton has created an expansive universe yet despite the grand scale of her imagination, her journey began in a surprisingly ordinary classroom.
“When I was in Year One, our teacher Mrs Hanson told us the secret technique of turning your book upside down and backwards,” Elton said. “That’s where you could write stories without interfering with the rest of your school work.”
Although she dreamed of writing fiction professionally, Elton was repeatedly told it wasn’t a realistic career choice.
Instead, she pursued acupuncture and built a successful clinic but it wasn’t until burnout forced her to reassess her future that she found herself returning to the dream she’d carried since childhood.
Today, Elton is an independent self-published author with ten books in The Wolflock Cases series while she also runs Dungeons & Dragons groups, and remaining deeply connected to the local creative community.
Her stories blend fantasy and detective fiction, creating mysteries wrapped in magical worlds. While each novel contains a self-contained case, readers who pay attention are rewarded with clues and threads that weave throughout the broader series.
“I’m a flowery writer and I love putting subtle hints throughout my stories for what is going to happen,” she said. “I’m very character focused because I find it’s the internal stories that speak to our soul as humans.”
Their adventures unfold in a richly imagined setting called Puinteylien, a world Elton has spent years developing and continues to expand with every new story.
The latest instalment, The Case of the Mountain’s Monster, marks a major milestone for the series. As the tenth book, it finally begins to answer questions readers have been asking since the beginning.
“Throughout the series there have been little clues suggesting something far more sinister is happening,” Elton said. “This is where readers finally start finding out what has really been going on.”
While fantasy worlds may be her specialty, Elton’s own story is deeply connected to Logan moving to the region from New South Wales during high school and spending time living in caravan parks and share houses before her family settled in Kingston.
“Logan has a deep undercurrent of real stories, people with grit and a groundedness that I have always loved,” she said. “It’s home for me.”
Today, living in Crestmead with her husband and daughter, she continues to draw inspiration from both her surroundings and everyday life.
“I can be hearing a random conversation and suddenly have a whole new character, scene and mystery,” she said.
Looking ahead, Elton’s ambitions remain as vast as the worlds she creates.
Her goal is to complete all 151 planned Wolflock Cases novels, tell hundreds of historical stories set within her fictional universe and eventually publish the many romance novels waiting in the wings.
“I feel aligned with my purpose when I write,” she said.
“To tell a story is a thrill for me.”
