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D.T. Bella, Author

@rychilla.com

1.2K followers 1.1K following 780 posts

Aussie indie author, writing a series about a fairy detective in a steampunk kingdom. Art by PamonyaArt. Logo by Lee Bradford (He/him.) My Books: https://rychilla.com/about-the-books/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/D.T.-Bella/author/B0BQWBRWJY

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D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 20

Hello. I'm an indie #author based in Australia. I write fantasy/whodunnit fiction, following a fairy turned private eye and his allies. It's set in the Kingdom of Rychilla, where steam engines run on elemental magic.

Book 1, 'A Pinch of Distrust' is out and I'm currently working on a sequel.

Victorian-esque living room. In the background of the image a man sits dead in a chair, stabbed through the heart. In the foreground, a woman with natural navy-blue hair, a tall woman with silver hair and a fairy with green hair and dark wings study a document.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 7d

#QueerPrompts 6/Oct/25: Any coaches in your story?

Funnily enough, Yaetherim ends up as a sort of coach for Naeliya. In book 3.1 (an interquel) and book 4, Naeliya realises that she's in a position to perform her own investigations. As the kingdom's only private eye, Yaetherim coaches her in these.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 9d

#QueerPrompts 3/Oct/25: Do you add body language when you write conversations?

Yes. I find it's a good way to break up the dialogue and keep things moving.

Half of my characters are fairies, so I include their wings in the body language. Flicking to indicate surprise, that sort of thing.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 13d

#QueerPrompts 29/Sept/25: What would a fortune cookie tell your MC?

"You will be loved."

Yaetherim, at this point, sees himself as broken and unlovable. With scars on his body and soul. It's the reason why he hasn't realised another fairy is in love with him yet.

(Art by @o8cho.bsky.social).

A fairy with blue skin, red hair and glasses is sitting on a bed. She's got her arms around another fairy, who has brown skin, grass-green hair and scars. He's asleep and at peace.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 15d

Exactly. I guess the author was trying to do a shot-by-shot following of the movie, but that just doesn't work in a book.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 16d

No. It's cancer, just like how we understand it. They just call it that as they don't know what it is.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 16d

I planned mine as a series from the start. Book 1 sees Yaetherim finding the humans who attacked him. Book 2 has him figuring out what to do next, after he's not returned to duty as a forest protector (due to the scars on his soul).

He ends up becoming the kingdom's first private eye.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 16d

Head-hopping. Went back to the novelisation of 'Tomorrow Never Dies' a few years ago, after I started writing. Couldn't get past the first chapter due to the terrible head hopping.

At one point, it hops into the head of a nameless henchman who's only role is to get shot down by Bond, FFS!

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 16d

Here's page 25 of 'Embers of Doubt' - it's the last page of chapter 2. The apprentices applying for the job of mage have completed their exam. Up next: practical demonstrations of magic.

Yaetherim smiled. Darnith had a point. If this was the worst that happened, things would go smoothly.
A knock came from the door. Yerom leaned into the room.
“Excuse me, Arch-Mage Darnith, but the apprentices are finished. Mage Kepan asked me to tell you.”
Darnith checked his pocket watch again.
“They are a few minutes early.”
Banoth shrugged.
“If they’re done, they’re done.”
Yaetherim took flight. He’d been looking forward to seeing these apprentices in action. Until now, it had been words and formalities. Perhaps their actions would reveal more about them.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 16d

Yaetherim is already at rock-bottom when my series starts. So I imagine an Absolute version of him would be as a senior Forest Protector, with a successful career behind him. He'd have politically appointed authority for his investigations, rather than his track record being his credentials.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · 16d

Rychillan medical knowledge is roughly the same as that of Victorian England, so they can cure most of the diseases they knew about then.

There is 'the wasting', which is what they call cancer.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 4

Yaetherim is afraid of the human who gave him his scars, who nearly killed him. It's a PTSD response.

But they do end up working together at one point. It's a desperate moment.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 3

From Embers of Doubt, page 16 (beta draft).

(Yes, it is a metaphor.)

Paetolel took another bite of the biscuit. Correctly this time, with some blueberry. He chewed thoughtfully.
“You’re right. Tastes better when you’ve got the whole thing. Still isn’t quite to my palate. But it’s cooked well,” Paetolel said. He glanced out the door. More voices drifted in from the square, from those who’d returned for lunch.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 3

#FantasyIndiesSeptember 4/Sept/25: Character Hobbies

Yaetherim - cooking. He's good enough to have a career as a chef, if he wanted.
Tenora - tinkering with clockwork. It's what led her into her career as a mechanic.
Karis - sketching. It's one of the few times she lets her hair down.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 2

I'm in a similar position to you. I write murder mysteries, so I usually plot backwards from the ending - when the murderer is revealed. That then gives me what clues need to be planted where and so on.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 2

Don't call me out like this. 🙂

Brantwijn Serrah, Artist and Author @brantwijn.bsky.social · Sep 1

Now you know 😊 #writingjokes #reading #writingquotes #amwriting

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 1

How does it work, exactly?

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 1

#SeptemberWorldbuilders 1/Sept/2025: What season(s) does your story take place?

Rychilla has two seasons: humid and rainy. At the moment, all my stories take place during the former. There are celebrations at the start of the latter, and I have plans for one such celebration, the Jacaranda Ball.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 1

#QueerPrompts 1/Sep/25: Introduce self & WIP.

I'm Daniel, an Australian author writing whodunnits in a fantasy setting.

My current WIP, Naeliya Investigates, sees Naeliya look into a theft solo. She finds she enjoys it more than her job as a messenger.

(Art by @o8cho.bsky.social.)

A slightly disheveled fairy with red hair and blue skin sits on an octagonal bench atop a wooden tower. Her body language shows she's bored. Epically bored.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Sep 1

#FantasyIndiesSeptember 1/Sep/25: Introduce self & WIP.

I'm Daniel, an Australian author writing whodunnits in a fantasy setting.

My current WIP, Naeliya Investigates, sees Naeliya look into a theft solo. She finds she enjoys it more than her job as a messenger.

(Art by @o8cho.bsky.social)

A slightly disheveled fairy with red hair and blue skin sits on an octagonal bench atop a wooden tower. Her body language shows she's bored. Epically bored.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Aug 29

I've started writing smaller pieces, that fit between my Rychilla Cases novels. They're mostly based on writing prompts. The first one's here: archiveofourown.org/works/70030761.

I've decided to publish them on #AO3 and on my Tumblr.

#amwriting #indie #indieauthor #Rychilla

Coat for a Dewdrop - RychillaCases - Original Work [Archive of Our Own]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

archiveofourown.org

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Aug 28

Naeliya's secret is how a fairy like her is able to drink multiple human-sized mugs of beer. She's got water magic, and she's using it to vanish the beer from her stomach once she's got the buzz from it.

Naeliya's alcoholism comes from career dissatisfaction. Feels trapped in her own job.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Aug 28

#AugustWorldbuilders 29/8/25: What software/programs/notebooks do you use to organise worldbuilding information?

I use a program called Joplin. It's FOSS, which syncs across my PC and Android phone.

Notes can be organised into 'notebooks', and can be tagged. Images & other media can also be added.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Aug 28

I've done it once, in a small ficlet that's going to be going live on my Tumblr this Saturday. It starts with Naeliya being needled by rain, then musing on the irony of a water elemental fairy being put in danger by rain.

Things get better when her boyfriend shows up, with a warm coat and hugs.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Aug 20

The villains in my first book would've made a clean getaway for murder. Except that one of my MCs, a mechanic, unbolted a few strategic nuts at the rear of their car. It came apart like one of those Looney Tunes cartoons. Then things got real again.

D.T. Bella, Author @rychilla.com · Aug 17

Yaetherim enjoys cooking. He finds that the process of doing it helps calm him, and he enjoys sharing it with people he cares about.