About

Who am I? And other questions asked at 2am

Hello and welcome! I am incredibly excited to be sharing this journey with you, and I hope that you can find as much of a home within Varyn as I have in these past years. Queensdaughter has been an incredible journey for me; I started writing it in high school, around 2014, and it is an incredible feeling to be finally bringing it to the world and sharing this great part of my life. It has been something that has always lived within me since I wrote my first piece, a terrible fanfiction in the back of my 6th grade science notebook.

I was born and raised in Portage & Kalamazoo, Michigan, where I spent over 10 years learning the art of fencing, mastering the flute, and attending college at Western Michigan University, graduating in 2019. I spent some time as a flute performance major before changing my path to a double major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and Geography with a specialization in Resource Management. Nature has always been a key part of my being since before I can remember—whether it be simple (or arduous) hikes or potential career paths, it will always be a part of me for the rest of my days. More internally, I follow a revived druidic spirituality, which is based in a reverence for the intrinsic value and life of nature. That devotion has heavily influenced my writing, where I long to bring the beauty, majesty, and sometimes danger of nature to the page. Despite the fact that we'll never truly know what a druid's life was like due to that part of history being lost, I try my best to be as in-tune with, and reverent of, nature as I can.


What is Queensdaughter about?

Queensdaughter is the first in the trilogy, titled The Queensdaughter Trilogy. The next books will be called Stone and Leaf, and Dragonheart. These books follow Navette, along with friends, family, and other characters as they learn to navigate the queendom of Varyn, now befallen by shadow. The path of life in Varyn is never quite straightforward, but journeys are less about the destination, and more about the road traveled, anyways.

The story of Queensdaughter is as follows:

Navette lives a peaceful life in her home of Osala, managing a bakery that was passed down to her and her elder sister. The night of the spring festival of Emystre arrives, and the village is laid to ruin when ancient creatures—the skáiga—come in search of the Queensdaughter. Navette flees to the capital, where she discovers her fate as the heir to the throne and a world far more vast than she had ever imagined.

This story follows Navette as she learns how to become a queen, control her innate magic, and battle the darkness that threatens her entire world. Meanwhile, her sister Ivy remains in Osala as the people try to rebuild a village from ruin, even as the darkness returns.

In the lands of Varyn, not all is as it seems. The trees begin to whisper of danger, the dragons of old are little more than legends, and even queens have their secrets. Love and companionship are more valued than ever as Varyn begins to sink into darkness, but even after the darkest of nights, not all is lost.


I have a second trilogy in the works as well - The Forest Trilogy. This will take place in the 3rd era, long before Navette's time, and during the last days of the dragons. More news will be coming about this as I work through both Stone and Leaf and the first in this new series!


Varyn Atmospheres playlist

Navette's playlist

Gwynnestri's playlist


Join my journey

First and foremost, infinite thank-yous to all of you who have visited and/or read Queensdaughter. Your support means the world to me, and the journey of publishing my work for the world to see has been a dream come true.

If you would like to stay updated on my works, adventures, nature hikes, and weird things I often say, you can follow me at:

Facebook: The Queensdaughter Trilogy by Amanda Ylva

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Twitter: amanda_ylva