Houston author completes fantasy rising from Third Ward

Author J. Elle made a formidable impression with her debut novel, “Wings of Ebony,” earlier this year. She also left readers of the bracing young-adult novel hanging. The story was designed as part of a duology, and Elle this week announced the impending arrival of “Ashes of Gold,” which completes the story of a young Houston girl, Rue, dealing with otherworldly complications between her life in “East Row” — a fictional version of Houston’s Third Ward — and Ghizon, a land filled with magic.

“Ashes of Gold” will complete Rue’s story upon its publication on Jan. 11.

Elle says she’s “excited for readers to dive into the final chapter of Rue’s journey.”

She says the second part of the story finds the protagonist “learning more about herself. It’s often assumed hard, strong people aren’t vulnerable, and I challenge that idea head-on in ‘Ashes of Gold.’ ”

The novel finds Rue “being a teen girl, falling in love, growing to understand that she is worthy of love. Because a Black heroine shouldn’t have to exist on the page just to fight racism.”

With “Wings of Ebony,” Elle undertook some incredible world building, using Houston’s Third Ward as inspiration for a fantastical novel about a teen girl and her self-discovery.

Cathy Berner of Houston’s Blue Willow Bookshop said Elle “created a world that’s both real and imagined, one in which anyone can place themselves.”

The pacing was brisk and engaging, the story reverently crafted.

Elle told the Houston Chronicle earlier this year she was inspired by the film “Black Panther.”

“I was accustomed to engaging with stories and having to imagine myself in them,” she said. “Having to translate the experience for myself and how I engage the world.”

So she imagined a girl from her neighborhood in Houston forced by circumstances to take action to save her family and her neighborhood.

“Ashes of Gold” opens with Rue in a prison, unaware of how she got there. She has no friends, and she has no access to her magic. She tries to tie back to her roots: the magic and the people who form a circuit of energy that emanates from the place where she grew up in Houston.

Chris Spicks Photography Houston native J. Elle, who grew up in Third Ward, wrote the popular “Wings of Ebony” and has announced its sequel.

In “Ashes of Gold,” due out in January, Elle tells the second half of the tale of Rue, a girl from Houston.