Alix Rickloff
Shapeshifting as an
by Barbara Ragsdale
N
ot many authors can boast proudly, “I wrote and
illustrated my first book, The Fuzzy Family, when
I was in the fourth grade.” Alix Rickloff can.
According to her, “This masterpiece was followed by an entire
series, all Xeroxed and stapled together.” There are a few
valuable author copies stowed away in her attic.
In high school she penned a tragic romance. The hero
died. Hint to other authors. If the hero dies in the first book,
no way to have a series. Nevertheless, Alix continued to
write during the minutia of life: college, marriage and three
children. All the while manuscripts piled up on her hard
drive—until the challenge.
“Why don’t you do something with all of these stories?”
the nudge from her husband. This led to her membership
in Romance Writers of America, her tribe of like-minded
authors ever since.
Shapeshifting or shape-changing is a very old part of
storytelling. The ability of a creature to change its physical
form or shape A magical idea, filled with creative possibilities,
is found in many cultures. In her own form of shape-
changing, Alix Rickloff wrote six books before changing
her author name to Alexa Egan. Eventually, she reached a
point where juggling separate websites and social media for
two author names became almost impossible to manage and
difficult for readers to identify her. She decided to combine to
one site and acknowledge all the books under both names.
Heirs of Kilronan Trilogy is a series about “one family’s
struggle to stop a madman from resurrecting King Arthur as
part of a plot to instigate a war between Other and Mortal.”
Earl of Darkness, Lord of Shadows and Heir of Danger are the
titles in the series written by Alix Rickloff.
As Alexa Egan, the author has two series, The Imnada
Brotherhood and The Bligh Family. The Imnada Brotherhood
is six novels about a race of shape-changers who have lived
for thousands of years. Their existence is threatened by the
outside world and the constant need to guard their life.
Fascinated by the Regency Period of the United
Kingdom, Alix used that era as backdrop for The Bligh
Family. This seven-year period, 1811–1820, occurred
when King George III was unfit to rule, and his son ruled
6 Southern Writers
in his stead as Prince Regent. It was a period of excess,
but elegant. It was a period of achievements, population
explosion and extreme poverty.
Her website offers this as description about The Bligh
Family. “Behind the well-ordered Regency world of country
balls and damped muslin lies the mysterious and dangerous
world of the Other, mortals who carry the magical blood of
the Fey. Not quite human, not quite faery, but something
in between.” Just the words stir up the thrill of danger, plots
filled with intrigue … and magic.
During her writing career, Alix has received advice from
many sources about how and what to write. One of the best,
source forgotten, goes like this. “Don’t chase the markets.”
Tastes and trends change too rapidly. “Writing something
you’re not passionate about is a sure way to drain your
creativity.” Writing is solitary enough. Writing without
passion can lead to disappointment.
The old saw, “Write what you know,” was advice that Alix
hated at first. Now, she has a better understanding of the
phrase, and acknowledges that all authors write what they
know. Familiar words and themes creep into the work almost
unnoticed.
A voracious reader, Alix will turn to her favorite authors to
refill her cup of creativity when it has run dry. Mary Stewart,
Lois McMaster Bujold, Jane Austen and Rosamunde Pilcher