Today on the altar of sacrifice confession Melissa A. Joy, author of Keys of the Origin, has come to plead forgiveness from you all. Judge her well, for her sins are many.
- I used to role-play on the old MSN chatrooms when I was about 15. That’s where a lot of my early character development was done. A friend (who I actually met on those chatrooms and still know today) and I ended up moving this to MSN and Yahoo messengers. Since the MSN chatrooms had a button that automatically changed text into purple italics, we used that for description and actions, I was adamant that we kept to that practice when we moved. Both of us kept some of the role-play sessions by copying and pasting them into word documents. I still have some of them, and whenever I’ve looked through them glean ideas from them, I’ve found myself thinking “this is laughable and absolutely appalling!” while at the same time knowing that if none of it had been done, many of my characters may not be who they are today.
- I started writing seriously when I was 13. My first attempt at writing a book involved influences from Final Fantasy VII and VIII and therefore a bit more urban/futuristic. What did I call it? The Novel Fantasy. Really? Was I honestly thinking that was a good title? I suppose it might have been because I’d always wanted to be as original as I could be, knowing the genre is packed to the gunwales with content that’s already been done dozens of times over. The word “novel” in that sense referred to “new”. I still have it on floppy disk somewhere. If I ever find an ancient computer it would work on, I’d like to have a look just to remind myself of how terrible it was.
- Since I decided at the age of 13 that my life’s purpose (when it came to following a career) was to be a published fantasy author, I’d tried to develop the right kind of story. I intended to be published one way or another by the time I turned 25. As it turned out, it took another five years as a result of “life’s a bitch”. In total, it’s taken 17 years to put what is now Keys of the Origin together. Worry not, you won’t be waiting 17 years between books as you might with some other authors.
- I admit that Aeldynn is a large and very complex world and confuses me at times. World-building is supposed to be challenging, right?
- I’m not a fan of dwarves; except for Gimli of course. They tend to have a distinct lack of manners, disregard of personal space, and have been known to trespass by inviting themselves into other people’s homes. Truth be told, I never really clicked with them.
- It find it nigh on impossible to write unless I have the right kind of music playing, and many tracks end up on repeat for a while. At least I have headphones plugged into my laptop, or I might find myself buried alive down the bottom of the garden.
- I’ve never subscribed to the idea of vampires being undead; I think of them as something more demonic (in Aeldynn the transformation is the result of a demonic influence).
- I fully intend to develop antagonists and villains based on notable individuals who have done me wrong. How does that saying go? “Never wrong a writer; they get their revenge in print.” If you haven’t been nice, start worrying.
- I dread being asked “what is your book about?” because every character, plot, back story, fragment of mythology or history (etc) of world-building flashes before my eyes and I draw a blank, which is shortly followed by me answering the question with another question; “how long have you got?”
- I have been influenced by both videogames and anime, so you might find a few strange scenes occurring occasionally. You’ll also find a few oddly matched character quirks such as, say, a perverted seafaring elf and an immortal winged tribesman who’s fond of cake.
Melissa A. Joy is a new fantasy author who challenges the conventional expectations of fantasy and takes them to a whole new level. It is no secret that she believes in the existence of all things fantastical, and that anything is possible.
She began building the world of Aeldynn and started writing seriously aged approximately 13, and has since developed it into something truly magical worth sharing. From the glorious winged Drahknyr and wise and fearsome dragons to pirates of the high seas and a world rich with history and lore, her imagination could be said to be limitless.
When she isn’t locked in a reverie about what’s going on in the world of Aeldynn, she’s probably out sailing the high seas on a tall ship, gaming, or perhaps dressed up in costume at an anime convention.
“Very well thought out, brilliantly written, and I eagerly await the next installment!!” *****
“A very groundbreaking and interesting read; a new fantasy series by a promising new author.” ****
“If you are looking for an epic novel in the same vein as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, then look no further.” *****
“Got the book on day of release and took me 3 days to read. One amazing start to the story.” *****
“This book was a real revelation. Such a refreshing change from the standard storylines and cliches of other books. It offers so much in colour, tone, imagination and creativity.” *****
“An immersive venture into a meticulously crafted high fantasy world.” *****
“Not to be missed by fans of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.” *****
