Hi, I'm Lorian. So glad you found me!

You probably learned of my existence because you enjoy the work of Michael J Sullivan. That’s great; that’s why I’m here, too! As a longtime reader of all things Elan, I’m first and foremost a huge admirer of Michael's work. In fact, it was a fanfiction that led to my coauthoring the After the Fall series.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning.

I came from a family that encouraged voracious reading, mostly of horror novels that kept me hiding under my covers all night. Despite being encouraged to write tales of my own, I never did—at least not until I was ten years old and read Tolkien. That led to a “novel” with the wildly creative title King of the Rings. The project was abandoned after two pages when I discovered writing was much harder than it looked. After that the stories stayed in my head rather than on paper. I thought writers had to pick a lane—action, humor, adventure, horror—and use dialog that was somehow grander than life. That’s what the authors I’d been reading had done, and they were pros who knew how a book should sound. Because the stories in my mind didn’t align with what they were creating, the conclusion was that I was missing the writing gene. 

That changed when I overheard a friend’s audio copy of Percepliquis, part of Michael’s Riyria Revelations. The series was aptly named; I had a revelation right then and there:

If I were to write a book, it would sound like this!

Not the exact wording or the story itself, of course, but the cadence and rhythm of the prose, the blending of genres, and the use of simple but effective everyday language that wouldn’t send readers scrambling for a dictionary. Characters in Percepliquis were thrown into extraordinary situations, but remained relatable and real. All of those elements were woven into a complex and twisting plot that came together beautifully. The author wrote the way I wished others would, and that gave me permission to do the same. I hadn’t heard of Michael J. Sullivan, but was hungry for more.

After devouring each of Michael’s books many times over, I completed my first-ever story: a Riyria fanfiction centered around Royce Melborn, my favorite character of all time. That piece caught the attention of Michael, and soon after came an invitation to join his writing group, Novel House, where a handful of aspiring authors worked on honing their craft. My goal in joining was simple: become a good writer. I had an intuitive feel for prose, but needed practice with the technical aspects of writing. After I started workshopping chapters for an original novel, a second objective was added: finish a book. 

In the fall of 2022, two years after I joined Novel House, Michael approached me with the idea that we would coauthor a series. 

I said I would think about it.

Just kidding! I jumped at the chance, and we went to work. This was not a scenario in which I hammered out a story, presented it to Michael, and he proclaimed, “It’s perfect! Let’s print it!” Instead, Out of the Ashes was an intense collaboration. No chapter, paragraph, sentence, individual word, or punctuation mark was allowed into the story without the go-ahead from Michael. Most chapters were reworked over and over and over, or else completely overhauled. Some were tossed out, never to be seen again. When I got stuck Michael never swooped in with all the answers. Instead, he let me work out the problem myself, with a little nudge here and a tweak there. There were times when I doubted I had “the right stuff". Michael doesn’t offer spurious praise, but there were glimpses of hope every so often, and slowly the approved chapters began to accumulate as the reworking decreased.

By the time Out of the Ashes became a physical reality three years had come and gone. Writing it was a rollercoaster of highs, lows, setbacks, and exciting wins. When the book was finally completed, I had created something my favorite author deemed worthy to stand alongside his other novels set in Elan. For someone who adores his stories, that’s the highest compliment imaginable.

The hard work is over, and soon the scariest—and most exciting—part will begin: discovering what you, fellow fans of Michael’s stories, think about what we’ve created. I’m absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. I hope you’ll love it, too.