Kayla is a Shakespeare fanatic. Give her a quote, she can tell you which play it’s from. In her university years, she studied theatre with a focus on directing while harboring a deeper desire to write fiction. Creative writing has followed her through every endeavor, there for her after a long night like a comforting mug of earl grey tea. Working at Disneyland in her early twenties further invigorated her yearning to tell stories of fantastical worlds and magic. Whenever she needed motivation, she remembered meeting Tracy Hickman (writer of Dragonlance) as a young teen and his encouragement to never stop writing. It always led her back to the pages. 

 

Amanda has been writing stories for as long as she can remember—and perhaps a little before that, too. Art has always been a staple in her life - from creative writing to painting, first published at age ten. She is an award-winning, published artist, though she left her career in VFX to return to her passion of writing. The memories of late night writing binges, glued to the computer screen at 1AM, brought her back to the fantasy worlds she created. From Langley, British Columbia, Amanda lives with her husband, son, and parents in a scenic rural area. When she’s not writing, she enjoys travelling, horseback riding, spending time with her family, and creating art in her workshop.

 

At this point, you might be thinking, how did these two wildly different people even meet? After all, Amanda grew up in British Columbia, Canada, while Kayla spent her youth in Utah, USA. The one thing they had in common (aside from writing) was…

 

Neopets.

 

That’s right, folks. These best friends and co-writers met on a site for kids, starting their journey through text based roleplaying. 

 

Since then, they’ve written together basically nonstop, growing together as writers and balancing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Kayla prevents Amanda from getting too sappy, while Amanda steers Kayla away from the too-dark side. 

 

Main characters are still alive because of Amanda’s efforts. 

 

“You’re welcome.” - Amanda

 

To this day, they remain inseparable in their love of writing, sushi, and veggie korma. 

 

The decision to finally publish the Pantracia Chronicles came from the desire to share their love of the characters and their adventures. They constantly went back to old stories and reread them instead of the next book on the to-read pile. And now they can’t stop, priding themselves on how quickly they write, edit and publish books without sacrificing quality (four in 2020 alone!) They will also always remember the day Diana Gabaldon (writer of Outlander) used the words “quite well written” to describe a passage of Ashes of the Rahn’ka. 

 

If you’d like to read more, Diana, they’d be happy to send you signed copies.

 

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