About the Author

Greetings! I go by many names, but around here I prefer to be known as Alysa Taladay.

I’m a Southern artist and science fantasy writer, born and raised in the Southeastern United States. I am, according to family lore, of hapa Hawai’ian descent on my father’s side—a father who was never there, who left me in the South with half his genetics and none of his culture, nor anyone to talk to about it. Statistics show that the population of other Asian-Pacific individuals in my area numbered between .2% and .3% in the 80s and 90s, and has since risen by a whopping decimal point.

Writing, especially science fiction, has long been the vehicle for pondering this often-messy, confusing experience of isolation. Sci-fi/fantasy is a complex family of subgenres which often tackle complex social dilemmas, both directly and indirectly, and the South has more than its share of issues worth talking about.

I am fortunate to have the perfect background for this, having spent my life surrounded by art and science in many forms, including musical and dramatic arts, psychology, paleontology, marine biology, and botany. This unique upbringing has had a profound influence on my characters and the universe they live in.

A bit about my creative arts education:

In 1991, most kids were making their school projects out of construction paper and crayons, but in 1st grade I was introduced to ClarisWorks on our Mac II. I was strongly encouraged to do all of my school presentations this way for many years until we got a PC and I learned MS Publisher. I also first set foot in a pottery studio during this time period, and learned to use a hot glue gun. In 3rd grade I used a soldering iron for the first time. In short: I was always pushed to learn more.

Then we moved a bit in the mid 90s, through school districts that were not as well-funded as the one I had started in. In hindsight this experience has greatly informed my understanding of inequality in the US public school systems, which I will never stop fighting.

At the time the only thing I really understood was that I couldn’t stay focused on my studies. On one hand, I had placed in a state essay contest and did well in science fairs, and on the other, I was struggling academically in every subject. It wasn’t until years later that I was diagnosed with ADHD, which had been somewhat less of a problem at larger, better-funded, more demanding schools (except at home, where I spent every night doing homework until bedtime).

I’m still like this. I need work that’s intellectually demanding, and I function best when there’s a lot going on at once, and I can dedicate myself completely to clear, concise goals and tight deadlines.

In 1999, lack of stimulation led me to write what would become a 72-page science fiction novel by the end of the school year. I knew then that I wanted to expand the idea and write a complete series.

In high school, I formally studied Creative Writing at the Charleston County School of the Arts, where I learned to write poetry and different styles of short fiction on 1-week deadlines. I won silver and honorable mention awards in the regional division of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for science fiction/fantasy. The program included a 100-page mentored thesis project, and an introduction to indie publishing, which was much less common at the time (for various reasons, I will not be linking to my 2004 high school thesis).

I began studying Environment Science at Lander University, reflecting a lifelong love of the outdoors and a special affection for fine details and the endless pursuit of knowledge, but quickly discovered that academic study is on another level that I wasn’t prepared for at 18. With limited program options and my future in mind, I focused on something that came naturally to me and studied Fine Arts instead. I graduated in 2009 with a focus on Graphic Design and Art History, and a passion for ceramic pottery.

Over the years, I’ve learned that I have a genuine fascination for all the things that make people and societies tick. Raised in an environment steeped in psychology—from mental illness and counseling to cognitive linguistics, perception, and child development—I am endlessly fascinated by the various mechanisms that make us who we are. If I could go back and do college all over again, a path towards Business Anthropology might have been ideal. These interests have had a strong influence on the direction of my writing.

In 2010 I revisited my 72-page book from 1999, along with various shorts and notes I had written in high school, and started what would become a 9-book series with a prequel trilogy and on-going sequel material. At the height of these early years of feverish draft writing, I was producing upwards of 100-pages per week by hand!

My art usually reflects this project, including creature sketches, maps, logos, and costume designs. Many online chapters of my book are headed with landscape photography I’ve taken on or near the locations featured.

Since 2010, I’ve been using Book 1 of my series to teach myself advanced techniques in editing and revising fiction, with the goal of publication in mind. I’ve applied lessons from workshops and Master’s programs to my writing, and gained a better sense of story structure, as well as learning faster techniques for organizing information and generating ideas to beat the dreaded “writer’s block.” Forget everything Internet memes may have taught you about nice, neat, orderly writers’ work areas. A glance at my editing binder may seem to scream “chaos” to the casual observer, but let me assure you, it is chaos with intent!

Currently, in the interest of people seeing the work I’ve been doing for the past 10yrs, because I tire of living like a crazed hermit in a cave, if you will, I’ve been experimenting with a serial format, and I’ve been uploading Book 1 to Royal Road, up to the book’s climax. This will be deleted as I get closer to publishing, but is currently the best example of my writing available on the Internet.

For further information, please refer to my FAQs page.

Other Experience

From 2003-2011, I worked part time in sales/customer service for the tourism industry. I worked 2 years in landscaping, and another year or so in sales/retail. In 2015 I began working in non-wovens manufacturing (polymer industry), and I’ve also worked in woven textiles (color matching and large-scale dye sublimation). I’ve had lab training working with non-woven adhesives, and I’ve been driving a forklift since 2016.

I am familiar with Adobe Creative Suite. I am somewhat familiar with HTML and CSS, and can do basic edits to existing code.