AJ grew up mainly in northern Alabama, but at thirty-one she made the decision to follow her family across the country to settle in southern Arizona, where she ended up meeting and marrying her husband. Though she has spent most of her adult life working in the medical field, AJ's interests have always leaned toward the creative and the fantastic. AJ began writing in high school with poetry, short stories, and flash fiction, but she branched out into novels with her 2015 self-published urban fantasy novel Whispers of Death. Less than one year later, one little word changed everything: Abnormal. From this word a whole world blossomed and grew into what is now known as the Old U.S. Now, AJ divides her time between a full-time clinic job and a stolen-time writing job. Insomniac writing sessions and stolen moments at historical reenactment events have given birth to the book you now hold. When not writing or working, AJ can be found fencing, embroidering, sewing cosplay and historical garb, or reading. Her two Maine coon mixes are quite the little helpers, and often they will place themselves square in the path of what she's doing. Rory, the oldest, ensures that she never sleeps past 3:30 am-thus securing precious writing time-and River does quality assurance checks on anything chewable.
