SALT LAKE CITY, UT February 14, 2018
During high school, Alex Passey thoroughly enjoyed his math class. But it wasn’t for the math. He spent his time in algebra dreaming up fantastical worlds packed with adventure. Daydreaming got him into trouble once in awhile, but those daydreams were the start of Alex’s literary career.
“I’ve always loved reading and storytelling,” Passey recalls, “but it wasn’t until I discovered a sword and sorcery fantasy book that I discovered what I wanted to write.”
Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time and R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt really excited him. “The characters were messy and complicated. The politics were devious and subtle. The action and magic were epic, and there was always an underlying tension where any scene could erupt into full-throated chaos.”
Alex wanted to add his own voice to the banquet. He started writing and submitting material to publishers when he was eighteen. “I didn’t have the foggiest clue how the world of commercial literature worked yet, but I was sure I’d written the best thing anyone had ever written, so in my youthful hubris I submitted a story right to the New Yorker.”
The ensuing rejection letter was to be the first of many. And while it was a rejection, it was also encouraging, for which Alex was thankful. It was the encouraging words of publishers, agents, friends and family that kept his resolve alive. “I did take a few literary classes at the University of Winnipeg, but most of my education in creative writing has come through a lifetime of reading and a whole lot of trial and error. And I mean a lot of trial and error.”
Passey waded through many slush piles before finding WiDo’s Family of Publishers. “Of the few similar offers I did receive on this manuscript, WiDo seemed to be the most personable and genuine organization,” Passey explained.
After looking over Alex’s writing, submissions editor Joseph Jones noted, “Alex has a strong literary voice with a unique story-telling style. He skillfully crafts engaging and vivid stories.”
From all the trial and error, Alex has accomplished the daydreams of his math class. He’s written an epic fantasy that does the tradition of Jordan and Salvatore justice.
Fortune shined on Passey twice this year with another contract offered for a different book due for release in fall of 2019.
Alex Passey is thirty-one years old and lives in Winnipeg, Canada with his wife, daughter, and a small menagerie of furry friends. To find out more about the author, visit https://www.facebook.com/Alex-Passey-210136996229037/
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