Many of you know I write fantasy under the pseudonym Joss Walker. For those of you who don’t, here’s how this happened.
Way back in March 2016, I saw a story on Twitter: The CIA is hiring a $100,000 Librarian. It didn’t take me reading past the headline to start cracking jokes in my head: specifically, “Jane Bond. CIA librarian.” She came alive for me in ways few characters have done since I cooked up Taylor Jackson. I saw this young woman immediately, cracking wise and saving the world.
I sent the story to my husband and assistant.
“Hey. I have an idea. A young librarian named Jane Bond applies for a job at the CIA as a reference librarian and gets more than she bargained for. Has anyone already done this?????”
The answer, it turned out, was no. I ran the idea up the flagpole to my agent. “What if I wrote a new series with this character, something lighter, not as dark, funny, fun.” My agent pointed out we probably couldn’t use the Bond branding, but the idea was sound.
Problem was, I already had so many commitments that there was no way I could manage to add another. So the idea sat.
But I was edgy about it. We authors are a zeitgeisty bunch. I knew if I didn’t write the story, someone else would. My fabulous assistant at the time, The Amazing Amy, did yeoman’s work helping me figure out the storyline, the character, pulling together a proposal and outline. But my agent wasn’t in love. I was, of course, devastated. I knew in my soul there was something about Jayne (note the spelling change, she was already morphing). I wanted to explore her character so badly.
Pre-pandemic, we used to have author get-togethers for brunch and writing days. I was hosting the day Alisha Klapheke came by. While most of us goofed off in the kitchen eating and gossiping, she greeted everyone, then set up shop in the corner of the couch, put on her headphones, and banged out 2,000 words before joining us for the fun.
That caught my attention.
And I started to think maybe, just maybe, I needed a co-writer. And maybe, just maybe, I was setting Jayne in the wrong world. Maybe, just maybe, Jayne needed to have…magic.
I had long wanted to write in the fantasy genre. Urban fantasy, epic fantasy, dragons, witches, whatever—something that I could build the world, the rules, the moral structure, the magic system. But, as it true writing in any genre, you need to know the rules, the tropes, the authors. Alisha had all of that knowledge and more—a brilliant voice and sharpshooter writing skills.
I approached, she agreed, and a partnership was formed. It was now 2018, two years since that first spark of an idea lit up my imagination.
This, friends, was magic, made real.
You see where this is heading. Work, work, work, meshing Jayne into the fabric of our solo books. Outlines and proposals, synopses and drafts. Meetings over lunch, and eventually, Zoom. Incredible changes in both our lives and careers. But during it all, writing, creating, breathing life into the idea of Jayne until she was fully realized and truly leaped off the page. I decided on the pen name Joss Walker, and off to the races we went.
Jayne Thorne, CIA Librarian, was reborn in a magical world where the CIA has a magical branch called the Torrent Control Office (TCO) whose primary division is called The Library. Magic has been throttled, stuck in the Torrent for a very long time, and a terror organization is using dark magic, including necromancy, to try and raise formerly strong magicians to access their powers and control the world. When Jayne, a librarian at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, accidentally accesses a grimoire in the Vandy vault, the resounding thunderclap to the magical world draws the attention of both friend and foe. The CIA gets to her first, and her journey begins. The book was a little bit thriller, a whole lot of fantasy, and all kinds of magic, with tons of books, cool libraries, international settings, and a hot Irishman thrown in for funsies.
This initial story has grown into its own universe. The Keeper of Flames is the 3rd book (but can be read as a standalone) and there’s a mini-series attached to tell the stories of a secret society of magicians that parallels the main series. I’m now working with a new co-writer, and together the worlds we create continue to shift. Magic is no longer throttled, and Jayne Thorne has come into her powers.
I know you might not be the audience for magic. But you love my J.T. novels, and I daresay, were you to give the Joss books a try, you might be surprised. They have all the aspects of my thrillers, just in a slightly new realm. And boy, am I having fun writing them!!!
If you’re interested in learning more, you can check out the whole Jayne universe at JossWalker.com. Thanks so much for indulging my passion for worlds not quite our own. Sometimes, a little escape is all we need.