Joel Minty
Joel Minty grew up immersed in fantasy novels, his favorites certain to weave sprawling macrocosms akin to Malazan Book of the Fallen. At peace when creating worlds and the characters to walk them, he enjoys the genius of Bill Watterson, David X. Cohen and William Blake. Sometimes he thinks armadillos are quite the fanciful pet.
A Grade 6 teacher by trade, Joel lives in Toronto with his wife, daughter, and son; trying to balance the demands of his children’s autism/ADHD with the desire to write a stellar epic fantasy series.
Imbalance
The debut novel Purge of Ashes is to be released August 25th, 2026, and is the first in the Imbalance series with the sequel Grip of Dust already completed. Vast and immersive, it is about the scope of bravery, the lies of history, and the weight of grief ~ chronicling the mettle of young soldiers as their impact ripples from a dusty road all the way to the gods’ realm.
It was edited by author and Bookworm Blues savant Sarah Chorn who said: “Expansive in scope and flawlessly executed, this is epic fantasy at its best.” Beta reader Dyrk Ashton, author of the Patnerus novels, said: “The races and characters a fresh but familiar enough, and your world-building is amazing and deep. I personally love your prose and storytelling style… I wouldn’t change the way you choose your words and construct your sentences at all. I was wide-eyed-jealous much of the way through.”
The cover was done by Santiago Lorzano.
Other Writing
My article ‘Gardens of the Moon and “Difficult” Fantasy: Advice to First-Time Readers’ for TOR.com.
My ‘Superfan Interview’ for the online fantasy community Fantasy Faction.
Imbalance 