I would really love everyone to read the following post.

It’s long, but it’s everything I would want anyone to know about me and my journey to produce Purge of Ashes, which comes out a week from today, on Tuesday, August 25th. If you ever knew me in real life, or are a fantasy-writer or fan I’ve met online, or anyone who may or may not know this story, I’d love for you to read the following post – because it’s the only one of this ilk I’ll be writing before release day and it means a lot to me.

A lot of people write books, but by this point I know my journey has been wholly unique. Some of you are personal friends. Some are family. Some of you are old acquaintances and we added each other to Facebook back in 2005 or something. Many others are strangers from around the world who also write fantasy literature, or read fantasy literature; some of those well-know names with popular series, others yet searching for their audience. Whether you know only part of the story, or most of the story, this is all of the story: how the World of Imbalance came to be over 23 years.

Dragon Boating

Back in 2003 I was 21 years old. I got a job steering for and eventually coaching dragon boat team practices in Peterborough, ON – helping my father prepare for the annual Peterborough Dragon Boat Festival, an event he helped create and ran up until it paid for Peterborough to have its first mammogram machine. Until then, women had to drive an hour to Oshawa. While out on the water, and being most of the way through university, I got to thinking about writing a fantasy world like the ones I loved the most. There were three ‘modern’ fantasy series that I’d read through and through, and what I lacked in variety I made up for in enthusiastic rereading. They were Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen (then about 4 books in).

I came home one night and hammered out a cast of characters – including the central figures of Purge of Ashes: Orenzo Madleej, Avery Shim ta Salm, Logrum Geras (under a different name at the time), Aronan Kloss, and more. I got the name “Rafien” from an island on a map I’d drawn on precision graph paper – which I still have here next to my desk. I then went to my cottage for a weekend and spent the time creating the map on two 8.5×11″ sheets of blank paper. I have photos of these original crude drawings, and 90% of the World of Imbalance is there.

Somewhere shortly thereafter, or even a year, I got to writing the story. I wrote about 100k words. Each chapter was titled like the steps of forging a sword, or steps to fletching an arrow. Odd. Even odder was chapters 6-10 were exclusively from the point of view of the rat-folk Scalion Legion, particularly Tertiac Raek. Like many writing projects of those in their early 20s, with so much life yet ahead of its author and their youthful energy, it eventually fell by the wayside.

Television Writing & Producing

Fast forward to 2006-2007 and I’d been working in Toronto as a closed captioner – building closed captions for a company called SDI Media. Hit my head on the glass ceiling when I walked in the door. DVD closed captions didn’t seem to be the way of the future with Netflix popping up, and I was still wondering what to do with my English degree. I ended up enrolling in a Television Writing & Producing program at Humber College. My aim was to create an animated cartoon show much akin to Futurama or Undergrads. I did end up writing some episodes and pitching a show called Cajoles of Hell or later Hell Bent, but… nothing doing (though the premise of a Cerberus character where one head is an alcoholic and all three share the same liver is still funny) I was doing nothing with real people, which got under the skin of the course instructors. Eventually, over the winter holidays, our Movies/Late Night instructor, an Emmy nominee by the name of Lorne Frohman, complained no one was writing movies and our job was to write a movie over the break.

Damn. I just wanted to make cartoons. But wait, didn’t I have that fantasy novel I’d half written sitting around? That was something I could make a movie about. I quickly got to work, and it ended up being an exercise I recommend to young authors: strip down the overblown content of that 100k ten chapter story until it is the bare bones of a movie script. Put it in Final Draft. Visualize everything and minimize your dialogue. I wrote a 2-hour fantasy movie for Lorne, and in doing so I finishing the story in my head and wrapped up all the loose ends. It felt suitably climactic because it was Act 3 of a film.

When I was done, he really liked it. He actually sent it to his agent in Los Angeles where I’m sure it’s been used for kitty litter lining by now. The important part of that story is I met my to-be-wife about a month after the program was done, and got to say, “Yeah, I’ve got a script in LA currently” which surely won me some points.

So now Purge of Ashes: the Movie was done and… well, that’s it. Back to attempting to write for TV shows. When the program ended, I went back to SDI Media because I needed income, but TV didn’t seem right for me. It was very collaborative, and while I’m a social fellow and now a loud and engaging elementary teacher, other people + my creative process did not seem to mix. I made a comic (The Sword and the Fish, hell yeah) and even then, having to work with the artist felt inhibiting. I felt guilty asking for anything. By this point I had scripts, I had songs, I had web comics, I now had an actual comic, I had built an entire video game also called The Sword and the Fish… I was a jack of all trades, master of none. But writing – like, novel writing – that felt like no one could stop me. It’s just me and the page. There’s no committee. I set out to write Purge of Ashes.

Realmwalker

I gave myself a deadline. I figured if I didn’t, it wouldn’t get done. I gave myself six years to finish. This is obviously a lot longer than a typical author needs, but I was writing mostly on weekends and the like. I’m glad I stretched it that long. I could (and did) hit that target. If I’d undershot things, I think I’d never have finished. From 27 years old to 33 years old, or so, I wrote Purge of Ashes by taking my movie script and expanding it into a novel. I scrapped the Scalion Legion POVs and started building an almanac with all my world data (a quick look shows 349 named characters between books so far) with headings like GODS, UNIQUE NAMES, NATIONS, and FAUNA etc. My favourite month during this time was the August of the first summer I was actually being paid as a teacher. I’d drive my wife to work in the morning, head to a library, read a Wheel of Time chapter in my car until 9am, poach my favourite spot up three levels in a corner with a window, write until lunch – watching an episode of Futurama while eating – and then write until 4:15pm. Then I’d drive, pick my wife up, and head home feeling utterly fulfilled from a creative point of view and ready to waste time all night.

When I was done, I did the typical agent search and query search, sending the book out to a wide variety of names and publishers. Nothing came of it. Very big word count for a nobody. I started building connections with some of the online communities. I met a fellow named Sean Rodden who was excited because he had just gotten a 3-book deal at the small press Realmwalker Publishing Group. I wasn’t sure on a small press, so I decided to read his book and send them my query. His book Whispers of War was a powerful, elegantly written, Tolkien-idolizing (in the only way I’ve ever read that utterly works) epic that kicked some ass. I was so so so excited when Realmwalker offered me a three-book deal for my Imbalance series, starting with Purge of Ashes, and then on to Grip of Dust and Silence of Deluge. (Now a fourth and final book is planned)

Turns out 5-6 authors had been hired at Realmwalker. In fact, about 12-16 authors had become Realmwalker hires in the past half year. Their plan was to release a book a week from January 2016 to April 2016. I drew a short straw and got the last slot in early April. While getting hype for my “deal” (no actual money involved up front) and promoting my peers, I read a couple novels from some of the other authors. It took until March to realize that both books I read were sub-par. In fact, they felt amateurish in a very concerning way. I’d joined on the strength of one book, but the others were not filling me with confidence. Around this time the RPG cover artist went MIA. Things seemed quite shaky and some funds had not been sent where they should have been. By the end of March there were a lot of questions from everyone and RPG had few answers.

Ah, this part.

The week Purge of Ashes was slated to be released Realmwalker announced they were bankrupt and folded. The cover artist hadn’t been paid, others hadn’t; their attempt to start a small press had failed. They were not a con, it should be noted. They were a small press with big confidence in a publishing plan doomed from the start. They helped me strip all the RPG imprints from Purge of Ashes and I now faced three daunting concerns. One, GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Two, I booked a book launch at Hashtag Gallery in Toronto with friends and family. I couldn’t back out, right? I had to publish, right? It was already booked! (I ended up not getting the books up from the States in time for my book launch… which was an ill portend). Three, Mark Lawrence‘s Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off #2 was going live for submissions in three to four days. I’d followed the first one, and knew this could be the ticket for my series. I’ve got to enter, right? During this emotional tumult? Of course I must! I submitted Purge of Ashes under the wire and felt great for a few months until my assigned blogger read 17 pages and quit, citing its volume of characters and general depth. To be fair, the RPG-scraped copy I submitted was subpar in many ways: its maps were unreadable, its margins were messed up, it had blank pages where maps should be, and my cover was abysmal (after the cover artist left, the RPG folk tried to build me one themselves. My kingdom for someone back then to tell me to let everything go and rebuild before self-publishing, but self-publishing is what I did)

Out of the tournament, and with its physical publishing issues all the more glaring, I took the book down off Amazon. I’d already started writing Grip of Dust. I picked up where I left off and Purge of Ashes got shelved.

The Decade

Shelved hard. It sat from summer 2016 until now, summer 2026, just… waiting. The reason was simple. I’d made myself another promise. While writing Grip of Dust, I knew it would be bigger and that it was taking me a lot longer for two reasons. The first was I was a full-time teacher now, indeed writing elementary school plays for half the year. If I tried to publish Purge of Ashes before I was remotely close to finishing Grip of Dust I would never have the sequel prepared in anything near the requisite time for readers to not have forgotten everything. I wasn’t fast enough. So I promised I would take Purge of Ashes off the shelf when and only when I completed Grip of Dust in its entirety. Mostly writing every summer and break, I finished in March 2026 (it’s currently in beta reading) while producing 20k words of Silence of Deluge somehow, too. The promise had been made. Now it was time to publish Purge of Ashes properly as best I could once and for all.

The second reason was my boy.

My Boy

My son Sebastian was born right around when I pulled Purge of Ashes from publication in 2016. He faced some challenges from the start, like jaundice and choking in his sleep. He was blotchy with red spots and seemed sad just existing. Half a year in we discovered he was anaphylactic to 4 major allergens: peanuts, tree nuts (cashew, pistachio), sesame, and all dairy. He was blotchy because he was getting these proteins through breast milk. We changed his diet and he cleared up, slimmed down a bit, and grew his patented smile (though now it’s more of a mischief smile). He still also had hypotonia (resulting in 8 years of leg braces) and strabismus (resulting in surgery and glasses) About a year in it was clear he was not meeting baby check points. In fact, he was already about 5 months behind.

Thus began a pattern yet to cease. Sebastian operates at about half his actual age, starting back as young as one. Now, at ten, he’s akin to a 5-year-old in many functions, including basic reading and arithmetic, self-sufficiency, etc – older in some ways, but younger in many others. He was considered to have ‘global delay’ which is a catch-all term until he’s old enough to be eventually diagnosed more accurately. After genetic tests and psych tests he was diagnosed with ADHD and one-blip-below-severe Level 3 autism. Now, I could go on forever about Sebastian’s conditions, and indeed on all medical forms, school forms, and yet more medical forms we do – but his myriad challenges aren’t the point here so much as the impact on Imbalance.

Anyone who has had a kid knows what those early years are like. The sleepless nights of a baby, then the danger-riddled time of a toddler, followed by the cranky logic-bypassing missions of 3- to 4-year-olds. Sebastian’s lived here his whole life. A typical child grows and ages out of this phase and needs their parent less directly, playing more with his sister or his own friends. But not Seb. His allergies make it very hard to go anywhere, both public venues that almost always have sesame and dairy as clear and present danger, and the houses of friends where so many things could go wrong; but coupled with his autism and learning disability, he takes a lot of special care for obvious reasons. I can’t write in the mornings because he finds me and chats. He can’t be explained away. He needs playmates… our waking hours. He can’t control the volume of his voice… our ongoing reminders. Some traits I won’t mention. It’s tiring and it’s a lot. Crap happens like when his full tooth (like, the deep sharp part, too) was knocked out at school and they attempted to preserve it in milk… forgetting he’s allergic to milk. After rushing to the dentist we were told the old one can’t be re-planted and it’s gone forever. No dentist could confirm sterilization before re-planting a tooth and none of them had any idea what would happen if the proteins remained in-system. I love my boy. He dominated the decade.

Revival

Some authors write a book a year. Some a book two years. I’m always impressed. How long I take is in no way an indicator of quality and certainly not one of professionalism. But my journey has it’s benefits, too. The main advantage is instead of germinating dozens of book ideas to float about, as many authors do, I have one world I deal in exclusively – more or less like my old heroes from 2003 – and it’s been tightened and tightened and tightened again. It’s been lived in for 6 to 23 years depending on your point of view. Every detail I can muster goes into it. It’s not a concept come and gone, but a home. There are a few bits I might change if I could time travel to 2003, but I can’t change them now – they are a part of me and the fabric of the tale.

So I got Santiago Lozano, whose work I admired on the Malazan Empire page, and Sarah Chorn, whose editing always got rave reviews and seemed dissimilar enough to provide a fresh assessment, and got working on sprucing Purge of Ashes up once again for publication. Since late March, it’s been a steady walk up to release day, learning code for Sigil and the headaches of Word PDFs. I spent two days researching crazy-hard only to find the problem was my font was a slightly modified version of a different font which caused PDFs to turn everything to Arial. I took my beautiful, full colour map and made paperback versions. I created fleurons and sought out reviews and blurbs. And in one week it will finally – finally – be done.

If you’ve read this far, then thank you – no matter how you know me. There won’t be another post like this. I just want everyone to know what it took to produce this book. The book itself deserves that. I want you to like and share it and help it not get lost in the algorithm. I want to do anything I can to help the book reach as many people as it can so they enjoy it on the level I believe it capable of. I want anyone’s help in keeping Purge of Ashes from being lost in the ether a second time.

Thank you for everything,
Joel Minty