Kelley Armstrong

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Kelley Armstrong bigraphy, stories - Canadian writer

Kelley Armstrong : biography

December 14, 1968 –

Kelley Armstrong (born 14 December 1968) () is a Canadian writer, primarily of fantasy novels since 2001.

She has published eighteen fantasy novels in her Women of the Otherworld series and the Darkest Powers series. She has also written two crime novels. Armstrong has confirmed contracts with her American, British and Canadian publishers for novels eleven through thirteen in the Women of the Otherworld series, and novels three through six of the Darkest Powers series. She has also written several serial novellas and short stories for the Otherworld series, some of which are available free from her website.http://www.literaryrambles.com/2011/08/kelley-armstrong-interview-and-book.html

Description of Work

Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series is part of a recently popular contemporary fantasy subgenre of the fantasy genre that superimposes supernatural characters upon a backdrop of contemporary North American life, with strong romantic elements. Within that subgenre, she is notable for including many types of supernatural characters, including witches, sorcerers, werewolves, necromancers, ghosts, shamans, demons and vampires, rather than limiting herself primarily to a single type of supernatural creature. Most of her works have a mystery genre plot, with leading characters investigating some novel situation or unsolved question.

In the Otherworld novels to date, most supernatural powers are either hereditary, or arise from the act of an existing supernatural of the same type. The Otherworld, while it has overarching conflicts and plotlines that span multiple novels is, thus far, not an epic battle between good and evil. The novels are largely episodic with the continuing plotlines primarily involving the developing lives of the main characters.

Her contemporary fantasy writings share genre similarities with writers Charlaine Harris, Laurell K Hamilton and Kim Harrison.

Biography

Kelley Armstrong was born on 14 December 1968, the oldest of four siblings in a "typical middle class family" in Sudbury, Ontario.

After graduating with a degree in psychology from The University of Western Ontario, Armstrong then switched to studying computer programming at Fanshawe College so she would have time to write.

Her first novel Bitten was sold in 1999, and it was released in 2001. Following her first success she has written a total of 12 novels and a number of novellas in the world of the Women of the Otherworld series, and her first crime novel, Exit Strategy, was released July 2007. Armstrong has been a full-time writer and parent since 2002.

Her novel No Humans Involved was a New York Times bestseller in the hardback fiction category on May 20, 2007. Also, her YA novel The Awakening was a #1 New York Times bestseller in the Children’s Chapter books category on May 17, 2009.