J. Fries is a part-time copy cataloguer and self-published author. She enjoys reading, leatherworking, drawing, learning languages (or creating them), and dreaming up new ways to challenge her characters. She has always loved mysteries, and her interest in the fantasy genre and language creation started with J.R.R. Tolkien, whom she holds in the highest regard.

She loves animals, especially horses, and is loyal servant to her German shepherd and crested gecko. In return, they don’t mind her awful sense of humor or the times she speaks to them in terrible accents.

Are they lightning bugs or fireflies? The debate over those two terms raged in my family for years. One day I decided I would be diplomatic and combine the names—firebugs! Then someone explained that particular word refers to pyromaniacs and that was the end of firebugs. Lightningflies it was. I’m probably not the first person to use that name, but it was one of my first creative words.

Then J.R.R. Tolkien came along in the form of the film The Fellowship of the Ring. In short, after seeing The Two Towers and The Return of the King and reading all the books, he was one of my favorite authors and I was interested in language creation. Thus began my fantasy writing!