About the Author:
You’ve taken a wrong turn and reached the website of writer and professional eccentric Vivian Walker Ward. To the left, please see an image of Miss Ward. She wanted a gif of Cary Grant saying, “Welcome, friends and enemies,” but she didn’t have the rights to it. She owned her face, that jacket, and an MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing from Emerson College (all of which could be repossessed if she doesn’t start paying her student loans off).
To see a few of her previous projects, consider the portfolio tab. Her better angels tried to keep her from posting those articles. They failed. They often do.
This last academic year, she (under her real name) was Editor-in-Chief for Emerson College’s genre fiction publication, Page Turner Magazine. While there, she revived the previously fallow publication, managed the addition of a DEI section to the print and online publication, and set the foundations for the first official print sales. PTM’s Spring 2024 issue now on Bookshop and Amazon.
During the day Miss Ward works in administrative support, which is to say that she solves other people’s problems and becomes expert in niche areas, thereby gathering a wealth of odd knowledge and a solid belief in her own ability to get shit done.
At night, she drinks too much caffeine, violently dissociates, and writes.
For a precis of Vivian’s current project or for words of praise from her professors, see below.
“Masterful in her creation of intrigue, atmosphere, and complex characters navigating the highest stakes.”
—Jessica Treadway, author of Infinite Dimensions and winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction with Please Come Back to Me
“A subversive genre bender whose stories pack an emotional wallop that never fails to entertain.”
—Edwin Hill, author of Who To Believe, and Edgar- and Agatha-award nominee of the Hester Thursby series
Current Project: The 13th Witch
The 13th Witch is a mid-magic adult fantasy with a strong romantic subplot and an enemies to lovers arc that comes in at around 90,000 words. It would sit on the shelf between Serpent & Dove, by Shelby Mahurin, and Kingdom of the Wicked, by Kerri Maniscalco.
Rue is a witch whose sacrificial death could cure a plague in the Holy Basarab Empire. Merrick is the divinely blessed prince sent to hunt her down. But what happens when Merrick doesn't recognize his quarry, and insists on helping what he sees as a woman fleeing a troubled past? What happens when Rue, who never learned to control her power, is stuck traveling with Merrick, who is gifted with the royal ability to sense magic? Rue's only hope is to charm Merrick and use her magic to lure him across the Empire as she searches for an alternate cure for the plague. Unfortunately for Rue, her attraction to the prince is not an act. Unfortunately for Merrick, he's intensely drawn to Rue... and the addictive magic of the witch who always seems just out of reach. Both know there's something deeply wrong with them, but things should be fine if they don't act on their desires.
They act on their desires. They act so hard.
When Merrick discovers Rue's identity--because he was always going to--he has to decide if she's the evil creature who fuels the Empire's plague, or if the Priest King uncle who sheltered him since his parents were murdered has been lying about... everything.