Alexandria Arden has been writing since she was young. Her first writing project was a serial about a talking fish who helped her solve mysteries that she carried around in a bag filled with water. Somewhere between the self-consciousness of her teenage years and the absolutely soul crushing experience that was grad school, she stopped writing creatively, convincing herself that the thing she loved doing as a child was just “not her skillset.“

Cue the pandemic and the rise of popular Fantasy Romance books. Alexandria, or Alley, as her friends know her by, rediscovered her love of reading and stories. Throughout that process, she started an Instagram account (@alleycatsandbooks) and podcast (Romantasy Readers Podcast) dedicated to talking about books, especially books that feature strong and powerful women. She’s built an incredible community of readers and authors alike, and it was this community who inspired her to revisit that childhood passion of writing. Once she started, she couldn’t stop — The Witch Queen was conceived and drafted in six weeks.

Alley lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and the true love of her life, her cat Willow. When she’s not reading or writing like she’s running out of time (which is extremely rare), Alley can be found working in her yard, starting a house project she can’t finish, or complaining while hiking in the Wasatch mountains. Alley is most active on her Instagram accounts, @alexandriaardenauthor and @alleycatsandbooks