Alma A. Hromic (born July 5, 1963), known by her pen name Alma Alexander, is a fantasy writer whose novels include the "Worldweavers" young adult series, '' The Secrets of Jin-Shei'' and its sequel ''The Embers of Heaven'', ''The Hidden Queen,'' and ''Changer of Days.'' She is a native of

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

and grew up in various African countries, including

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, also spending time in England and New Zealand before moving to the United States. She lives in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the county seat of Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It lies south of the Canada–United States border, U.S.–Canada border, between Vancouver, British Columbia, ...

. In addition to her fantasy novels, Alexander has published a memoir about growing up in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and an

epistolary novel An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...

(written with her husband, then an acquaintance from a

Usenet Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...

newsgroup) about the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

war in Yugoslavia. She has also published numerous book reviews, travelogues, essays, poetry, and other articles in various magazines (e.g.,

Swans Swans are birds of the genus ''Cygnus'' within the family Anatidae. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometim ...

) around the world. Her story "The Painting" won the 2000

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Short Story Contest. In 2009, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois, United States. It was founded as "Northern Illinois State Normal School" in 1895 by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, initially to provide the state with c ...

.Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection
, Northern Illinois University

Bibliography

* ''Houses in Africa'', David Ling Publishers (New Zealand), 1995 (as Alma A. Hromic) * ''The Dolphin's Daughter and Other Stories'', Longman (UK), 1995 (as Alma A. Hromic) * ''Letters from the Fire'' (with R. A. Deckert), HarperCollins (NZ), 1999 (as Alma A. Hromic) * ''Changer of Days Vol. 1'', Voyager (Australia/NZ), 2001 (as Alma A. Hromic) * ''Changer of Days Vol. 2'', Voyager (Australia/NZ), 2002 (as Alma A. Hromic) * ''The Secrets of Jin-Shei'', HarperCollins, 2004 (also published in several other countries and languages) * '' The Hidden Queen'', Eos, 2004 (US edition of ''Changer of Days Vol. 1'') * '' Changer of Days'', Eos, 2004 (US edition of ''Changer of Days Vol. 2'') * ''The Embers of Heaven'', HarperCollins (UK), 2006 (also published in Australia/NZ) * ''

Gift of the Unmage A gift or present is an item given to someone (who is not already the owner) without the expectation of payment or anything in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is intended to be free. In many cou ...

'' (Worldweavers #1), Eos, 2007 * '' Spellspam'' (Worldweavers #2), Eos, 2008 * ''Cybermage'' (Worldweavers #3), Harperteen, 2009 * ''Shoes & Ships & Sealing Wax'', Kos Books, 2010 * ''Midnight at Spanish Gardens'', Sky Warrior Books, 2011 * ''River'',

Dark Quest Books Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...

, 2012 (editor) * ''Random'', Book 1 in The Were Chronicles, Dark Quest BOoks, 2014 * ''Dawn of Magic'' (Worldweavers #4), Sky Warrior Books, 2015 * ''AbductiCon'', Book View Cafe, 2015 *''Empress'', Book View Cafe, 2015 *''Children of a Different Sky'', Kos Books, 2017 (editor) *''Wings of Magic'', Book View Cafe 2017

References

External links

Official site

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Alma 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American women novelists 1963 births Living people Writers from Novi Sad Yugoslav emigrants to the United States American women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Expatriates in Zambia Expatriates in Eswatini Yugoslav expatriates in the United Kingdom Expatriates in South Africa Yugoslav expatriates in New Zealand