Melanie Ansley was born in Windsor, Ontario, but grew up in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Her fascination with mythical talking animals started in Shanghai, where she’d buy Chinese comics like “Journey to the West”. In the 1980s she spent most of her lunch breaks in her Hong Kong primary school’s library, where she developed an insatiable appetite for fantasy and historical fiction. She lives in Australia with her husband and two children. Join her reading list at melanieansley.com to receive a free novella, “The Queen and the Dagger”.