Sophie Grossalber
I was born in Vienna in 1996 and grew up in Lower Austria, just south of Austria’s capital.
I wasn’t an avid reader until I discovered Fantasy books, namely Eragon by Christopher Paolini and a few others. They sparked my love for written stories, dragons and epic battles. I actually started out writing fanfiction (which we’re not going to talk about…) and text-based RPGs with friends in forums.
After I graduated High School, I studied at the University of Vienna for a year: English and American Studies and Egyptology, both Bachelor degrees. However, I didn’t stick with either of them, and instead went to Edinburgh in 2016, where I got my Bachelor of Arts in English and Film at the Edinburgh Napier University. My final dissertation dealt with queer (read: LGBTQ+) character’s representation in big media franchises and their fanfiction. So, I stayed loyal to my beginnings.
Right around the time when I entered University life in Vienna, I began to write seriously and started on what would become the first draft of “Dumornay’s Legacy”, the first book in an Adult Urban Fantasy trilogy, which I wrote completely in English. Not an easy task for somebody, whose native language is known for being a bit complicated when it comes to declinations and cases.
In 2018, I published my first short story, “Phönixflamme”, in the German anthology “The P-Files: Die Phönix Akten” by Talawah Verlag. After that followed more short story publications: “Anaia Montgomery und der Sirenen-Stalker” in Talawah Verlag’s follow-up anthology to the P-Files, “The A-Files: Die Amazonen Akten”; “Blood and Guilt”, my own selfpublished anthology, which is available in German and English and is set in Dumornay’s world; and “Der Anwalt des Todesengels” in Emma N.’s selfpublished Crime Noir x Fantasy crossover anthology “Badass Angels: Gefiederte Kreaturen”.
I also stream on twitch, translate or edit other people’s words and try to post on patreon every month.