Olivia Joyce is the author of The Dark Witch, a YA fantasy tale that takes you to a faraway kingdom filled with witches and evil kings.
Olivia graduated as a bio-science engineer in 2018 and worked as an ecologist for several years. While she loved everything about working with nature and protecting endangered species, something was missing. And that something was creative freedom.
In 2021, she jumped into the deep end of the freelancing world as a writer and translator. She didn’t just change jobs, she also gave up her apartment and became a digital nomad. Since then, Olivia has lived in Bali, London, Lisbon, Sweden, Italy, and Vienna. She loves slow travel and taking her time to discover a new place by working and living there as a local. Next on her bucket list are Costa Rica, Hawaii, Cambodja, and Canada.
The hero’s journey
Okay, now that the official part of the “about” page is over, I can finally tell you about me.
Oh boy, where to begin?
I wasn’t born a writer. I didn’t write cute bedtime stories as a child. I didn’t even like reading, with the exception of Harry Potter. And that was mostly due to the combination of childlike wonder + magical movies. Things changed when I was about 15 or 16 years old. I discovered an all-consuming love for YA Fantasy books and could not get enough. I devoured every book I could get my hands on. I started branching out - romance, mystery, sci-fi, literary fiction - nothing was safe. My Christmas list consisted of an ever-growing TBR pile.
When it came time to decide what to study so I could be a “productive member of society”, becoming a writer didn’t cross my mind. Instead, I went for something sensible like bio-science engineering. The general engineering part wasn’t great, but the specialization in my Master’s Degree made it all worth it. I went for Forest and Nature Management and became an ecologist.
I can honestly say that being an ecologist is pretty awesome. I got to spend a lot of time outside, work with protected species, and I felt good doing something for a better planet. Yet, something was missing. I had all these amazing stories inside my head, a lot of them happening in forests or involving animals, but I couldn’t use that creativity in my job. On top of that, I’m not ashamed to admit that working full-time took a lot out of me, and I simply didn’t have the energy to bring my stories to life after work.
So I did the logical thing: I quit my job, gave up my apartment, became a freelancing writer, and started traveling the world. (Note: this was not logical at all. I still don’t understand where I got the courage to actually do this.)
While it hasn’t been easy, turning my life upside down is the best decision I’ve ever made. It gave me the opportunity to slow down and focus on what I truly want:
Bring stories to life.