Masson, Cynthea: - Cynthea Masson is a professor in the English department at Vancouver Island University. After completing a Ph.D. in English with a focus on medieval mysticism, her postdoctoral fellowship involved work with medieval alchemical manuscripts at the British Library. She is a co-editor of the academic book Reading Joss Whedon and the author of The Elijah Tree. The first novel in the Alchemists' Council series was shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and won the gold medal for fantasy at the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Masson lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia.