About Me

Constance Fay was born in Fargo, ND in 1983, the daughter of Jack Fay—a cowboy turned businessman—and Dr. Carolyn Gillespie Fay—a theater professor turned communications professor. The family moved from North Dakota to New Jersey, and finally to Arizona—which means that Constance spent her formative years picking up a truly dreadful combination of accents. Between a mother with a background in Shakespeare and a father who told her gender swapped versions of Edgar Rice Burroughs tales at bedtime, she developed a love of romantic and adventurous stories early on. In high school, she excelled in academics, was adequate at cross country, and was spectacularly bad at soccer. She began writing—a literal work in progress. 

Constance went to college at the University of Arizona--starting her time in academia by tumbling down a flight of stairs directly into a lecture hall. Uninjured, she went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the College of Optical Sciences and Engineering—meaning she liked playing with lasers and hoped that a future might come of it. She spent the next assortment of years working at a selection of medical device companies (sadly, no lasers) in Jacksonville, FL, the San Francisco Bay Area, Tampa, FL, and SoCal. During that time, she also completed her MBA. In 2020 she moved to Denver, Colorado, where she currently resides. 

She’s fenced with sabers, thrown knives, flown hawks, sailed competitively, climbed 14ers, fallen down smaller mountains, had a cholla cactus lodged in her ankle, been the concertmaster of an orchestra, and visited thirteen countries. The best part about being a writer is that any preposterous activity that springs to mind may be considered research. If not, it comes in handy on trivia nights.

Through the years since school, she continued to write. In 2018, she joined the Writing Excuses Retreat. Several years later, she attended her first Futurescapes workshop. Spending time learning about the craft with others helped her to level up her skills until her first story (a flash fiction piece about a geriatric werewolf who stalks the halls of her assisted living facility) was sold in 2020. Her short fiction can be found in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Catscast podcast, and other publications. She found an agent (Caitlin Blasdell of Liza Dawson Associates) and a publisher (Tor/Bramble) for her first novel. 

Constance believes firmly that female romantic protagonists (like actual human people) should be funny, reckless, competent, damaged, and compassionate. Above all else, she believes they should be confident. Constance writes characters who look at insurmountable odds, say “how hard can it be?” and then roll up their sleeves and get to work. She writes love interests who admire them for that same trait and who have every bit as much determination and heroism (and also muscles). 

No damsels. Lots of distress.