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Emily Kate Johnston, who publishes as E.K. Johnston, is a Canadian author and forensic archaeologist.

Before becoming a writer
Johnston had many jobs before she became an athour, she once worked at a country market, in an nursing home and even taught English in South Korea. Along with her various other jobs Johnston studied Archeology in the United Kingdom and Jordan. Before Johnston became a writer she lived in four continents, one of which was Jordan were she spent many summers studying archaeology. Her studies include biblical Hebrew and Arabic, her studies in these subjects gave her an insight into ancient Arabic culture allowing her to correctly detail it in some of her works. Johnston had a fascination with Arabic cultures which helped in her writing of one of her most famous novels "A Thousand Nights a retelling off the ancient text "A Thousand and One Arabian Nights.

Career
Johnston started writing fan fiction in 2002, and wrote her first manuscript in 2009. Her first book, The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, was published in 2014, and is set in an alternate present-day Ontario where dragons are both real and a menace. The review in The New York Times called the book "a clever first step in the career of a novelist who [...] has many more songs to sing", it was nominated for the William C. Morris Award in 2015. A sequel, Prairie Fire, followed in 2015.

Johnston's third book was A Thousand Nights, a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights. C.S. Lewis's descriptions of the desert in The Horse and His Boy inspired Johnston in writing her own novel set in the desert. A companion book, Spindle, followed in 2016, which was a reinterpretation of Sleeping Beauty.

Her fifth novel, Exit, Pursued By A Bear, was published in 2016. Inspired by Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, it tells the story of cheer-leading captain Hermione Winters, who discovers she is pregnant after being sexually assaulted at a camp party. It was written partially as a challenge, and partially as a response to Stephen Woodworth's 2013 bill to re-criminalise abortion. It was named a "Book of the Year" by several organisations, including NPR, Publishers Weekly, and the New York Public Library. It won the Canadian Children's Book Centre's Amy Mathers Teen Book Award in 2017.

A Star Wars fan, Johnston was asked to write a book on the character Ahsoka Tano. Published in October 2016, Ahsoka fills in the gap between her appearances in The Clone Wars and Rebels. Her second Star Wars novel, Queen's Shadow, is scheduled for released in March 2019. Featuring Padme Amidala, it will be set prior to the events of The Phantom Menace. Additionally, she has also written the story By Whatever Sun, focusing on Miara Larte, a character Johnston created within Ahsoka, and set during the events of A New Hope.

Johnston's most recent novel is That Inevitable Victorian Thing, which she describes as a "Near-future Sci-fi Canadian Idealistic Romance", and was published in 2017.

She credits her discipline in academic writing for helping her time management while writing prose; and states she is a fast writer - she wrote A Thousand Nights in "about 20 days", and writes with little disturbance. She advises early and young writers to learn to finish projects as practice in self-discipline and editing.

Her favourite authors are Jo Graham, Elizabeth Wein, Tessa Gratton, Kiersten White, Madeleine L’Engle, JRR Tolkien, David Eddings, CS Lewis, and Holly Black. She plays the alto saxophone and the clarinet.

Reviews
Ej89 from amazon gave the book 5 stars " Great retelling of a classic" - A Thousand Nights

Stephanie Burgis Samphire gave the the novel 5 stars "... just so funny, warm and just lovebale in every way. Dragon slayers in modern Canada!" - " The Story of Owen"

Targaid from amazon gave one of her novels 3 stars and stated " Sadly,it moves slowly and doesn't really have any strong or compelling characters" - "  Star Wars: Ahsoka"

Novels

 * The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim (2014)
 * Prairie Fire (2015)
 * A Thousand Nights (2015)
 * Spindle (2016) - also published as Kingdom of Sleep
 * Exit, Pursued By A Bear (2016)
 * That Inevitable Victorian Thing (2017)
 * The Afterward (2019)

Summaries of her most famous works
A Thousand Nights A based off the ancient novel A Thousand and One Arabian Nights. In the novel, a young female protagonist sacrifices herself to save her more beautiful older sister from marrying the evil king who has killed over 300 previous wives. The young protagonist is taken away to marry the king and begins her desperate struggle to stay alive against the evil forces at play.

Story of Owen In the modern age dragons and humans both battle over fossil fuels. A young boy at a cross roads in his life comes from a long history of dragon slayers. At 16 years old Owen's grades were dropping and dragons were becoming more aggressive. Owen must defend his town armed only with his sword and his family legacy. Owen and his best friend must protect their home and prove themselves. 

Praire Fire The sequel to Story of Owenfollows Owen and Siobhan graduate from highshcool and joins the Oil watch, an organisation which trains dragon slayers. Onc Owen and Siobhan completed their training the Canadian government has still not forgiven Owen for the events of the last book unless Siobhan can use her musical talents to change their mind about Owen's stoty.

"Star Wars: Ahsoka" This follows Ahsoka after she left the Jedi order shortly after the Clone wars. Ahsoka's journey is told as she struggles to decide how she can become whole again as her desire to fight evil gets stronger.

Short Stories

 * Work In Progress (2017) in Three Sides of A Heart: Stories about Love Triangles, edited by Natalie Parker

Star Wars

 * Ahsoka (2016)
 * By Whatever Sun (2017), short story in From A Certain Point Of View
 * Queen's Shadow (2019)

Awards

 * 2015: William C. Morris Award, shortlist (The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim)
 * 2017: Amy Mathers Teen Book Award in 2017, winner (Exit, Pursued By A Bear)
 * 2016 Nominated for the Govenor General's Literary Awards (A Thousand Nights)