J.M. Lively (Jonathon Lively) was born and raised in California and now lives in Bemidiji, Minnesota, after moving through several states and cities. Over the years of moving, Jonathon created pages upon pages of characters, which were heavily influenced by manga, anime and comics. Many of his ideas were designed with computer graphics, even meant to be tattooed. But instead, he combined all characters and small snippets of stories into a huge document. It took three months to go through all of the drafts for Jonathon and after it he had the outline of a series. Like this, in 2018, the Oreniah Codex was born. After this, Jonathon started writing the story. The Last Soul, the first book of the series, was published in August of 2019. 

If you want to know more about J.M. Lively and his works:

https://www.facebook.com/TheOreniahCodex/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Oreniah

https://www.instagram.com/OreniahCodex/

https://amzn.to/20stwRn 

The interview

1. You moved a lot in your life. How did this affect your stories?

Greatly. I have lived in several different states and many cities and towns within each. Because of this, I have gained perspective about how different groups of people interact and how, as an individual, someone can take on different ways of living. How they can justify different actions and thoughts. This has given me insight on how different characters will behave and how they will think in different situations.

2. Comics, manga and anime had a heavy influence at your works. Why these genres and do you have a certain manga, or anime, which influenced your stories, or characters the most? If yes, why that?

I was heavily invested in Bleach from Shonen Jump when it was still in distribution. The manga has since finished and the anime was cancelled. However, the anime is coming back, seemingly to finish out the show and the final arc. I guess the best reason for why I was so heavily influenced by these genres, is because they were the ones that I ingested the most of. I was also into Pokémon, Yugioh, and various Marvel/DC comics and characters as well. Basically, if it had a superpower or fantastical element, I thought it was cool. I've always had a fascination with the afterlife too and because of that, my interest in things like Bleach was more invested.

3. As a fan of comics, manga and anime, would you want your book become a manga, or even an anime?

Absolutely! In fact, most of my fight scenes are inspired by anime fight scenes. I usually picture them playing out as such. I think this often gets me into trouble though. I picture these very unique character designs and powers that can sometimes be difficult to describe in writing only. A lot of my characters would love to be designed and I have started the process of doing so. That can be expensive though and I am excited for the day when fans start to design them as well!

4. Can you tell me about The Oreniah Codex?

Sure! The world that The Last Soul takes place in is called, Oreniah. The idea behind my series, The Oreniah Codex, is basically an accounting of the end of days of that world. The world, Oreniah, is basically heaven in my universe. Initially, when I outlined this story, I kept referring to the world as "The Third Pinnacle". Mainly because I hadn't named it yet and because I knew that my story would revolve around reincarnation. Oreniah was “The Third Pinnacle” because it was the height of the third dimension. The concept behind my theory of reincarnation is that a soul is either climbing or descending a ladder, moving up or down in the third dimension. The rungs of this ladder are different worlds and/or realities within the universe. A soul moves up the ladder if they live according to their soul's purpose. Down, if they don’t. I know that sounds vague but it's simple. A soul's purpose is simply what it is attuned to, what it was meant to do. Like people who think that they are living according to their purpose in life. This doesn't necessarily mean that all purposes are good. My common example is as follows; think about fire. The essence of fire is basically chaotic neutral, it will consume anything in its path, good or evil, with chaotic ferocity. So, if a soul is aligned with a chaotic purpose, using fire as its medium to express that chaos, then any form of fire usage would bring them closer to their soul's purpose. Meaning a murdering arsonist could move up a rung on the ladder of reincarnation if their soul's purpose had a chaotic aura. The same could be true of a firefighter or a fire dancer. 

5. Do you have any favorite genre to write? If yes, why that one?

I’ve only written one novel and it is in the Fantasy genre. Fantasy is my favorite to read and write however, I’ve been delving into horror too. I also have plans to write Sci-Fi as well and intend to connect all the books I eventually write to this single universe. 

6. How long was it to create The Oreniah Codex? Which was the most difficult and easiest part in it?

In general, a year. I began working on this project in August of 2018 and published my first book in August of 2019. The outline for my universe and the creation of Oreniah, took about three months of that year. Although the ideas, inspirations, and materials that went into this project spanned more than a decade. When I was younger, I wanted to be an artist. I was inspired by all those same comics and characters mentioned above. I developed a good habit of saving every little doodle, idea, and inspiration on paper or in Word documents. Years went by and the artist career never happened, after I became an adult, I didn’t keep up with my skills and became depressed about my abilities. Flash forward a decade and I owned a small business writing professional resumes. I tried to write a book about the work I was doing but it felt like plagiarism. No insight that I had was original and needless to say, the content didn’t make it very far. Then, a month or two later, I was sitting at the bar I worked at, enjoying a shift drink, and reading a book. I kept thinking about writing and decided that instead of reading, I should go home and write. I’d recently been invited to a Pathfinder campaign and used the “homework” for a character backstory as my writing prompt. On my other book attempt, I had less than ten pages. Within a few days of starting this character background, I had 67 pages written with absolutely zero preparation. That lead me to believe I was writing about the wrong subject and that I should give fantasy a shot. After finishing my initial character background, I began to think about what I should write about in this new endeavor. Here is where all those scraps of paper and Word documents come into play. I decided to comb through all the content I’d collected over the years and piece it together into something workable. That is what took me the three months mentioned above.

7. Your first book, The Last Soul, was published in August 2019. Do you have any plan, when your next book will come out?

I really want to rapid release the sequel and the third (and final) installment by the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 respectively. I know that it is a way out but I have found out just how little I knew about this industry in the last year. Because of my new found ignorance, I have been focusing on correcting the mistakes I’ve made and learning how to properly market a book, since I am self-published.

8. The Oreniah Codex is a series. How many books you planned for it? Can you tell me a secret about it?

Three books are planned for The Oreniah Codex. Hmm, a secret… *strokes beard in thought* Follow Ches closely, he is far more important than some might believe. When the series is complete, readers are going to look back and see several hints as to what was/is really going on with his story. I love fan theories and I’d love to see what people think is going to happen with him by the end of the series. For instance, I enjoyed Game of Thrones the TV Show (not so much the books, sorry George). One of my favorite aspects of being a part of the fandom was theorizing about what would happen in the end. I want that for Ches.

9. Next to The Oreniah Codex, do you have any other project idea, or ongoing project? If yes, can you tell me about it?

Definitely. I am already working on the story that will come after The Oreniah Codex. Right now, I think the series will be titled, Shards of Oreniah. I am more focused on the sequels to The Last Soul but I have written several chapters for Shards of Oreniah. I am playing with the idea of turning Shards of Oreniah into a podcast as well, I’ve even learned some basics about audio mixing and developed a rough introduction. I just need to find someone better to do the reading because I HATE how I sound. This is also my attempt to learn and potentially find someone to help me create an audiobook for The Oreniah Codex. With that, I’m also dumping random story ideas into a word document for later. Its mostly Fantasy ideas with a few Sci-Fi and Horror ideas mixed in.

10. If you could live anywhere, as anything, what would you be and where? Why?

Wow, that’s hard. I’m going with a world that I’ve fallen in love with, Roshar. I believe that Brandon Sanderson’s masterpiece will be stuck with me for a long, long time. There are ten orders of Knight Radiant. After my initial thought and some quick research just now, I’d choose to be a Dustbringer or Releaser. If you are unfamiliar with their ideals and characteristics, they are basically destroyers. Their two Surges are Division and Abrasion (Ideal/Essence). The Surge Division causes objects - or people - to degrade, burn, or turn to dust. They focus on responsibility and control, they are not granted their full power at the onset like other Knights Radiant. In fact, their motto is, “I will seek self-mastery”. They must speak their Ideals and slowly come into their power. They are taught that their powers need to be properly channeled and they tend to look down on those that focus on their destructive side. The personality type that tends to become this type of Knight Radiant, is a tinkerer, one who likes to dig down and break something, to see how it works. Despite being used as a powerhouse, a Radiant that could clear a battlefield, they are also sappers, engineers, and strategists. My “why” is simple, almost every part of this description fits me well. Plus, their abilities are awesome!

Thank you for your answers! And you, dear Reader, what would you ask from J.M. Lively? 🙃