Julie C. Dao is a debut author but has spent years blogging about the writing process and the struggles of finding an agent. She studied medicine at her parents’ request, but found out the hard way that she didn’t quite have the stomach for it. After school, she worked in science news and research while writing fiction at night. She released a self-published, middle-grade novel, Pumpkin Patch Princess, in 2015 on the platform Wattpad. It was a Wattpad Featured Book and garnered a significant readership, but Dao still sought traditional publication. Her first book is the young adult novel Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, a fantasy set in an Eastern Asian kingdom that has been compared to stories like Snow White. It is the first in a planned three-book series called the Rise of the Empress series.