JOSHUA ALLEN MERCIER was born in the seaside city of Biddeford, Maine—a city which shares its name with an English brother (Bideford, England) and an Irish sister (Biddeford, Ireland), but is steeped instead with Quebecois ancestry. A curious little city with a curious little nugget of fact unknown to most history books: it was the first settlement in New England, established in 1616 by physician Robert Vine—that’s four years before the Mayflower landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, although Joshua‘s a descendant of that stock, too, on his mother’s side.
Although his mother and sister read to him as a child, his love affair with fantasy came with a treasured copy of Katherine Patterson’s Bridge to Terabithia, given to him by perhaps one of his favorite teachers, Mrs. Carpenter, and since that time he’s been hooked on speculative literature. It was Mrs. Carpenter, as well, who encouraged the budding poet inside of Joshua.
At the age of eight, Joshua‘s mother and step-father moved to north-central Maine, otherwise known as the middle of nowhere. Literally. That brownish-red area surrounding the farmhouse circled in the picture to below—in case you were wondering—is miles and miles of potato fields! Perhaps the best part of all: the farmhouse in the center of that red circle was haunted! Maybe it was a catalyst for Stephen King, too, but let’s just say that surrounded by the complete LACK of civilization lent itself to an overactive imagination.
BECAUSE there are only two seasons in Maine—Winter and Mosquito—going outside was often impossible. Joshua was content being cooped up in his room, however, as there wasn’t much to do in the middle of nowhere anyway. His face was always buried deep inside the covers of a book. There was something about being drawn into a book, another world, a world different from his own, to which he could escape…and each book (or series of them) transported him to yet another.
Joshua‘s love for reading has never changed, but around the fourth grade, his new love became writing. His obsession with speculative fiction continued through the words he excitedly scribed. In seventh grade, he began writing his first novella, The Haunting Truth, about the haunted house in which he lived for four years of his childhood.
AFTER high school, Joshua moved halfway across the country [latitude-ly speaking], leaving all his family and friends to attend Alma College in Alma, Michigan. There, he swooned many a lady with coffee in exchange for tantalizing, late-night discussions about life and literature, who later were saddened to learn men were more of his cup of tea.
It was at Alma that he honed his writing craft and worked on the beginning stages of his manuscript, The Assassin of Aldarhaij; and, through the support and critiques of his professors and peers, he began to mould his manuscript into its current state. Although he had to leave after his third year, his time spent at Alma College are among the fondest of his memories, and the friends he made there will be friends for life.
IN February 2012, after finally completing his manuscript the previous fall, Joshua decided to launch The Bearded Scribe in hopes of connecting with other fans and writers who shared his love of speculative literature. It is upon its launch that Joshua re-connected with his college friends, Sara and Elizabeth. Elizabeth‘s passion for the blog landed her the position of Assistant Editor and Most-Esteemed Beta Reader, and with her, Joshua has accrued an un-repayable debt. After its launch, Joshua added several members and friends to the team; and although Elizabeth found it rather comical that a gay bloke had managed to acquire a harem of leading ladies, he wouldn’t have changed his staff for anything!
Unfortunately, in 2016, Joshua took some time away from writing after a major life-altering event, but has—after 8 years—started writing again and decided to re-launch the site and blog, which unfortunately he had to re-build from scratch thanks to someone hacking into the old site and corrupting it.
Since the start of his hiatus from writing and the site, Joshua has experienced quite a bit of change, which he outlines in his first series of posts since the re-launch, appropriately titled “New Beginnings.” In 2022, just shy of a decade in Atlanta, Georgia, he relocated to sunny Tampa, Florida with his husband, Emerich, and their two miniature schnauzers, Madeleine Sophia and her son, Lucas Xavier. When he’s not blogging, reading, or writing, Joshua enjoys singing (in the shower, car, or en plein air), cooking delicious dishes, crafting masterful cocktails, traveling or attending music events, watching movies or game nights with friends, or forever honing his graphic design skills.
He’s currently ambitiously plotting and writing a 7-book series called Echoes of Eden, the first book of which is called Wonderspark.
