Happy best season of the year! I mean autumn, but if it's spring in your neck of the woods, that's a pretty nice season too, so I'll let you have it.
Pull up a chair and I'll tell you about the time when I mostly-accidentally wrote a book set in autumn, the sequel in winter and the next sequel in spring, after which I purposely wrote the prequel set in the summer because at that point it felt like the universe demanded it.
I'm a discovery writer, which means I have ideas about a book when I start on it but need to figure out things about the plot/characters/world as I go, like I'm excavating it all from an archeological dig. Authors sometimes call this "pantsing," as in by-the-seat-of-our-pants.
So when I started excavating Subversive, I had absolutely zero intention of writing a four-seasons series. I just set the first one in autumn because (see above) it is the best season. Very witchy and atmospheric.
But then I discovered/pantsed that Wizard Peter Blackwell and equal-rights activist Beatrix Harper had a definite Hades/Persephone vibe, and suddenly seasons felt Important.
At that point I was still deluding myself that the story could fit in a single book. But once I started thinking about seasons in a thematic way, it was probably a foregone conclusion that the main trilogy turned out the way it did, autumn/winter/spring.
And after all that, why not summer too? Especially because there was a story to tell about a magical heist that happened the summer before Subversive.
Hey, I'm a sucker for magical heists.
Anyway, if you're in the mood for an autumn book, Subversive has you covered.
Or start in summer with the free magical-heist prequel, if you haven't gotten around to reading or listening to Clandestine yet.
What are some of your favorite autumn books? I'd love your recommendations!
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Here's your occasional reminder that you have ✨ choices ✨ when it comes to an all-you-can-read subscription, and right now there's a spooky-season-appropriate collection of fantasy romance books on the platform that has an all-you-can-listen option, too. (That's Kobo, in case you didn't already know.)
Find Jacquelyn Benson's Empire of Shadows, Casey Blair's A Coup of Tea and a bunch of other reads (including a conspicuously autumnal one) here ⬇️
But if you're not in the mood for Kobo, here are some free-for-everyone fantasy romance books, from a Beauty and the Beast retelling with Phantom of the Opera vibes to an orc actor whose on-screen chemistry with his human co-star isn't just acting ⬇️
You made it to the end! You're awesome. (Of course.) And oh hey, here are my latest books and here are all my book gifts to you.
If this bookish newsletter you signed up for is no longer your cup of tea, just hit unsubscribe below. ⬇️
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