A.J. Maguire

Tag: AJMaguire

  • Happy Thanksgiving (2025)

    This is my favorite holiday.

    From the turkey and stuffing to the golden-brown hue outside my window, I can’t help but love this time of year. That’s why I scheduled Nora’s final book to release on the 28th.

    Well, technically it should have been released for Halloween but life had other plans.

    At any rate, the Nora Grayson Adventures have concluded, Advanced Readers have the novel, and pretty soon everyone else who wants it will be able to snag it from Amazon.

    I am deeply grateful to those Readers who have followed Nora’s journey from the beginning and whose comments and encouragements helped push me to the finish line. For the record, I know some questions have been left unanswered – not the MAJOR questions, mind you, but some of the littler things – and that is by design because I intend to return to this world.

    It just won’t be Nora Grayson leading the fray.

    I want to do a separate standalone with Derrick and Vessa that deals with Derrick’s mother and those known as the Lost.

    I also have plans for Eucilla. She’s a dracken and can outlive everyone else, so I imagine that novel taking place a century or so later.

    Also (mild spoiler alert), the romantic in me can’t help wondering what the Atlas Court will be like for Nora when she finally steps into that role, but insofar as the storyline of Nora’s family is concerned, we have an ending.

    For now, I have several novels that have been sitting on the back burner while I finished up Nora’s books, and it’s time I gave them the attention they deserve. (More on that in a later post.)

    So what am I thankful for this year?

    I have a home. Food in my pantry. Pets who adore me. My book is complete and I have a group of amazing readers who are ready to get their hands on it.

    I have a son who is also a creative and I know he is working on his own writing and worlds. He’ll be 18 in January, which hurts my heart in weird ways and terrifies me at the same time because he’s about to get his license.

    I have a loving husband who believes in me and works hard so that I can continue to live my dream.

    And I have family and friends who remind me every day that I am loved and appreciated.

    Thank you. All of you. Whether you’re friend, family, or reader, I hope your day is amazing and that you are equally blessed.

  • A Kick in the Pants

    Life has a way of kicking you in the pants.

    Or at least, it has a way of kicking ME in the pants, but I’m old enough to know this is the norm for a lot of people.

    I was hard at work, prepping marketing things for Blood of the Witch Heir’s release – which is in FOUR DAYS – and drafting up Nora’s final book when suddenly…

    My computer stopped working.

    As in, the thing would not power on.

    This was frustrating since the warranty ran out the month prior and I’m afraid extending warranties/insuring items like this has never been in the finances for me.

    Budgets be budgets, you know?

    Anyway, there I was, stuck with no computer for a couple of days. We did try to unearth an older laptop lingering in the house but the thing was from the days of antiquity, too slow to load anything and running an outdated operating system.

    What did I do with no computer for days on end?

    Well, I read a lot. (I rated them on Goodreads as I went because I will not be trying to type out an entire review on my tiny iPhone Mini.) This means I not only caught up to y 50 books in 2025 goal, I went a little over and am now a book ahead of schedule.

    I also received some happy packages! I got my author copies of Blood of the Witch Heir and new copies of the Nora books whose covers have been upgraded.

    Nora and the Siren Song still has to be updated, but we are in the works for that! As soon as I have them all in hand, I’ll do a happy little post to display them all because they are GORGEOUS and I love them to pieces.

    And finally, I enjoyed time with my husband and watched my animals be crazy. Which means I took a lot of pictures, which I am going to share here because why not?

    Brief note: the goats are not mine. We stumbled on them at the Old Sturbirdge Village and that boy goat went and posed for me on the rock. It was too cute not to include.

    Anyway, the OTHER thing I did was make a schedule with altered deadlines and now I probably should get back to it.

    Happy writing. Happy Reading.

  • Compelling Conflict – May 2025 Round Robin

    I am going to admit that this is the area I have grown the most in as an author.

    Having just gone through a major revision of an older work, I can see that back in my twenty’s I focused a lot on building neat worlds and having neat stuff as opposed to the more compelling conflicts that come from people.

    It’s not about earning that throne back when it has been stolen, it’s about why the character would bother. Who actually wants a throne in the first place?

    Even the power-hungry villain has a reason behind his actions. If the quest is only for power, then that quest is boring. True conflict, the stuff that we can sink our teeth into, pits characters against one another.

    It is far more interesting to know the villain wants the throne because they have a vengeance stake involved. A previous ruler rampaged through their childhood village and killed everyone they loved.

    Now our hero has the dilemma of family drama, because SHOULD they retake the throne if they are descendent of such brutal behavior?

    What it all boils down to is character.

    If the characters on the page aren’t that interesting to begin with, then we are not going to care how or why they achieve their goals. The conflict comes from within. It comes from WHO they are as people.

    Compelling conflict shows the struggle these characters have with the decisions they must make on the page. Their growth comes from that struggle.

    That said, the struggles on the page will also help define those characters. We know Frodo and Sam for who they are because of the struggle they went through to get the ring to Mount Doom. Plot and Character go hand in hand. If you skim on one, the narrative will be lacking and you won’t have a compelling conflict.

    So!

    What do I do to help create compelling conflict in my works?

    On a PLOT level, I follow “Yes, but” / “No, and”

    This is where you ask the question for each scene – Does your character achieve their goal?

    The answer is always either “Yes, but now (she has a stowaway on board her ship/he got gravely injured and is leaking vital fluids)” OR “No, and (her attempt has left the ship without power, so they’re floating dead in space with only 4 hours of air left/he accidently struck the prince so now there’s going to be a price on his head)

    See how that works?

    That’s on the plot level.

    On a CHARACTER level, I have the major players in a scene noted off to the side of my screen with their core motivations for that scene highlighted. This just helps me to remember what is ultimately at stake for that character.

    Example:

    Chapter Three – Blood of the Witch Heir – NOTES

    Dorian Feverrette arrives at Delgora Court. He is hunting the Bedim assassins who recently tried to take his life (see Chapter One). If he doesn’t succeed in locating them soon, it is quite likely that he will be assassinated.

    Elsie Delgora is hiding in plain sight at Delgora Court. She is keeping tabs on the Vicaress who murdered her family. She needs the Vicaress to stay happy and oblivious to Elsie’s machinations.

    Now we enter “Yes, but” /”No, and”

    Does Dorian succeed in his goals for this chapter? No, and he has stumbled into a bigger plot revolving around the Delgoran throne.

    Does Elsie succeed in keeping tabs on the Vicaress? Yes, but now this stupid noble boy has shown up and is making the Vicaress suspicious.

    Anyway, that’s what I do. Many thanks to both the late David Farland for his book Million Dollar Outlines, and the Writing Excuses Podcast… Because that’s definitely where I learned this from.

    Check out what my fellow authors do to help create compelling conflict in their works!

    Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3sY

    Belinda Edwards  https://booksbybelinda.com/blog/

    Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog

    Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

    Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooksmark2.blogspot.com

    AJ Maguire https://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/ (YOU ARE HERE)

    Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

  • Embracing the Pantser In Me

    In just 7 days, Nora and the Siren Song will be available to the world. Hurray! Throw confetti!

    Which means I’ve officially been alerted that I have 48 hours to make certain all those files are the right files and that I don’t have any further changes I want to make to the book. Which, honestly, induces a mild panic attack and forces me to re-read everything.

    Even though I have literally read this book over a dozen times from first draft to finished product.

    Nora has come a long way since her inception.

    I first got the idea for her books from a conversation on social media where myself and another author were fangirling over the show Lucifer. We both found it deeply amusing that Lucifer had a therapist in the show, and the conversation stretched to… What if all these paranormal romances we read about with vampires and werewolves and other said shifters/magic user suddenly had to go to couples therapy?

    What would that therapists life look like?

    Enter Nora Grayson, an empathic wizard living in Boston whose private home study sees couples from the typical vampires and elves, to the more exotic creatures hiding in plain sight of humanity.

    I made her an empath for two reasons.

    First, I love Deanna Troi from Star Trek the Next Generation. You can say what you want about me being a Trekkie or whatever, I really don’t mind. Star Trek was my mother’s favorite show when I was growing up, so I come by my geekery honestly.

    Second, because I am an empathetic person myself and I feel like this trait isn’t given center stage a lot. The ability to listen and identify the emotional state of the people around you, and then genuinely understand, feels like a skill that is undervalued in the world today.

    We’re too busy.

    We have our own problems.

    Or worse, we’re scared of people.

    I mean, who wouldn’t be given what we see plastered over the news?

    I digress.

    Nora’s first book, Nora and the Werewolf Wedding has a simple design. It’s basically Clue, but with magic and werewolves. And yes, I learned to embrace my Pantser in that book.

    Or, well, this whole series.

    Don’t know what a Pantser is?

    A Pantser is someone who writes without an outline. There is a vague idea – in this case, empathic wizard stuck negotiating a socialite wedding where at least one of the guests is murdered – and you build from there.

    Which means literally everything that happened in that first book came as a surprise.

    True story, I honestly thought Derrick’s grandfather would be the big bad guy on the page. Spoilers! He isn’t.

    There are pros and cons to embracing the Pantser side of my muse.

    First, I’ve had a blast writing. That’s a huge PRO. I sit at the computer, stare out the window for a little as the scene starts to show itself, and then the narrative tends to flow. (Assuming I’m not interrupted. Interruptions are a part of life. I do have pets, a teenage son, a husband, and general biological needs like eating.)

    However, that PRO is often checked by the CON where I literally had to build Fairy from the ground up whilst on the go. I have a handwritten notebook with all of my world building notes, many of which required that I flesh out the rules during the editing process of the book.

    I mention this as a CON because I know the world is bigger than what has been displayed on the pages and I feel like I can do better.

    Another PRO is that I am genuinely surprised by the endings when I get there. Or… things like the surprise wedding in Book 2, which is still one of my favorite moments.

    Writing this way has made it feel like this is Nora’s story and she is telling it, first to me, and then to the rest of the world. All my other books, where outlines have been heavily utilized, I was directing things more than the characters on the page.

    Sure, Jorry and Trenna both had a huge say in what happened in their stories, but it was still ME telling those stories.

    Maybe one day I’ll go back and revise their books from this new, Pantser-loving lens, but don’t hold your breath for it. Nora’s final book is still in the works. It will be out in October of this year. And I have several others novels in various stages of complete or near-to-complete that will get to see publication first.

    In the meantime, here is me, embracing my Pantser. It’s difficult, but apparently well worth the editing time I have to spend after that first draft is done.

    Nora and the Siren Song will be available on April 8th!

  • Alterations, Updates, & Fun

    With Nora and the Siren Song about to be released, I’m doing my usual brushing up of the website, book covers, and general marketing upkeep.

    Those who frequent this site are no doubt noticing it is shiny and pretty, with a new theme that I have to admit I love. Depending on what device you’re using, you’ll find my new LinkTree either at the bottom (phone devices) or at the side (computer) of the screen.

    I am new to LinkTree. I only discovered it thanks to Threads, where I’ve had the joy of connecting with Indie authors I had never met before. I do still have an account on X, for those of you who linger over there, but sometime over the course of the last couple years X took away the ability to auto-link my posts to its site, so it is not as up to date as Threads or Facebook.

    I’m sure there’s a way I can pay for that function, but quite frankly, I’m tired of every site known to man charging a fee for being ‘verified’ or whatever. I’m on a budget, guys. If I’m going to spend money, it’s going toward actual publishing costs. Or, shock of all shocks, trying to get author copies of my own books.

    Nora’s books got new covers. Again. Yes, this is in preparation for the series being competed this year. They have a matching theme and yes, one day when I can afford an artist who can do all four of them at once, then these covers will change yet again.

    And finally, to the last announcement, Torven & Tales from the Wood has been published through Draft2Digital. This is an experiment on my part to see how that publishing program works.

    For those who don’t remember, Torven is my Fairytale Novelette written several years ago for my son, who told me he hated reading and broke my heart. I wrote the little volume FOR him and read it to him every night over the course of eight days, and he admitted he actually liked that story.

    It must have been the right move because he’s a storyteller himself now.

    Anyway, Torven was taken off virtual shelves a couple years ago because it was too small to be worth printing anymore. I’ve been gathering some short stories to add to its volume and while I still think I should have added one or two more, I’m simply too busy to know when I’ll get around to writing another such tale, so it seemed a good trial book for the Draft2Digital site.

    When I figure out how to sell physical copies through this site, this will be the first one available. Since, you know, it is my test subject.

    That’s it. Those are my current updates!

  • Countdown to Siren Songs!

    As of today, we have 66 days before Nora and the Siren Song hits the virtual shelves.

    I am so very excited for everyone to get a chance to read the next step in Nora’s journey. The early reviews have been excellent. You can check them out on Goodreads if you don’t believe me. Or Bookbub, if you would rather.

    I know there are several other review sites out there, but Goodreads still tends to garner the most reviews and ratings for me.

    So what is this new adventure about?

    Well, it’s a romance.

    As in, the other books the romance tends to hide in the background, but in this next volume it takes center stage. I know this might annoy some people who prefer their romances in the light version, but Nora is growing and as such, she has reached a point of crisis where she must confront what she truly wants out of life.

    Which includes knowing what she wants out of a partner.

    I thoroughly enjoyed writing this book. It is a huge journey for Nora, not only because she must come to some decisions about who she is and what she wants, but because the world around her is getting far more dangerous.

    I can’t say much more than that without spoiling the book for you, so I will leave you with the current Book Blurb (subject to change between now and Publication Date.)

    Nora Grayson never meant to be a criminal.

    Raised by the very people who murdered her parents, Nora’s memory has been shrouded by spell-work and heavy drugs. Sensing that something terrible is in the works, Nora is desperate to uncover the truth of what her caretakers forced her to do, but there are other powers at play both Earthside and in Fairy. When the Vampire Court demands Nora be shackled from her power, she and Constable Elliot Cade must flee. Her only hope rests with the last known Great Wizard, Lady Helle, but reaching the wizard’s tower proves more difficult than either of them imagined.

    Boxed in on all sides, ancient rivalries rush to the surface, and the ocean powers Cade has been hiding from set out to prove that there is nothing more treacherous than the sea in a storm. With options and allies dwindling, and the wizard’s tower far out of reach, Nora faces an impossible choice: clear her own name or save the man she loves.

    Pre-Order Here!

  • Happy Holidays 2024 & The Yearly Wrap-Up

    We’ve made it to the end of 2024!

    It was a rough ride, but we’re here and we’re still kicking.

    What did I get done in 2024?

    Available Now!

    Well, first we had Nora and the Duke of Autumn come out for sale. It came out staggered, with the paperback in April and the digital rights in August, and I learned valuable lessons in this. Basically, you won’t see me do that again. There’s a weirdness in how the publishing dates work with the platform I use, but I’ve adapted and I know how to do it better in 2025.

    Second, I completed Nora and the Siren Song. It is scheduled for release in April 2025 (both paperback & digital) and is already generating reviews with advanced readers.

    Third, I began drafting Nora and the Vampire Court. This book is also scheduled for a 2025 release, but you won’t be seeing it until October. It has several drafts yet to go, and I am nervous as a cat in a tree about making sure all the little plotlines come together in the end.

    Fourth, I began edits for a re-release of previously titled Witch-Born. I still quite love this book, but its publisher sold to another publisher and long story short, I’m getting publishing rights back to it. This is also in the running for 2025 publishing release sometime over the summer. When I know more, you’ll know more.

    Fifth, The Last Child of Winter saw its final revision pass and has been on query for some time now. The querying trenches are brutal and frightening, with long stretches of nothing as you await word from various agents and sudden barrages of rejections that seem to come in rapid succession. I still have hope for this one, but if my next attempt at querying is unsuccessful, I may bring it back to the drafting table.

    All in all, not a bad year.

    I’m excited to say that insofar as orders go for my books, there have been over 500 more orders this year than what I managed to do last year. Which is exciting. Especially since my holiday sale of Nora’s current books won’t hit virtual shelves until the 9th, so that number is bound to go up before the end of the year.

    I am sincerely grateful to everyone who has picked up my books. Whether you liked them or not, I appreciate the time it took. I hope every Reader has a book fort made of their TBR piles, the cozy drink of their choice, and maybe a fuzzy pet to curl up with them as they read.

    Most of all, I hope everyone has a warm, safe holiday and I will see you all in January.

  • Release Shenanigans – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

    I try to alternate weeks between writing posts and book review posts buuuuuut….

    But this week the paperback edition of Nora and the Duke of Autumn was released and so I am going to steal today for shouting my excitement from the rooftops.

    Mood Board – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

    For those just joining us, Nora’s story sparked with a X (then Twitter) conversation about how I loved the concept of Lucifer having a therapist in the show of the same name. Another writer and I were chitchatting about how the characters in our novels all deserved some therapy after what we put them through, and I made the offhand comment about how a lot of the romance couples needed this too.

    Bam.

    Nora’s story was born.

    An empathic wizard living in Boston who provides counseling to the supernatural living amongst us? The possibilities were endless.

    Mood Board – Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

    In the first book, I had a lot of fun introducing the world(s) where Fairy and Earthside coexist and teasing at the deeper lore hidden behind Nora’s ignorance.

    I knew a couple of things walking in. First, I knew I wanted relationships to be highlighted. In Nora and the Werewolf Wedding, we saw several relationships throughout. We saw a bride and her mother, a bride and her groom, a son and his mother, and a grandson and his grandfather, all of which played significant roles in the story.

    In Nora and the Duke of Autumn, we see Nora struggling with her personal relationships, and we see a young son rebelling against his parents, as well as a broken mother and daughter relationship. I don’t want to spoil anything here, so I’m going to be purposefully vague. There are brothers and lovers and friendships throughout the book that Nora is able to influence in some way.

    The second thing I knew walking into this series was that I wanted magic to be hidden in plain sight of humanity. Don’t ask me why, but this story can only exist with the parallel between Earth and Fairy. In Nora and the Werewolf Wedding, we stuck real close to Earthside, but in Duke of Autumn we take that major plunge into the Fairy. Sixty percent of the novel is traipsing through my steampunk version of Fairy, and I had a blast writing it.

    Everything else about the books has grown over time and will likely continue to grow as I delve deeper into the series.

    Mood Board – Nora and the Siren Song

    SPEAKING OF WHICH…

    I am excited to announce that by the end of April, I will have a completed draft of Nora and the Siren Song. (Yes, that’s only a couple of days away. Yes, I am THAT close. Currently I am sitting on the final chapter and the epilogue.)

    So here is me, throwing confetti for the paperback release of Nora and the Duke of Autumn AND finishing the draft of Nora and the Siren Song.

    Come on, 2024, let’s see what else we can get done.

    PURCHASE LINK – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

    PURCHASE LINK – Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

  • The Nitty-Gritty – Writing a Series

    I will preface this blog entry with the reminder that what works for me might not work for others. Writing is an ever-evolving craft wherein I learn something new with every single book. What follows are simply the steps that I’ve found work for me.

    Maybe this will change in a year. Maybe my writing process will remain the beautiful chaos it is now until the day I pass on from this life. I honestly don’t know.

    Let me also say that I never set out to write a SERIES.

    I simply set out to tell a story. Sometimes that story winds up being far bigger than original anticipated, is all.

    The Nora Grayson Series is by far my largest undertaking, and the possibilities for offshoots keep cropping up. Which is either super exciting or daunting, I can’t decide which. Regardless, the fact that it has grown so very large in my head means that I have had to take some serious steps to keep things in line.

    I’ve mentioned the Story Bible before, which for me is a singular notebook that has the outlines, draft notes, and character notes of every book in the series in it. When I say it’s chaos, I mean that it is absolute chaos. There are different shades of ink, there are scribbled notes in the margins, there are highlighted bits and then question marks beside those highlighted bits and timelines and character questions everywhere.

    I pity the man who picks it up and tries to make sense of it.

    For me, however, it is my happy place.

    It’s my Muse at her most free, dallying here and there with tantalizing possibilities. I have no rules for the Story Bible other than I’m concentrating on this one series and no other books. There are, however, what I call KEY pages.

    For instance, I have one KEY page titled: SET IN STONE.

    This seems self-explanatory, but these are the key elements of the story that have already been published. Details go in here that I often need to reference such as Nora’s home address. It is sectioned out between books, so for Werewolf Wedding I have a running list of names for those she met in that book and how they correspond to her and then any unresolved matters that did not get addressed in that particular novel.

    With each new book, the SET IN STONE page grows. For obvious reasons.

    Readers are smart, and I don’t want to upset one by assuming they aren’t going to notice that Delilah’s eyes changed from green to blue between Books One and Three. Or if they do change color, it better make sense in the story.

    Which brings me to the most important part of writing a series…

    Reading.

    Or rather, re-reading. I’m working on these concurrently, so I have an audio version of Werewolf Wedding being narrated to me, am doing final pass edits on Duke of Autumn, am drafting Siren Song, and outlining Winter King. There’s a lot of moving parts. There are a lot of details I don’t want to miss.

    If it looks overwhelming, don’t worry. The fact is, I’m having a blast. I love Nora and these stories and I cannot wait to share them with you. Truthfully, if I am ever not having fun, it normally means I’ve lost sight of the story and need to go back to the Story Bible and flip through it.

    There are a ton more KEY pages in my Story Bible, such as the Compost Dump that I’ve mentioned before. (I still recommend Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass on Writing. You won’t regret it.) But I want to highlight one more before I run off for the day. This KEY page is titled: The Lies They Believe.

    It’s a very evocative title, I know.

    We’ll take Nora for example. MILD SPOILERS INBOUND.

    Werewolf Wedding – The Lies Nora Believes – is that she is a low level empath whose only use is as a counselor. Further, she’s a burden to her Nana Bess and Uncle Martin – especially Uncle Martin. She believes Fairy is a place where criminals and reprobates thrive, that decent people never go there, because this is what Bess and Martin have told her. This lie is reinforced by the fact that her own parents abandoned Fairy before she was born, though they never told her precisely why.

    Why is this page KEY?

    Because by the end of Werewolf Wedding, Nora has to see through these lies, if not confront them.

    Happy Writing!

    Purchase Link – Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

    Pre-Order Link – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

  • The World of Nora Grayson – Setting

    With the second book of the Nora Grayson adventures set to release later this year, a couple of questions have reached me regarding the setting of the novels. This is not your typical Paranormal Romance, nor your typical Urban Fantasy. And I should know, I’ve read plenty of both.

    Nora and the Werewolf Wedding walked the line of Urban Fantasy pretty close. We only left Earthside — That’s the here and now for anyone who hasn’t read the book — and went to a safehouse in Fairy, without actually stepping foot in Fairy itself. Instead we were treated to Boston, Massachusetts and Allegany, New York — albeit it with magical creatures walking about in the daylight.

    Why?

    To be frank, because that’s what my Muse wanted me to do.

    There was an argument early on with my Muse about having this as Urban Fantasy, and in truth it does not really fit the framework of your typical urban fantasy novel. On the one hand, yes, you see magical creatures walking in and amongst humanity in a present world, urban setting. On the other hand, humans have been left wholly alone.

    We don’t have a human — or a character who grew up thinking they were human only to discover they were a fantastical creature in hiding — stumble into the fantasy elements of the book. Nora knows she’s a Bright creature, has known it all her life, and has a basic understanding of what that means.

    In point of fact, Bright creatures have been in hiding from humanity for centuries, and the lore of the novels is such that Fairy was created as a safe haven for Bright creatures to run to if they were in trouble. Also, the urban part of the novel doesn’t last long. By chapter six we’re in the woods, sequestered away from human society so that my werewolf socialites can do… what werewolf socialites like to do best.

    In Nora and the Duke of Autumn, we make a shift toward Fairy. 80% of the novel takes place in Fairy as Nora travels to what is known as the Autumnal Estates, where she and the trusty team from the CEB are investigating the murder of a high born sidhe.

    Does this mean it’s not really an Urban Fantasy anymore?

    Heck if I know.

    I’m just writing the books, you guys can categorize as you see fit.

    I will say that my steampunk loving self had a great deal of fun describing and creating Fairy for this book. The village of Delporte is my favorite, if anyone wants to know.

    Since I am midway through drafting the third book and have a clear image of how the fourth book is meant to go, I can state with confidence that we still bounce between earthside and Fairy at a pretty decent clip. I mean, if you could jump into a body of water and come out the other side in a whole different world, wouldn’t you go for it?

    Purchase Link! Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

    Pre-Order Link! Nora and the Duke of Autumn