A.J. Maguire

Tag: Fantasy Novels

  • 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 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

  • That Listless Place

    A great many changes have occurred over the last couple of years and it seems that they are catching up to me now. The momentum that carried me through several novels has faltered and I find myself scrambling to get words on the page.

    This has, in fact, happened to me before and the only way I was able to drag myself out of it was to do something radical.

    So.

    I have decided to revisit the serial novel.

    For those of you who have been around, you know that Persona – my WWII romance – was done as a serial novel for its first draft. I did this knowing that I would only be allowed to self-publish the novel once it was completed and I have never regretted it. The feedback I got from those who tuned in every week for a chapter was invaluable and the completed/polished novel is better for it.

    Many professionals out there might shake their heads at me, because giving the work out for free limits where it can go in the future, and because writing a novel is such hard work that authors deserve to be paid for it.

    But, I have always said that I write because I love to tell stories. Whether or not they get published isn’t always up to me. What is up to me, and what I constantly strive for, is the improvement of my craft.

    With that in mind, I am happy to announce that The Castle of Three Kings will be available every Tuesday afternoon at Wattpad and a designated blog. I will post links every week, and once I’ve fully edited the manuscript it will be made available in its full form.

    I had a lot of fun with this the last time I did a serial novel, and given the feedback I received in the middle of it all, I think a lot of readers did as well. So! Why not?

    It’s a brave new world, after all.

    (FYI – Chapter One is published and available for your reading pleasure!)

  • Book Release Mayhem!

    UC front cover-sample-2Usurper has made its way to virtual shelves! You can find it on Amazon in both eBook and paperback.

    This is the third installment in the Sedition series that follows Trenna Dyngannon and her husband Nelek as they struggle to find peace between humankind and the Eldur nation.

    Fans of the novels – who may or may not have threatened to hunt me down if I didn’t stop writing other things and finish this book – will be pleased to find Nelek and Trenna in fighting shape. The quirky pair were left in exile in the second book (Saboteur) so I know a lot of you were left hanging.

    In my defense, the reason this book took so long was because I discovered that I was Saboteur-WEBtrying to fit two books into one.

    Why yes, this means there is a fourth book.

    And yes, that book is already underway. It is in the outlining phase and I’ll be rolling up my sleeves to work on it later this year.

    Sedition was my first published work so it holds a special place in my heart. I remember floundering with that first draft, trying to piece together things on 3×5 cards and make a sensible plot out of the personalities on the page.

    Sedition-WEBWell, I remember coming to terms with what a plot was in general. When I started it was just a bunch of characters doing different things that occasionally intersected. It wasn’t until I joined a writers group (The Dreamers from the Forward Motion for Writers website) that I was able to see the work as a bigger picture.

    At the time I had no idea there would be more books coming. Now, as I begin the process of ending this series, there is a part of me that dreads coming to the last page. Trenna and Nelek, and now their children, have become a part of my daily life.

    As strange as it sounds, it will be difficult to say goodbye, no matter how the story ends.