The Shadow Towns World

When I first began writing paranormal women’s fiction, I wasn’t sure whether I would enjoy it, or how well it would do. Much to my surprise, it became my favorite genre alongside my urban fantasy. And now, I have written several series within the paranormal women’s fiction genre, and they all sat in the same world. So within these worlds you will see crossovers between characters, ideas, and world rules.

So, what is paranormal women’s fiction?

Simply put, while it’s been around for a long time, the genre hasn’t had an actual name up until a few years ago. Some of the basic tropes and “rules” of the genre are:

1. Main characters who are female and close to or over the age of 40.
2. They can be humorous or serious/funny or ooo-spooky/or some combination of the aforementioned.
3. They tend to be set in contemporary settings that have magical components to the world.
4. They tend to examine issues surrounding aging for women — though usually not as the main focus of the book. There may or may not be romance involved, but there’s always some form of magic.

I quickly realized that my Whisper Hollow series fits in that genre. And when I began to write my Moonshadow Bay series, I also realized that it was set in the same world as Whisper Hollow. So there has been some crossover between the two and there is going to be more. When I started to write my Magic Happens series it made sense to add it to the world as well, because all of these towns are called Shadow Towns. And now that I’m writing Married at First Bite, it is set in the same world as well. I have plans for 1/5 series eventually and it will also be in my Shadow Towns World.

This allows me to build out an entire world, with characters crossing over and meeting each other, all based on the same rules and magical system. It has required me to revise my whisper Hollow series a little bit — and I’m planning to revise it just a little bit more — but that doesn’t change the heart of those books.

And one thing that I love, is this gives me a world in which to play and to grow. I love having all these options, and I love that my readers will get to see correlations between the books, and the characters meeting each other, and all sorts of fun activity like that.

So far, the series within my Shadow Towns World are:
Whisper Hollow
Moonshadow Bay
Magic Happens
Married at First Bite

And below, you will find a map showing where these fictional towns are based in relation to the actual towns in Western Washington. So, while it helps to start each individual series with the first book, you can read the series out of order without any problem. I hope you enjoy reading the world I’ve been creating, as much as I enjoy writing it.