This is a quick post to say that, even though it’s been a while, you can look forward to some news very soon about our next release!
Check in with us again on Tuesday 4th March to find out all about it!
And in the meantime, here is a little recap on what is already out there from the coven:
Two gargoyle romances from Jess – Romancing the Stone, a novella packed with beauty and the beast vibes, and Heart of Stone, the full length novel that kicks off The Grotesque Family series. Epic story and epic enemies to lovers.
Fancy a cosy romance full of tea, magic and meddling teenage witches, set in wonderful Whitby? Kate’s A Blend of Magic is waiting for you to curl up with a brew and a biscuit and indulge.
Want more witches? Emma has two paranormal romcoms out with Orion Fiction. Witch You Weren’t Here, is a second-chance romance on a road trip across Europe, plagued by misbehaving magic, and Careful What You Witch For, sees a fake relationship between grumpy and sunshine while they try to solve a mystery at magical inn in Cornwall.
All the books above are available with Kindle Unlimited!
If you’d love even more recommendations, don’t forget Emma & Jess host the SFFRomCast, a podcast dedicated to celebrating romantasy and all things SFF romance. The latest season is out now, with recent episodes featuring guest author Desiree M Niccoli discussing her newest release, Harlequin’s very first monster romance, Untethering Dark!
I’ve been in love with gothic romance since my mom handed me Jane Eyre at the age of eight, as I was on my way to a week-long summer camp. My memories of that camp itself are pretty blurry by this point, but I still vividly remember lying on the beach by the lake, unconscious of everything else happening around me as I devoured that amazing book (in an incredible, hardcover library edition with gold-gilded pages – just luscious all round).
As it happens, I’ve also loved historical rom-coms and fantasy ever since my dad read me both Pride and Prejudice and The Lord of the Rings. So it’s no surprise to anyone that I grew up to absolutely love writing gothic fantasy rom-coms of my own! It’s just such a deliciously fun combination. Take a spooky, looming castle (or isolated manor house) with a sinister owner for gothic atmosphere… Add all the snappy banter, frothy fun, and heartfelt emotions of a rom-com… Finish off by tossing magic into the mix and I’m a happy writer!
In my latest stand-alone novella, A Marriage of Undead Inconvenience, my heroine Margaret finds herself unwillingly married off to a stranger she’s never met and transported to his isolated manor house, just like any good gothic heroine (all the way back to Beauty and the Beast). Making him even more potentially dangerous, her new husband is a vampire – but Margaret is no swooning ingénue, ready to flee in a white nightgown from the Dark Mysteries! Instead, she’s a brilliant scholar who’s every bit as grumpy and fierce as her new husband (despite her lack of fangs). She’s furious at her unreasonable new situation, and she’s ready to do whatever it takes to free herself and get back to the familiar comfort of her university’s research library. As soon as she realizes that she’s not the only one in her new marriage who was trapped in it through blackmail, she’s ready to drag her snarky (but irritatingly attractive), centuries-old husband out of his dreary isolation and send them racing together across the country in search of a supernatural gemstone that can fix both of their problems…
…But only if they don’t fall in love along the way!
The great thing about playing with our favorite ingredients from lots of different genres is that we can mix them all up into unique new recipes. I had so much fun writing my grumpy-grumpy couple for this novella, subverting some of my favorite tropes and fairy tales and chortling along the way. I hope you’ll have fun reading about them if you give A Marriage of Undead Inconvenience a try! (You can purchase a copy by following this link!)
And I’d really love to hear about any of your own favorite literary combinations.
Stephanie Burgis grew up in Michigan (USA), but now lives in Wales with her husband and two kids, surrounded by mountains, castles and coffee shops. She writes sparkling fantasy rom-coms, including the Regency Dragons series, the Harwood Spellbook series, and the upcoming Queens of Villainy trilogy. You can find excerpts from all of her novels and novellas (and links to many of her short stories) at her website: www.stephanieburgis.com
Our very own Kate Kenzie has a short story in this fantasy anthology, along with nineteen other awesome authors! Take a look below to find out more and order a copy!
Every action has a consequence, some good, some less so, others of pure darkness…
Step into a fantastical world where every choice reverberates with magic, shaping destinies in wondrous and terrifying ways. Curated by W.A. Leggatt, SC Gowland and G.M. White, this anthology explores the profound impact of the choices we make. Featuring 20 stories by bestselling and award-winning authors:
– Alex Weight
– Andrew Chapman
– Andrew Guile
– Emmanuella Dekonor
– G B Ralph
– G.M. White
– Gareth Lewis
– Jocelyn Sordoni
– Julian Barr
– JW Atkinson
– Karen Storey
– Kate Baker
– Kate Kenzie
– Mark Stay
– Morgan Delaney
– Richie Janukowicz
– SC Gowland
– Tommy Wills
– Trey Montague
– W.A. Leggatt
From surprises in hessian sacks, pubs run by stone golems, a curious packed lunch, questionable drink choices, to copper urns (best avoided), dogs in space, horrifying boarding schools, families torn apart by war, brooding strangers and suspicious jars of marmalade.
Discover drama, treachery, love and the unpredictable, and often astonishing outcomes of our actions. Each tale in ‘The Law of Consequences’ reveals the delicate balance between destiny and free will, light and shadow. Enter with an open mind…
Now, this might not seem like much of a thing to some people. And I’ll hold my hands up and say it wasn’t much of one to me when I was a more a reader than a writer. A good book was a good book, and that was all I needed to warm my cockles.
But, when I picked up that pen, or switched on the old laptop, wanting to bring to life one the stories bouncing around in my head, things definitely become a lot more complicated.
I dabbled in third person a lot at the beginning, it was what I’d predominantly remembered seeing in books before, so it just made sense to follow their lead. But when I tried to write a character that had been crushed to their very core when someone they believed loved them tore that love away, I felt like an outsider looking in. While creating my own story, I struggled to make it feel right. And that didn’t make any sense to me.
So, I stepped away from my computer, not knowing what wasn’t working. Why could someone else create such powerful emotions, with such accuracy, and I couldn’t make it work for me when it was my words going on the page?
There was a lot of soul searching, and imposter syndrome chatter, too (though that seems to never want to leave!) but even though the words weren’t flowing onto the page, the voices were still rambling on in my head.
Then, I had a coffee and cake day with a writer friend, and she mentioned tweaking the POV. Maybe giving it a different perspective might help me get the words out. And you know what? Within a few days I’d filled a notebook with a first person POV fanfic featuring The Winter Soldier. Judge me all you want, but we all know Bucky is much more tempting than Cap will ever be.
And it didn’t stop there. Other ideas flowed. I’d be at the gym or doing the school run, going over scenarios in my head. And when the pen hit paper, it started to make sense. And then I needed to add wings, because I always need to have something a little extra.
But that was it for me, I need to realise my stories were more character-based, and I needed that step closer to engage more with how I wanted their journey to go. Perhaps if I had something more plot-based, I’d change it up again and see how that goes.
Now, I know this is just me and that some writers don’t want to write in first person, as it can get too deep and intrusive when getting through those dark nights of the soul (Gwen Hayes, we love you), and that’s all good. I love a good third person, and will keep reading them until they are pried from my cold, dead fingers. But for me, I need to get inside the action, grab my magnifying glass and really get involved in what’s happening.
And if anyone wants to come and have a chat with me about second person POVs? Then that will be an entirely different, and much longer blog post. But I’m here for it!
People have been telling stories about magical creatures and different worlds for centuries. Those stories have been passed down to us as fairytales, folk tales and folklore. Some of these tales relate to a specific place; others tell of fairies, ghosts, werewolves and (always a favourite) the devil.
When I started writing my first novel, ‘Beltane’ which is set in Glastonbury I read the stories associated with Glastonbury and the Tor. I didn’t really know what I was doing back then. I was looking for something but I wasn’t sure what. As I delved deeper, I found a rich tapestry of folklore and folktales which had been woven about this place which people have long felt was mystical. I felt a real connection to these stories and I knew I wanted them to be part of the novel.
I also drew on the traditions around Beltane which is the celebration of May Day in the Celtic Wheel of the Year. Beltane is time to celebrate the fertility of the earth as spring blooms. I took that idea of regeneration with spring and gave it a darker twist in the book. I had a lot of fun reading up on Beltane celebrations (of which Glastonbury has a spectacular one.)
Beginning to write ‘Storm Witch’ (the follow-up to ‘Beltane’), I had a better idea what I was doing. The book is set in Orkney and I immersed myself in the stories and folklore of the islands. I discovered a tale from the seventeenth century about a girl who was accused of being a witch. The girl, Janet Sinclair, was believed to be able to control the elements and summon storms. That became the kernel of the idea for ‘Storm Witch’ – what would you do if you had the power to control the elements but couldn’t control your powers?
These folklore and folktales have become a vivid source of magic in my books. For me, these stories are a way of looking beyond the modern world and connecting with a way of thinking that’s more open to enchantment.
In February I went to the ‘Fantasy: Realms of the Imagination’ exhibition at the British Library and I also attended some of the online talks about the exhibition. From one of those, I heard Terri Wilding talk about the importance of roots in fantasy writing. She shared examples from her own writing and talked to Alan Lee who illustrated ‘The Lord of the Rings’. He explained how he’d used places close to his home in Dartmoor in the illustrations for TLOTR. It was remarkable seeing how a particular Dartmoor crag found its way into a drawing of Middle-Earth. Terri Wilding closed the talk by saying ‘Fantasy needs to have roots’.
Thinking about it afterwards I realised this is very important to me, not only in my writing, but also when I read fantasy. The best fantasy book I’ve read in years is ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree’ which is rooted in many different cultures and is wonderfully rich because of it. On the other hand, if the world the author has created doesn’t feel rooted then I struggle to believe in it. It also impacts on the characters. If the world feels two-dimensional then how can I as a reader understand and relate to the challenges the world is throwing at the characters (or care how they deal with them).
I’m not suggesting that all fantasy worlds should be based on fairytales or folktales. That’s my go-to but then I’m a folklore obsessive! But fantasy worlds do need to be rooted in something: whether that’s place, history or something else entirely.
For anyone writing romantasy you’ve got to deliver a fantasy world and a romance that keeps the reader turning the pages. There’s only so much space in a novel (even in a series of novels) and worldbuilding can take up a lot of your word count. There’s a benefit then in rooting your fantasy world in something you and your readers are familiar with. Feel free to play with it, expand it or take it in unexpected directions but stay true to those roots. Your readers want to enter a world that feels real. A place where they can imagine walking through its forests and dancing in its castles. Those specific details are a lot easier to create if you’ve got strong roots for the world you’ve created.
Once you’ve got that world then you can send your main characters out to meet, fight, make up and fall in love in it. And that’s when the fun really start to happen!
Bio: Alys West writes contemporary fantasy and steampunk. She’s the author of Beltane, Storm Witch and The Dirigible King’s Daughter. She lives in Yorkshire but loves to travel especially to Scottish islands. Her stories grow out of places and the tales which people tell about places. Her work draws on her own experience of surviving trauma but always with the possibility of a hopeful ending.
Alys has a MA in Creative Writing from York St John University and teaches creative writing for RNA Learning and the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of York. She runs Green Man Words which provides entoring and developmental edits to early stage authors.
When she’s not writing you can find her at folk gigs, doing yoga and attempting to crochet. She occasionally blogs at www.alyswest.com, intermittently tweets at @alyswestyork and spends rather too much time on Facebook where you can find her at Alys West Writer. She is also on Instagram at @alyswestwriter. To keep up with Alys’s news you can join her Facebook readers’ group ‘Druids, Spellworkers and Dirigibles’.
Right now I’m finding myself in a weird limbo that I think quite a few writers (and honestly all people) fall into once a big project you’re involved in has come to an end. I’ve not long finished my edits for my second book in the Grotesque series and I’m all up to date on things with admin, life, and all the things relating to the kids.
So what do I do now?
In a section of my house I have a pile of notebooks that can easily cover any of the four other people who live with me, if they should run out between now and December. There is another pile filled with ideas and characters that I would love to write, but up until now I’ve not had the time. I also have Ryley and Kasper, whose story needs putting out into the world, so my trilogy can come to its end. There are also even more ideas in my head too, that haven’t even met the pages of the notebooks yet.
But, for some reason, I’m sat here procrastinating. Typing this up rather than doing any of those writer type things. And the question I can hear you all ask is, why?
And the only thing that comes to mind is fear. Writing ‘The End’ on 85,000 words, and a good six months of my life, felt fantastic. But now comes the time when you have to stare at that blank page and remember how hard getting those first few 100 words down actually is.
Is my first line catchy enough? Does it draw the reader in and set the scene? Am I starting this book in the right place? Or could the MC actually manage this moment alone, and the next bit of their journey is where things need to kick off?
And the biggest one that always shouts the loudest in my head? Am I good enough to do this?
From what I’ve seen, even those with 25 novels under their belt still have this ‘hmm’ moment where they tap their chin as they stare at that tiny cursor, that innocently sits blinking at them while it waits for inspiration to strike.
Now, while putting this together I’ve actually found an answer to the question in the title, and it’s an odd one because it kind of contradicts a chunk of what I’ve written.
I put it to another writer.
Now, this person has given me a list of things that I could do, and narrowed them down to where I’m at with my day and how long I have, how I’m feeling. And, of course, it all makes sense.
So, it appears that writers are fantastic individuals, who have muse like qualities when it comes to all things in the world. So, if you ever need help, find yourself a writer.
Unless it’s finding out about their next book. With that, you’re on your own!
Today is the cover reveal for my witchy romcom, Careful What You Witch For, due for publication with Orion Fiction in autumn this year. I’m lucky that my editor keeps me in the loop and asks me to get involved in the design brief. It went back and forth between marketing and the designers a few times because the original idea to have pink and other layout aspects made marketing concerned it would look too YA. I totally appreciated this, as I wouldn’t want to try to sell an adult romance book to the Young Adult audience. I’ve been fairly horrified lately that some book shops near me seem to be connecting the dots between Tik Tok being a young persons platform and the romance novels popular on it and therefore shelving books in their YA sections which really shouldn’t be!
Now, I’m not a censorship type of person at all – I was reading adult books by the time I was ten, as a lot of bookworms I know tend to. And, to be perfectly honest, if a young adult got hold of Careful What You Witch For, I wouldn’t be worried about them being traumatised. I write romances that focus on characters over-coming emotional issues and building healthy relationships. Yes, there is sex – but consent is important, and it’s a part of life. Better to see an example of enthusiastic consent in a book, than stumbling across Andrew Tate on the aforementioned TikTok. But, I do also think it’s important for adults to be aware of what media their kids are consuming and be on standby to talk with them about things that might crop up that they’re uncomfortable with – so shelving books in the appropriate area of a shop seems a no-brainer. There’s an element of trust involved and it gives adults a steer if they’re buying for their kids.
All this did get me wondering about cartoon covers and their creep into fantasy romance. They’ve been popular for a while in contemporary romance, and I’ve seen a few in historical romance too, but the rising interest in cosy and contemporary romantasies seems to be pulling the trend into the sub-genre too. What do you think of them? Do you have any favourites? Or do you miss the days when there was a brooding man and a badass woman model on the cover? Does a cartoon cover automatically make you think the contents will be more light-hearted or low-spice? I’d love to know your thoughts. And here’s my cover in case anyone wants to see! (It’s available for pre-order here)
“I don’t know what’s happened to me! I’m obsessed!”
A dear friend said that recently in a very bewildered tone, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She’s an avid bookworm but up until now, tended to steer clear of genre romance, especially paranormal.
That all changed when she was gifted a Kindle and read my monster romance novellas. Afterwards, Amazon recommended similar books to her, and she was quickly hooked. Vampires, shifters, orcs, she’s trying them all. Her most recent five star read involved a beast king (yes, I have requested more details!) and her dismay when she found out the next one in the series wasn’t published yet was relatable, to say the least.
So, what is it about fantasy and paranormal romance that puts readers in a chokehold? Part of its charm is its unparalleled ability to depict the sheer scope of human emotion, from the darkest of themes to the funniest, most light-hearted moments. Whatever you’re going through, there will be a supernatural romance that will help you cope with it, or forget about it, at least temporarily. Whether it’s the adventures of a werewolf motorcycle gang, an ancient vampire falling for the kickass hunter stalking them, a tension-filled wedding in a fae court, a grumpy gargoyle falling for a sunshiny human, or a demon uttering the immortal line “who did this to you?” – you name it, we’ve got it. And if spice is your thing? Whatever you’re into, I guarantee we can satisfy. Prefer mild heat, or none at all? Don’t worry, we’ve got that too!
Another appealing aspect of monster, paranormal and fantasy romance is the sense of security it invokes. The guaranteed Happy Ever After helps with this, of course, but oddly enough, so do the big bad monsters in the stories. But why? We should be terrified the moment they step on to the page. Our fight or flight instincts are there for a reason, after all. The monster is the enemy, that terrible thing we fear in the dark. Yet in the stories, we see them desiring the main character, wanting to shield them from danger and gain their love. And when the main character feels safe, so do we, the readers. We can escape from our world, lose ourselves in one where we’re protected by the monstrous entities we’re supposed to fear, and live the characters’ Happy Ever Afters right alongside them. That sounds pretty appealing to me.
Vicky Walklate writes spicy monster and fantasy romance. Links to her series can be found via her website, https://www.vickywalklatebooks.com/
Jessica and I recently completed drafts of the second novels in our respective series (yes, that means readers are a little bit closer to the second instalment in the Grotesques series).
We’d spent a some time commiserating over the trickiness of writing stories with a brand new couple, but where the events from Book 1 are still playing out. How much recap within the story is too much? Should it be written for the reader who has walked in at Book 2 and knows nothing because they either didn’t realise there was a Book 1 or just didn’t fancy it (some people are mood readers. Yes, I’m talking about me. Sorry, not sorry).
It got me reflecting on the fact that fantasy romance readers probably occupy a more flexible space when it comes to the expectations of a series.
The fantasy side of the genre is very used to long series, usually with a large cast of characters, travelling around a huge world, and the story unfolding from each of their different points of view. If fantasy readers are lucky, all the time they invest will come to an epic conclusion (cough-cough GRRM) but ultimately they know it’s a long game. And if there is the promise of a romance, a touch of a hand, one stolen kiss, or exchange of love letters might be enough to satisfy them over the space of multiple books as they eagerly await a satisfying climax (again, sorry not sorry).
But romance tends to approach it differently. Readers still love immersing themselves in a world populated by a big family or friend group, and they enjoy revisiting the town, or workplace, or university where those characters make themselves at home – but they want a satisfying HEA/HFN to their love interest’s story. And so we have the interconnected stand-alone. You can pick them up halfway through the series and it shouldn’t matter. You get that couple’s story in entirety, and if you read on in the series, they’ll probably pop up in a cameo, displaying their joyful status and tormenting the new main characters as they writhe in their (often imagined) unrequited agony.
But fantasy romance can juggle either of these scenarios. It can have a building plot line playing out behind several couples individual love stories – like Nalini Singh’s, PsyChangeling series – or it can follow the ups and downs of one couple as they take a one-step forward two-steps back approach, while dealing with an outside threat, like Ilona Andrew’s, Hidden Legacies. I think both are awesome in their own ways.
When it comes to fantasy romance series, what do you prefer? And can we all agree that a recap of previous books at the start of each instalment would really help?
With Valentine’s Day yesterday, I was pondering when my love affair with paranormal romance began. I could say it was Beauty and the Beast but it was never a fairytale I loved as a kid. Nor was it the relationship between King Arthur and Guinevere with the fantasy backdrop of Camelot. It was an amalgamation of my love of romances and horror.
Being an 80s kid, teenage romances were just becoming available in the form of Sweet Valley High and Sweet Dreams series. They were addictive and more relatable than the Mills and Boons books I borrowed from my mum. I loved the compulsory HEA, but I also had an obsession with the ghost stories and the paranormal. To fulfil this side of my reading preferences, I relied on horror books. Thank goodness my local librarians didn’t worry about age restrictions then. My teenage library book stash was regularly an eclectic mix of Jessica and Elizabeth’s sweet adventures and Stephen King or Dean Koontz. Both genres distinctly separate until The Changeover by Margaret Mahy published in 1986.
I remember buying it through the scheme. I ticked the box on the order leaflet and then had to wait forever for the book to arrive at school. The storyline was a blend of horror, demonic procession and the attraction between Laura Chant and Sorensen Carlisle, a brooding teenage witch.
I reread it umpteen times and it still holds chills, thrills, and charm, even now. With paranormal romance, the dangers and conflicts are heightened by magic, paranormal threat and positives enhanced. Why have just a kiss when witchcraft can produce stars in jars with unmeasurable power or a ghost’s love can extend beyond a lifetime?
While Point Horror books in the 90s touched on relationships, the next novel to cement my love of the genre was Barbara’s Erskine’s Lady of Hay where reincarnation and time travel was entwined into an epic historical novel. Kelley Armstrong’s The Otherworld series were the first commercial urban fantasy books I read. Full of danger and sizzling romances between witches, werewolves, vampires and demons, I knew this was the genre I wanted to write in. It allows the author’s imagination to thrive because anything is possible. From magical tea in A Blend of Magic to sexy Gargoyles who can fly in Jessica Haines, Heart of Stone romance isn’t constrained to reality. Mythic Alley books hope to capture the genre’s diversity and share it with you.
What was the first paranormal/fantasy romance you read?
Mythic Alley 