On the Shores of Mystic Island
I’ve always believed in the universe’s serendipitous plan.
Take the fact that I was born on Halloween Eve, a date my mother always said predisposed me to a fascination with the supernatural. As usual, she was right.
While other girls my age were busy playing house and swooning over Shaun Cassidy, my best friend Jacquie and I were racing our bikes through graveyards, hoping to catch a glimpse of a wrinkled old witch or some long-forgotten ghost. The closest we ever came to anything supernatural was finding our birthdates on the tombstones of dead babies.
Looking back, this childhood obsession with otherworldly things wasn’t just a phase. It was research.
Because here I am, decades later, building a world around Annabelle, a centuries-old witch who runs a matchmaking retreat on a mysterious island in the Pacific Northwest.
The inspiration for the magic system in this series came from several places: classic TV shows like Bewitched and Fantasy Island as well as bestselling books such as Practical Magic, A Discovery of Witches, and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. I’m putting my own spin on these magical elements, of course, and it’s been both challenging and exciting to make them uniquely mine.
Each book in the planned five-part series features a different couple over forty on the hunt for love, whether they know it or not. It’s been such delicious torture watching them stumble toward their happily ever after as external and internal forces conspire against them
Yet the star-crossed lovers are only half the fun.
While each soulmate story reaches a definitive conclusion, an adjacent cast of foundational characters provides a consistent thread throughout the series. Alongside Annabelle, you’ll meet her rebellious Aunt Imogen, a cheeky gargoyle, and a loyal wolf companion, all adding their own unique charm to the narrative. I’ve loved bringing these quirky sidekicks to life, and I can’t wait for you to meet them.
The truth is, I'm writing these stories for people like me: Gen-Xers who remember drinking from garden hoses and riding in the back of pickup trucks without triggering a visit from child welfare services. My readers also know that the best love stories don’t come from frilly lingerie or sex marathons 365 days a year. They come from sharing the sweet, sweet magic of everyday life with that special person who truly gets you.
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