Supernatural Cities: Timber Ridge

In Pack of Dawn and Destiny, the city of Timber Ridge itself is practically a character due to how important the city itself is to Pip, Greyson, and the harmony between wolves and humans. That harmony is a big deal in the book, so I knew I needed to make sure that scenes in the city counted, so you could feel the difference between it and other normal cities–or even Magiford itself. I attempted to achieve that by filling it with interesting characters like Mayor Pearl, and by being very purposeful in the kind and stores, shops, and restaurants I showed.

I started by focusing on attempting to put a northern Wisconsin atmosphere in it. There’s a region in Wisconsin called Door County (in the map below, it’s the red part.) Door county is a popular tourist area since it pokes into Lake Michigan. The area is filled with Bed and Breakfast homes, beaches, cherry orchards, wineries, parks, and more.

What’s unique about Door County is that it’s exactly that, a county. There’s lots of little cities in Door County, and equally small cities on the lake that are clustered near Door County but not quite in it.

A few years ago I traveled to area just south of Door County, and explored cities like Manitowoc, and Green Bay, but it was the smaller cities–like Two Rivers and Algoma–that really captured the feeling I wanted for Timber Ridge. The smaller cities in Door County and the area just south of it have more of a traditional Wisconsin vibe with their excessive amounts of bars and churches, but each town also have very specific, tourist-friendly places. For instance, every city has a café, and typically one diner, and a “supper club” in addition to the bars–which, yes, most bars in Wisconsin serve fish fries on Fridays! Most cities will also typically have a bowling ally–or one within a 20 minute drive–and most libraries tend to be right on, if not close to, the town’s main street.

Despite being clustered together, each city has a unique spin–some have ice cream parlors, small museums, or huge parks with walking trails. The idea for the Timber Ridge Welcome center was partially inspired by a welcome center in the town of Algoma, and by another location I’ll mention shortly!

I modeled downtown Timber Ridge–with its park, Town Hall, Welcome Center, library, café, and other eateries–after the smaller Wisconsin cities in the area. However, a lot of the theming and more tourist-friendly locations the wolves came up with were inspired by another Wisconsin city–one much larger, and located in south central Wisconsin: Wisconsin Dells.

Wisconsin Dells is another huge tourist city with its many water parks, amusement park, forest reserves, **mini golf**, and lakes that provide space for entertainment like water skiing, canoeing, and the Wisconsin Dells Ducks. The Door County area is more beach focused since it’s on Lake Michigan, but Wisconsin Dells–despite being in southern Wisconsin–has more of the log-cabin/up-north feel to it. (There’s a literal Paul Bunyan themed restaurant which has been around so long, I went to it as a kid!)

I borrowed the more rustic feeling of Wisconsin Dells when coming up with the insides of my Timber Ridge buildings–specifically the Welcome Center and Howl-In Cafe. But while the town of Algoma inspired the Timber Ridge welcome center, Wisconsin Dells inspired the giftshop inside the center, as well as the never seen Sweets Shoppe.

Wisconsin Dells has a famous candy store called Goody Goody Gumdrop, and more themed giftshops than I could prepare you for. (The boggling number of giftshops was incredibly useful to me when I needed to come up with ideas of inventory for the Timber Ridge Welcome Center gift shop!) Some of the giftshops also sell fudge, truffles, and other sweet treats that are made right there in the shop–which inspired more than a few conversation topics for the visiting Night Court Fae.

You can also see the Wisconsin Dells influence in the Northern Lakes Wolves’ camp-style compound with the small cottages and giant main lodge that’s built out of timber and decorated in a matching, rustic fashion.

And there you have it–the inspiration for Timber Ridge! This city was so much fun to dream up–particularly because I’m very familiar with the area. Confession time, I set Magiford in the Midwest–which is a pretty unlikely place for urban fantasy novels–because it’s the only  area I can reliably describe. Also, I have some speech patterns, sayings, etc that are part of my Midwestern accent and I don’t even know they exist, so I was very aware that even if I researched the heck out of other areas, my characters would still sound midwestern, so…ta da!

I hope you enjoyed learning about Timber Ride! Until next time, thanks for reading!

Character Profiles: The Bedevilments

Today we’re taking a look at two of Pack of Dawn and Destiny‘s most cantankerous characters: Prince and Princess. I’m thrilled to share with you that these troublesome siblings are real. In fact, just about everything they do to Pip, the real life Prince and Princess have done to their owners–or, as I’m sure they see them–their staff. With that, please allow me to introduce you to the Bedevilments.

To start out, yes, Prince and Princess are full blooded siblings from the same litter of kittens. Prince is the one sitting on the arm of the chair, while Princess is sitting on the seat….I think. I can’t actually tell this duo apart when they’re not together, but their owners can! Who are their lucky humans, you might be wondering? Why, it’s Rock-Star-Assistant-Meg, and her hubby.

Meg got these siblings several years ago as fuzzy kittens, and while they adore her husband and tolerate Meg, they find the general populace–like myself–pretty distasteful.

Just like in the book, Prince and Princess have had health issues that requires special cat food. Each one needs a different kind of food, which can make feeding times all sorts of interesting as for the longest time they kept trying to eat each other’s food which would make them sick. And yes, at one point Princess did need butt cream that Meg had to apply to her daily. Neither of them were happy about that arrangement.

These siblings also love to use their litterboxes while Meg is cleaning them out, and they rule Meg’s home with an iron paw so even the dogs fear them–which is what inspired PoDaD’s Prince and Princess general disdain for werewolves.

The scene where Pip ruthlessly beats down an Alpha because she thought Prince was in danger was even inspired by real life events. Two coyotes once had a fight on Meg’s porch, just outside her front door on her porch. Meg was convinced they were attacking Prince, so she slammed the door open to discover the coyotes were on her front mat. The coyotes ran off, but they’d scratched each other during the fight and gotten blood on the porch, so a terrified Meg thought for sure they’d harmed Prince. She went tearing outside, and thankfully found him in the barn–sour faced and grumpy because she’d woken him from a nap.

But, I can’t just complain about them, because Prince and Princess aren’t all bad. Despite their sour temperaments, they are actually quite kind in the ways they’ll let you pick them up and cradle them, and they don’t bite/scratch even if you kiss the tops of their heads. (No, they’re way too conniving for that kind of simple retribution.) Princess has the softest fur, and although for a while they were really fat, Meg valiantly worked to slim them down, so they’re now a healthy weight. They’re friendly enough that they’ll bound around the yard with Meg, and they generally like to see what she’s doing and enjoy inspecting new visitors.

In conclusion, the real life Prince and Princess are very much like a typical cat in their ability to be gentle/loving, and their spiteful cat games. Thanks for reading, Champions! I hope you enjoyed learning more about Prince and Princess!

What’s Coming for Magiford?

With the bad news out of the way, it’s time to keep up the fun! I’ve got more Pack of Dawn and Destiny coming your way for the rest of April, but I thought now was an ideal time to talk about what’s coming for Magiford in the future.

I’m going to stick to my plan of one Magiford trilogy approximately every 12 months, so you can expect to see the next trilogy later this year, probably with a December launch for book 1. Regardless of the exact month it launches, that series will finish in early 2023. I have no concrete release days yet–a lot of it is going to depend on my health issues and how everything shakes out.

But I’m pretty certain that the biggest question on all of your minds is who will the next trilogy be about? The fun news: you’ve seen her already! In fact, she’s been mentioned in all three series–though in Hall of Blood and Mercy she made her appearance in an extra, not an actual book.

There’s quite a few characters that show up in the series, so to help you narrow it down, here’s a few more clues! The extra she appears in is “Sincerely House Medeis,” while she’s mentioned in The Queen’s Crown from Court of Midnight and Deception. Finally, she makes an appearance in both United and Fated in Pack of Dawn and Destiny.

Have I stumped you? Here’s a final clue: our new Magiford heroine doesn’t appear in a human shape…

If you connected the dots and realized that there is a black cat that appears in all of the instances I listed above, congratulations, you’ve uncovered our new heroine!

To be specific, our new heroine is the black cat that House Medeis throws at Killian, and she’s the same black cat that the Night Court Fae Lords attempt to domesticate so they can “properly celebrate” Leila’s Pet Appreciation Day. She’s also the black cat that Pip sees who gets chased by Curia Cloister gargoyles in United, and then by the Pack in Fated.

She is unnamed as of yet–I’m trying to decide how badly I want her name to be a pun–but I’ve got her story, magic, and cast of characters all fleshed out!

I think you Champions will like her. She’s a bundle of anxiety since she’s far down on the Magiford pecking order and has gotten harassed a lot, but she’s a brave and determined soul. Despite her ability to turn into a cat, she is 100% human–which should tell you just how strange her magic is! Sadly, her unusual magic has caused a lot of problems in her life, and there’s a reason why she always shows up in Magiford books alone and terrified.

Still, she’s funny, and her crew is hilarious, so I can’t wait for you to meet her!

This new heroine will reveal more about what the Paragon is searching for, so you’ll see him heaps more in her trilogy. You’ll also get some glimpses of characters from other Magiford trilogies and–another fun hint–her romantic interest has been mentioned before! (Specifically in Leila’s series.)

Like Hall of Blood and Mercy–which was vaguely inspired by the creepy fairy tale of Donkeyskin–Cat Girl’s trilogy also has a myth at the heart of her story. It’s so loose it won’t be a true retelling, but you’ll be able to see the hints and similar structure, just as you could with Hall of blood and Mercy with donkeyskin. Cat girl’s myth is……drum roll please….Hades and Persephone!

Hades and Persephone was one of my favorite Greek myths to read as a kid–and, frankly, it’s one of the only myths I feel like I can retell without having to send my characters to therapy in the story. (I thought fairy tales were bad? HAH!) I’m looking forward to this trilogy because there are so many interesting aspects of Hades and Persephone to explore. (And adjust. Because, spoiler, I don’t do Stockholm syndrome romances.)

But if you want to take anything away from that myth reveal…I’d say it’s safe to assume Cat Girl’s main male character is pretty dang powerful. 😉

So Cat Girl’s series will be out late this year/early 2023, but what comes after that?

I’ll be writing another “spin off” trilogy (I say “spin off” because it doesn’t have anything to do with the Paragon’s goal) that will launch at the end of 2023 and finish in early 2024. That trilogy will follow the adventures of Jade–the vampire slayer who was hired to be a part of a Curia Cloister task force. (You met Jade during a Regional Committee of Magic meeting in The Queen’s Crown, but she showed up again briefly in Pack of Dawn and Destiny’s Fated!)

Jade’s trilogy will focus more on the Curia Cloisters and what’s going on there since it’s where she works!

I’m not entirely sure what will come after those two trilogies. I have plans for a couple others, but I don’t know what order to tackle them in. Honestly, it will probably depend on you Champions!

In the meantime, we still have some Timber Ridge/Northern Lakes Pack fun ahead of us for the rest of April, so stay tuned and thanks for reading!