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This year I tried a new kind of shared worlds writing – one common paranormal element. I loved having Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries tying the series books together.
In these stories, the magical, mystical carnival moves between worlds, changing to fit its environment, while many facets, including owner Errante Ame and most of the acts, remain constant from setting to setting.
The creative part was that the carnival adapts to any setting, whether it’s the alternate universe now-modern-world of my Magic Burning, or the time span of Kim Fielding’s Crow’s Fate, or the established magical setting of Megan Derr’s Night-Blooming Hearts set firmly in her Dance with the Devil series (and best if you’ve read those), or the stand-alone contemporary of LA Witt’s Step Right Up or Ander C Lark’s after-death Go for the Company. Same carnival, very different settings.
In this way, it was unique from other shared-worlds books I’ve done, where the cooperative setting forced the stories to be more alike.
This was fun!
I loved being able to play around with the carnival, using the carousel and fortune teller from the series guide, but borrowing a telekinetic fish midway game from LA Witt. And yet, not having to sacrifice my vision of the Necromancer world, sixty years after Marked by Death, to accommodate the rules.
Magic Burning includes:
– A match-making and self-assured mini-parrot familiar, who’s a hundred years old but loves the Internet.
– A closeted all-human firefighter with a huge and not always gay-friendly family.
– A young, Thai-American teacher with poorly controlled magical powers, trying to keep his elderly mentor safe.
– A fire elemental who’s happiest in the middle of a burning blaze.
– A pair of magical red doll shoes.
Some things have changed in this book, since the 1960s of Darien, Silas, Grim and Pip, but a lot remains the same (and they show up in a cameo to prove it). The Great Spell still protects sorcerers from the human world.
The common element ties this series together enough to be fun, and yet each of us used it differently. Tomorrow, EJ Russell’s book Assassin by Accident will release and I’m looking forward to it, and more to come.
And already, Ari McKay, one of the series organizers is saying “what about if we tried something different next year…?”
I’d be on board for that. 🙂
– Kaje Harper
August 2023