It's fairly common knowledge among my readers that I write under multiple pen names. What isn't so common knowledge is that some of my stories across those pen names share the same story world, in this case the Sunshine Walkingstick Series (Celia Roman) and the Cullowhee Witches Series (Lucy Varna).

The Cullowhee Witches Series came first and began life as the Witches of Cullowhee Series, which never generated much enthusiasm. I rebranded the covers for both books and republished them under a new series name, Cullowhee Heritage. The stories still fell flat with readers, so I unpublished the first book and eventually republished it with brand new branding under the third and final series name, where it stands now.

When Sunshine came along, I knew immediately that she belonged to the same story world, but it wasn't because of anything she did.

No, I knew where she belonged because the Cullowhee Witches weren't the first of my stories to be set in that story world.

Meet Tludatsi

Many, many moons ago, when I was still dreaming of writing fiction, I penned the first few scenes of a story called "Welcome." In it, Brian Shuler moves to the mountains of western North Carolina to work at a local university. He rents a cabin from Charlie Wilnotty, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee who works as a Tribal police officer.

Now, there's a lot of backstory here that I'm not going to get into, but the salient points are these. First, I figured "Welcome" would be a full-length Fantasy or Paranormal Romance, like the Cullowhee Witches stories. I'll explain in a minute why that's probably wrong.

Second, the lead female, Brian's love interest, is Charlie's sister, Sarah, who is...wait for it...a two-natured shifter, Tludatsi.

Yup, that's totally where I got the idea for Sunny's kinship to the Panther Clan.

No, wait, let me back up. I got the idea first from an old Cherokee myth called "The Underground Panthers." (See History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees by James Mooney.) For fans of Sunny, this is the same myth she discusses in The Deep Wood, the series' second novel.

I abandoned "Welcome" with the hope of coming back to it eventually, after the Cullowhee Witches Series came to an end. The latter was supposed to be a four book series, minimum, but readers just didn't like them, so they went the way of the dodo, too.

What's Wrong with the Cullowhee Witches?

After the second Cullowhee Witches book fell flat and a second edition of the first book failed to revive interest in the series, I knew I had gone wrong somewhere. The problem was, I didn't know exactly what I'd done wrong. The first book lacked the magical oomph readers of Fantasy Romance expect. That's true enough. But the second book was pretty damn solid from word one to the end.

It took Sunny to help me figure out where I went wrong. Or rather, it took a chance reader comment to point me in the right direction.

Last year, I wrote a blog post called "The Problem with Sunshine." I received a ton of comments on that post from Sunny's fans, but one in particular sparked a shift in the way I think about this story world. The comment was made by Barbara J., part of which reads:

Your heart for her and the complexity puts your books into the realm of magical realism-not that there is anything wrong with urban fantasy/paranormal whatever.

That comment has been worming its way through my brain for the past three months or so. I began investigating Magical Realism as a genre. If you're not familiar with the term (and I wasn't, exactly), here's an excellent definition given by author Susan Bishop Crispell on Women's Fiction Writers:

At its core, magical realism involves a story based in the world as we know it (whether historical or modern times) with touches of magic that are seamlessly woven into the characters, setting, and plot. Instead of being created and summoned via spells and incantations as in fantasy novels, the magic in magical realism is simply there, occurring naturally in the world without an explanation of how or why. The characters carry out their normal lives, working and having families and falling in love. But they also accept the magic and believe in it without question. That’s where the magic and the realism blend together.

That's exactly where I went right with Sunshine Walkingstick and exactly where I went wrong with the Cullowhee Witches. I let Sunny's world develop naturally; the magic is an intrinsic, undeniable, and very mundane part of her world. But in the Cullowhee Witches books, I tried to force the story into the Romance formula...when I was writing Magical Realism all along.

Turst me, that was a huge "well, duh" moment for me, but look. Authors do their best to figure out where their work belongs, how to categorize it and whatnot, but even we fall short sometimes. If I could have a do-over with the Cullowhee Witches, I would totally rewrite the stories to focus more on the earthly, natural magic imbued within the characters and less on the Romance.

But the stories are written now and they're fine stories as they stand. That doesn't mean I can't have a do-over, of sorts.

What? Wait, what???

Thing is, I'm not finished with the Sunny/Cullowhee story world by a long margin. A while back, I asked Sunny's readers what story they'd like to see next. The vast majority chose a story set within her world, either a new Sunny story (soon to be delivered), or a series focusing on the Panther Clan, or one with witches.

That was, of course, before readers knew that the fourth Sunny book would be about witches.

I'm still tinkering with a spin-off series centering on one of the characters introduced in the fourth book. No spoilers, so I'll withhold the character's name. Yes, I'm just mean like that. I'm pretty sure readers will figure it out by the time they reach the end of Witch Hollow.

Anyway, the story world holds plenty of other possibilities. I haven't decided exactly what direction I'm going to take with the C.D. Watson name, but the first two official stories published under my name can easily be described as being Southern Magical Realism: "Christmas Eve Gift" (published in Dreaming of a Dark Christmas) and "Lightning Crack, Thunder Roll" (a finalist in the 2018 Rash Award in Fiction).

Richard, my best friend and editor, keeps asking me to write a witch story. He loves witchy books, many of which fall under the umbrella of Magical Realism, and he's helped me out so much, what kind of author would I be if I didn't repay him by writing a witchy book?

Thing is, I keep coming back to Increase Usher's daughters, who left their home after their mother was hanged for being a witch. Eventually their descendants landed in the Southern Appalachians, but the hows remain a mystery to me.

An intriguing mystery, I'll admit. If I had continued the Cullowhee Witches Series, I would've incorporated more of that backstory into each book, gradually building and expanding on the idea of women inheriting mystical abilities from their mothers, as well as on the community they were building as they found each other.

Granny witches, sort of, but a little more. Something to tie the modern age to its magical roots.

I'm not making any promises. Shoot, I'm not even hinting at a new story, but the possibilities exist, waiting patiently in the back of my mind, planted there by history and characters and a chance reader comment.