Book One of The Southern Magicks Series

The Southern Magicks is an urban fantasy/mystery series following the story of Dexter Lacy and his non-typical introduction into his local magical community just before it faces its biggest threat. It is set in the fictional Australian town of Dunn and its surrounding area, which are based on a combination of actual places within the states of New South Wales and Queensland. The first novel, originally titled The Small Town Horror, begins in early 2018, and the series will continue well into the 2020s. I’d like to work with a ten-year time span for The Southern Magicks series and its spinoffs.

I originally started writing the first book in third person perspective in late 2017 but switched to first person in early 2018 after writing a passage in first person and realizing it fit the story/genre better.

Just before I finished the first draft of The Southern Magicks (Book One), I posted it on the web comic/novel website Tapas.io because I’d given up on the idea of ever being able to afford to self-publish. I was working a minimum wage cleaning job I hated but wanted to share my writing. I’d been reading comics and web novels on the site for a few months at that point. I’d tried to post on Wattpad about four years before but hadn’t finished the story before I posted and didn’t get very far. This time I had a finished novel.

While I’m glad to have had the experience and I’m still in touch with some of the other creators I met on the website, my project wasn’t the best fit because web novels have a unique structure to standard novels.

In 2020 I started working a job that paid twice as much; I wasn’t wealthy, but I realized if I saved up I had enough money to actually start self-publishing my writing. I started with The Southern Magicks because my other novel series with a similar amount of drafting, The Hartwright Vampires series, needed a rewrite because I’d started writing it in 2013.

In 2021 after I got developmental editing feedback for The Southern Magicks (Book One) I split the almost 150,000 words into three books to give each storyline its own breathing room, even though I’d already almost finished the next two books in the series, leaving me with four almost fully drafted novels after The Southern Magicks (Book One) was complete.

You can find the official YouTube and Spotify playlists for The Southern Magicks series below:

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Cover Art & Design by Carmilla Mayes

Reading Order

The Southern Magicks
(Book One of The Southern Magicks Series)

A month ago, a demon tore the thin veneer of a normal life I’d crafted apart when it almost killed me. Revealing my husband, Eli, as the prodigal son of a powerful magic family. When I grew up, I walked away from magic. Left my remote hometown and pretended the ghosts Gran taught me to see weren’t there while I went to university to become a librarian. Our one secret tightly held to my heart. Never let them know! Two years later, with no other financial option, I moved back to my small hometown. It was easy to pretend the fuzzy gaps in my memory weren’t there as I got a job under the strict woman who almost killed my childhood love of books. I thought everything was perfect when I married my dream guy. Then the attack happened. The "good" folks at the local magical law enforcement agency knew about me the whole time. They've pressured me to work for them as an exorcist because they’re convinced I was a vigilante who committed multiple murders. My odd, intriguing mentor Cory watches for any misstep as I avoid the seduction attempt he’s been asked to perform. Now they’ve accused my estranged older brother of taking over my “crimes.” I know I was framed, despite the gaps in my memory. The worst part? The only people who seem to believe me are my friend June and my journalist cousin Kat. Eli, filled with spite for the local magical rulers, seems to know something I DON’T and thinks I should play them at their own game and seduce my mentor, so we can interrogate him together… The Southern Magicks is a small-town paranormal urban fantasy/mystery series with a M/M/NB menage romantic subplot. For fans of “The Dresden Files,” “Rivers of London,” “Southern Vampire Mysteries,” “Alex Verus,” and “The Laundry Files” who enjoy LGBTQ+ characters and stories.