I completely understand if you have a few questions at this point...
What is an Intermagical, anyway? When people in the past told folk stories, they weren’t making things up. They were making observations about their natural world. And, I think maybe they were more right than we are now. Or, at least, as right, but in a different way. And, when they told stories of strange fae folk who couldn’t lie, and had amazing skills and gifts, and other idiosyncrasies, I think they were talking about us. We divergents, I mean. We odd ones. The folks who are now flocking to definitions and diagnoses like ASD and ADHD. We can’t forget about the folk with the deep magic of schizophrenia and other psychoses, either. We are the sages and the inventors and the change makers. Our divergences sometimes make it extraordinarily painful and difficult to live a human life in a human world, but that does not make us any less magical. It’s nicer than grouping ourselves under the umbrella of ASD and ADHD diagnoses, which only focus on our disfunction, and not our amazing abilities. And, they’re defined by the medical establishment, not by our in-group. Being intermagicals allows us to acknowledge and celebrate our similarities and uniquenesses as different parts of our magical ancestries, and understand our challenges as a part of that same uniquely terrestrial heritage. These definitions of mythical beings come out of our own cultures’ folklore, after all. I seek out places where intermagicals gather, like Renaissance fairs and fantasy festivals (it’s like we can’t help but be drawn to it) and I’ll point them out to my friends. ‘That’s an Elf, a a Satyr, a Siren, some sort of Faerie…’ It’s obvious, when you start to really look, and when you start asking folk, they usually have some notion what they might be. I’m a faerie godmother, myself. Got it from my mom before me. I love to give folk exactly what they need. …And if this is exactly what you need, well, you’re welcome for it.
It’s self-published. Is it, like, bad? It’s impossible to judge your own work, but the people around me (and several strangers on the internet) insist that it is, in fact, quite good. I’ve gotten many compliments on the quality of the writing, especially. The pacing…? Well. It’s my first try, alright. I’ll admit, the beginning takes a little while to get where it’s going, and I got as excited as everyone else to see where it all ends up, so it does get a little quick toward the end. But, there is MORE. Book 2 is coming soon. And the MOST common response I’ve gotten after someone finishes it has been “IS THERE MORE?” …and I like to think that’s telling. I didn’t even try to shop it around to publishers. It’s too heretical. Too progressive. It says things about religion and power and politics that people need to hear, but that you’re not really allowed to say, and it says it in an extremely dangerous way - the kind that people might actually understand… I wanted control of this narrative, and the modern self-publishing industry gave me that opportunity, so I took it.
Any BIPOC & LGBT inclusion or triggers? I made no intention of including diverse groups or progressive themes in Intermagical. I just intended it to be a gift for my cousin, and let the characters be inspired by my own diverse family and community. But, the answer is yes. Intermagical and the New World Fae series is, in fact, quite inclusive and progressive. The character of the Gullah is modeled after my spouse, who can trace his ancestry to the Gullah Geechee people. My birthmother’s connection with the local native people in the story is inspired by her history of political activism, standing beside (and being arrested with) members of my brother’s father’s tribe. Intermagical includes a lesbian couple who are inspired a polyamorous throuple in reality, although themes of polyamory don’t come up until the second book. The trans kid that an early reviewer noted as feeling ‘shoehorned in at the end’ is a tribute to my youngest sibling’s gender journey. Festival Season, the sequel to Intermagical (expected 2025) follows our intrepid heroine on her own journey of queer discovery. It is full to the brim with trans folks, and adds a couple more black characters as well. There’s also quite a bit of disability inclusion in the series. I won’t go so far as to list them all here, but suffice it to say that characters with physical, mental and developmental disabilities are represented as valued members of the intermagical community. Trigger Warnings: I’ve been told that the early scenes of religious persecution feel ‘very real’ and I take that as a compliment, but I also offer it as a warning. This story takes us a lot of places, and a critical examination of organized religion is one of them - we’re just establishing what we’re talking about. And, bad guys have to be bad, right? Speaking of bad guys… There are some frightening encounters with men with bad intentions. This is a book about feminine agency. Again, we have to establish what we’re talking about. Nothing terrible ever happens. I promise. Last thing… There are some intoxicating substances in this book. Some are used responsibly, and some are not, but there are appropriate consequences, and modeling of good decision making, in the aftermath. Parents should decide whether or not this content is appropriate for their child.
What’s with the old AI cover art? Yuck I completely agree. AI art is a fascinating and powerful human magic. Is it good magic? Absolutely not. I apologize. I was swept up in the newness of the technology and used the tools available to me to make my vision a reality. The cover of the latest edition of Intermagical features the photography of the talented Rhett Wilkins, and the cover of Festival Season will be photography also. I look forward to updating the visualization in the YouTube version of the audiobook to something human and real, as soon as it is feasible to do so.
What’s that you said about a trilogy? Intermagical is only the beginning of the story of the New World Fae. The first book flowed out of me like water, followed by a second, shortly after. Before Intermagical was released, the draft of Book 2, Festival Season, was already waiting in the wings. It’s an almost itchy feeling, the need to sit down and write a book... I felt it, when I sat down and wrote the first 75k+ word draft of Festival Season in the calendar month of November 2022, and I felt it again, when I finished the trilogy, from outline to pen down, from mid-November to mid-January 2023. Now it’s nearing the end of 2024, and I am almost finished with the first pass of editing the sequel. There’s a lot of work to be done. Perfectly reasonable considering the timeframe I wrote it in, but I am antsy to be finished, and be able to release it out into the world (at least to the first round of Beta readers). I'm quite please with the work done so far. I think will catch the attention of modern readers, with its cast of queer, trans characters, its criticism of some of the real evils of world, and its invitation into a real, tangible earthly magic. Book 3 will be a while longer, I’d expect, but who knows what the coming months will bring? The draft is done, at least, and I'm sure that the inspiration to finish it will arrive when the moment is right
Can you summarize the plot for me? Sure. In fact, I’ll summarize it enough that I’ll give you a choice to make… You can read the whole story, or you can read this summary to avoid all the scariness and drama and skip right to the magical theory bits. “Yeeeauch!” Our heroine spins out, popping a tire, and finding herself stranded in the wet, if beautiful, Oregon forest. She treks through the drippy woods talking to herself and taking pictures, heading toward some distant lights, where she finds a man who is moved by her uncontrollable tears, and offers to drive her into town. On the drive, he reveals himself to be the Deacon of Christ’s Heart Church. He delivers a terrifying speech about the dangers of the world and offers her the protection of his religion. She hops out of his truck at the first opportunity, glad she will never have to see or think about that man ever again… Finding a coffee shop, she pulls out the packet of adoption paperwork that inspired her sudden move to Oregon. It’s odd that she just picked up and left once she saw the address, without even looking through the rest of the papers. Almost like some strange force was compelling her… The first thing that she pulls out of the envelope is a letter. It reveals the name given to her by her birth mother. Hearing this name, Fiona, she feels it settle around her like a powerful mantle. Full of wonderment, she also notes that the letter is signed by someone calling themselves the Queen of the Faeries, and wonders what this person had to do with her adoption. Unfortunately, bad luck befalls our newly-named Fiona and the letter ends up being destroyed. Also, she discovers that the coffee shop is closing and that she will need to find another place to be. Fiona ends up at the Raven, this small town’s favorite bar. She gets up to sing a karaoke songs, Son of a Preacher Man, and catches the attention of the bar patrons. One of them grabs her, dancing drunkenly, and she is rescued by a tall blond man named Brandon. He buys her a drink, and she listens to him talk about his Masters program in some boring field like Water Treatment Management, and lets him kiss her, even though she doesn’t really enjoy it. She’s just trying her best to be normal and fit in, since it seems like everyone else got a rulebook for life, and hers got lost in the mail. Trying to fit in has its consequences, though, and after one drink too many, Fiona blacks out, remembering only flashes of the rest of the night. Luckily, she sobers up when she finds herself walking alone with a group of sinister men, and sensing present danger, chooses to run off into the woods to hide. “Not sleeping in the woods tonight,” she laments, huddling against a tree in her rain jacket, “That was the goal.” Once she falls asleep, though, she is whisked away into a dream of faerieland, and dances with the brightly colored fae folk under the full moon. The next morning, Fiona awakes, glad to have made it safely through her ordeal, only to discover that her backpack, and all her adoption paperwork, had been lost in the night’s adventures. Heading into town, she ignores the impulse to go talk to the curious hula hoop dancers, staying on task, and focused on her mission. Luckily, she finds the backpack easily enough, and makes her way to the local library to read the book that came with the paperwork. This book (Faeries by Brian Froud) is full of fascinating illustrations and descriptions of fae folk, and Fiona is enchanted by it. So much so that she doesn't notice the approach of a strange old man who shakes her hand and makes it tingle, then invites her to a party for “our sort of folk.” Outside the library, a gust of wind tries to rip the party invitation out of her hand, accompanied by a bright flash of light. Predicting this, she reached out and snatches it. All of this bad luck that she’s been experiencing since coming to town, it doesn’t feel quite natural, does it? She realizes that this must be evidence of real magic, and is determined to go to the party, since losing the invitation would have, apparently, been bad luck. [Read Chapter 6 - The Party*] *Resuming summary at the end of Chapter 6 where Velia gives Fiona a drink The beautiful lady Velia interrupts Godrin’s speech and gives Fiona a drink, then takes her out to the back garden. Feeling woozy and disoriented, Fiona is left alone with a group of fae men whose amorous attentions are initially pleasant, but quickly become overwhelming. Unable to give voice to her protest, Fiona is eventually pulled away by Velia, who then takes her to a private room and helps her undress for a bath. Dazed, she sees terrifying phantoms reaching for her out of the water, and flees from the bathroom in nothing but a towel. Nearly naked, and now lost in the woods, Fiona assesses her predicament. She decides that she can make it safely back to her hotel room on foot, and sets off, using the river as her guide. The cold night air cleared her mind of the potion’s strange fog, but she soon realizes that some effects have lingered. She is unable to speak. When she opens her mouth to form words, nothing happens. Toes numb from the cold, she trips, dropping her towel. An ominious flash of light follows, and she wonders what magical bad luck has befallen her now. She quickly realizes that her towel is nowhere to be found, and that she is now naked and muddy, in the middle of the dark woods. To make matters worse, she is discovered by a pair of frat boys who take her back to their bonfire party where all the men begin to chant “Show your boobs! Show your boobs!” “Fiona? Is that you?” Brandon emerges from the throng, and pulls her away from the crowd of men, to a chorus of boos, giving her his jacket and offering her a ride back to town. In the car, she takes a drink of water, which allows her to speak again, and thanks Brandon for saving her. He gives her a lecture, sounding a lot like that super religious Deacon guy. That makes sense, it turns out, because Brandon is the Deacon’s adopted son, and he was raised in the Church of Christ’s Heart. He encourages Fiona to come to church with him on Sunday, promising that Christ’s Heart loves converts, and gets angry when she refuses his invitation. Making it back to the hotel, she finds that her clothes have been returned, pressed and clean, to the front desk, along with her wallet and hotel key. However, the envelope with her adoption paperwork has disappeared. Upset by the theft, and all of the terrifying experiences of the last two days, Fiona laments to the front desk clerk, who knows everyone, in the way of small towns, and is able to help get a new tire for her van. She resolves to leave this terrible town the next morning. Now mobile, and reunited with all of her worldly possessions, Fiona takes a moment to feel her feelings, and realizes that she is an adult, with no commitments to anyone, and nowhere in particular she has to be. She decides to follow her curiosity, and try to find out more about the fae and real magic. Her only clue is something Godrin told her, last night - the Fair Isle Pub. That’s the best place to go, if you’re looking for the fae. Pick up the story here, at Chapter 11 …We’re on a journey to learn the truth about real human magic, find a faerie princess, and be in just the right place and the right time to make a real difference and save the day
So, I start with Book One, right? You are, of course, more than welcome to start at the beginning and proceed chronologically. It's the order that the books were released and the way the story takes place. However, this series is for the odd ones, and I'd like to suggest doing it backwards, just for fun. Festival Season is a great place to start because it jumps right into the action and the magic, and it gives you plenty of background, but not so many details as to give it all away. My hope is that Book Two will pique your interest enough to want to find out how we got here, and that the ending of Festival Season will send you back to the beginning, so that you can enjoy Intermagical as a satisfying prequel.
Praise for Intermagical
Easy Bechdel test pass. I feel the positive representation vibes in this book for various groups alone should make this a much needed read. But aside from all of that, it genuinely is a fun adventure with magic and mystery and self discovery and a little romance all in there! I'm excited to see where this series goes. A quick caution for other readers who may be sensitive though- I discovered I am a little sensitive to themes of angry religious zealots, but I loved how the author handled those aspects of the plot, and the very ending of the book the author lovingly explained her relative who inspired her to write this and I just wept. The authors kind heart seems to be woven throughout the whole book.
Renee, Audible
This hidden gem is an absolutely brilliant first book by T. S. Davis. I listened to it nonstop, every waking hour, until it was finished. It is compelling, often funny, and a unique take on our world and who may be in it. If you enjoy anything about magic, faeries, and like books that pass the Bechdel test, this is the book for you. I am excitedly awaiting the second in this series. I can very easily see this book series eclipsing (no pun intended) twilight or Harry Potter as the writing and plot lines are just as (or more) intricate but don’t include the hidden (or not so hidden) isms & phobias. The author has written with modern ethos and descriptions that are refreshingly inclusive. Brava, T. S. Davis. Well done!
Wendy, Amazon