Today, I get to feature my friend, editor and author Kerrie L. Hughes.
We go way back. Fun fact: Kerrie was the editor who gave me my third pro sale that qualified me to join SFWA back in 2009. (Good gravy, that’s 15 years ago!) She tells me all about the anthology series she edits with Jim Butcher and talks about how the themes came about.
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Jim and I started the anthology series in 2014/15. It was going to be a one book thing as a favor to me because I had an orphaned anthology and needed to sell it to a different publisher. The next thing I knew, Jim was my co-editor and we sold it to his publisher, Ace.
We renamed it from Fierce to Shadowed Souls, and I’m pleased to say it is still selling strong. In fact, it did so well it went into reprint, and we decided to do a second anthology, Heroic Hearts, which is also selling well. We seem to have hit on a good formula so we agreed to do a third, Paranormal Payback, which came out on April 14, 2026.
Why the dark title? I’ve been dreaming about getting payback through paranormal means since I was sixteen. Why? Because the patriarchy sucks, and I really like witchcraft. It’s the reason I started reading authors like Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, and Patricia Briggs, among others. In many ways this volume is therapy. Who doesn’t want to hunt down the monsters and make them sorry they had the audacity to cross your path?
Jim feels the same, except he’s a bit more mellow than I am, sort of. We’re both urban fantasy curmudgeons. Anyway, we enjoy the anthologies. It gives us a chance to work with our favorite authors and share them with like-minded readers. It’s really all about having some fun while day-dreaming about possibilities, and revenge, tasty sweet revenge.
P.S. We are working on the next one, but the details are super-secret. In the meantime, if you like paranormal drama with cozy chaos check out my Great Lakes Grimoires on Amazon, there will be payback. Jim, of course, is continuing his Dresden Files series, and they seem to be enjoying a revival, especially the audio versions that are read by Spike from Buffy.
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Kerrie L. Hughes is the author of a multi book universe of paranormal urban fantasy called the Great Lakes Grimoires. Her books are about witches, wizards, vampires, shifters, ghosts and the Fae. Her themes live in the realm of found family and cozy chaos with a dash of romantic drama. She also has an anthology series with Jim Butcher. She doesn’t do a lot of social media, but you can follow her on Facebook, Tertulia: GreatLakesGrimoire.com. The Grimoires are available on Amazon. The Butcher anthologies are everywhere.
