Introducing Fiddlefern Fjord

One of the conditions of me buying my rights back to my books was that I strip it of any branding related to the publishing company. This included the fictional region it was set in as it was one of three regions where all books published by them were set.

Initially, I jumped on something similar and reformatted all of the books to have that regional name (note, not town name. Heartwood Hollow along with the other town names I created will always be mine.). It was cute and I started having plot ideas related to it.

Then I opened a newsletter for a prominent cozy mystery author, who was happening to announce her new series. And what do you know? Same name I had just chosen for my newly named region. So scrap that idea. Fortunately one of my top strengths is adaptability. I’ll have to talk about those sometime, since I reference them a lot. Really, though, I’m grateful that I hadn’t already publicized it or published the books.

After much thought and bouncing ideas off one of my book besties, I came up with a new name. Fiddlefern Fjord, inspired by the ferns that can be harvested in parts of New England and cooked as a local delicacy. They grow from my home state of Rhode Island to Maine. This got me thinking.

I pull inspiration for my books from all over, often mashing towns together to create mine. So why limit myself to all of them being in one state (my original plan)?

Taking inspiration from the Last Green Valley (@thelastgreenvalley), which spans a multi-state area in New England, Fiddlefern Fjord also exists across multiple states. This is going to give me the flexibility I’ve been looking for as I create a new and permanent home for all of my books.

Lots of things are happening, and this is just the first reveal. I’m super excited to share everything else soon.