Monday, September 13, 2021

Guest Blogger: Musings on Author Worlds


My sister Michele is back again with another guest post!  This time she's talking about author worlds.  I'll be honest, this is something I didn't even know existed until she introduced me to them!  But, it's such a cool concept and I love the idea of exploring an already-established bookish world in more depth.

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A newer trend in publishing is the concept of author “worlds,” series of books connected to an author’s original work, written by a separate group of authors. Three main worlds that I follow are:

  1. Penny Reid’s Smartypants Romance Universe. These series are based off of a number of Penny Reid’s works, including the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City. Readers can spend time in the Green Valley Library, the Donner Bakery and the Cipher offices, among many others.

  2. Sarina Bowen’s World of True North. These books are offshoots of Sarina Bowen’s True North series and we get to learn more about the characters at the local university, coffee shop, taproom and bookstore/wine bar.

  3. Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s Cocky Hero Club. All of the books in this world are related to the duo’s Cocky Bastard series.

Author worlds are great for a lot of reasons. Have you ever gotten to the end of a series and lamented the fact that you don’t get to hang out with those characters anymore? In these worlds, those original characters often show up – they aren’t main characters but we do often get interaction with them! Because the books in these series are written by different authors, readers are exposed to new writers and can find some amazing new people to follow. I’ve discovered so many new-to-me authors through these worlds and their work can be really great.


What do you think about author worlds? Do you follow any?

15 comments:

  1. This is a pretty new concept to me as well. Super interesting to be made aware of!

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  2. I love when characters from other books pop up - I'm always like, "Hey, I know you!" It's fun to see how everything is intertwined.

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    1. Agreed! I love seeing all the different connections.

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  3. I love this idea too. Granted I read more SF/ fantasy type stuff but the same concept- shared worlds where beloved characters still show up, or maybe as just cameos or supporting characters. and revisiting those worlds is great!

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    1. I agree! Some characters and worlds are so wonderful and it's nice knowing we will get to visit them again.

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  4. I was intrigued by Bowen's World of the True North but then there were just *so many* and I couldn't keep up.

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    1. I agree - there were a ton put out in a short amount of time. i kind of wish they had spread them out over a longer period like Penny Reid does with hers. They would be more manageable!

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  5. This is such a fun concept! I always love shared worlds in SFF, no matter how small the detail is, so these all sound really neat. I'll have to look into these author worlds a bit more, I think. :)

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  6. I've seen little spinoff books written by the same author, but I've not come across one yet where it was written by someone else entirely. This is really cool.

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    1. I have really enjoyed so many of these spin-off type books!

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  7. I tried one of Reid's world books, and it was just ok for me. I had more success with the Moo U books. So, I guess it's hit or miss, but I love the idea of expanding a world. They did that with the Shadowhunters books too.

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    1. I agree - they are not all great but I've found more often than not they are enjoyable. I've read a couple of the Moo U's and so far have been happy with them.

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I'm so glad you stopped by, and I would love to hear your thoughts! Comments are always greatly appreciated!