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Real-Life Magic: A Guest Post by Anna James

By Anna James / May 14, 2025 at 12:01 am

A brand new fantastical world with a unique and exciting magic system. Rich in imagination and deeply immersive, this is a worthy addition to the magic school genre. Read on for an exclusive essay from Our Monthly Pick author Anna James on writing Chronicles of Whetherwhy: The Age of Enchantment.

Paperback $9.99

Chronicles of Whetherwhy: The Age of Enchantment (B&N Exclusive Edition)

By Anna James

In Stock Online

Paperback $9.99

A brand new magical fantasy series from bestselling author Anna James, filled with seasonal magic and exciting adventure, starring twins Juniper and Rafferty as they brave their new magical abilities, grown from the changing seasons. Perfect for fans of Skandar and the Unicorn Thief, Impossible Creatures, and Greenwild!

I have always wanted to write fantasy. It’s the genre that I’ve always gone back to at all points of my life to date. From Diana Wynne Jones to Philip Pullman to JRR Tolkien to Ursula K LeGuin, these are the authors who taught me to be a reader and therefore a writer. I loved disappearing into other worlds as a child (and still do) and went through a pretty serious Lord of the Rings phase as a teen (honestly, I’m still in it).

My debut series, Pages & Co, is about readers who can travel inside their favourite books but they start in our world, in London to be precise. But after six books of portals, I was itching to have a go at creating a magical world from scratch and that’s where the island of Whetherwhy grew from.

The Age of Enchantment is the first book in a quartet called the Chronicles of Whetherwhy which tells the history of a place where magic grows from the changing seasons. Everyone on Whetherwhy has a little bit of magic, depending on which season they are, but some people discover that they are enchanters which means that they can see and use the magic of all four seasons.

I’m a big believer in rooting magic systems in things that feel a bit magical in real life. So with Pages & Co, it’s imagination and reading and getting lost in a good book. With Whetherwhy it’s the changing seasons, which feels enchanted to me every time – whether it’s the blossom trees coming to life in spring, a summer afternoon in the park on the first day you don’t need a coat, that new-pencil-case feeling of autumn, or waking up in winter to a blanket of unspoiled snow. I wanted to capture that real life magic and turn it into the system underpinning Whetherwhy.

I looked to all my favourite elements of fantasy and packed them in – there’s a magic school, dragons, bookbinders, epic journeys, pirates, druids, travelling circuses, night markets and of course a lot of good food. I loved creating the map (beautifully brought to life by David Wyatt) and working out all the nooks and crannies of Whetherwhy. I wanted to write the sort of world I want to vanish into – somewhere times get frightening but there is always a tasty meal and a good friend nearby.

As a reader, I’ve met dragons in Earthsea, attended Miss Cackle’s Academy in The Worst Witch, I’ve visited the orangutan librarian in Discworld, travelled with the Fellowship across Middle Earth, and voyaged on the Dawn Trader in Narnia. All of those experiences made me the reader and writer I am. One of the joys of being a writer is getting to take all the things you loved growing up and mix them together, add in your own unique voice and ideas and see what comes out. And I just hope that one day in the future an author will be saying that the Chronicles of Whetherwhy was a book that made them the reader – and writer – they are.