Episode Details

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where sometimes the child stolen by the fae grows up to become a little chaos bunny instead of an evil queen.

This week, host Bethany Amanda sits down with author Ann Aguirre to discuss The Hocus Pocus Handbook, a cozy fantasy romance filled with found family, grumpy/sunshine romance, he-falls-first pining, a road trip through Faerie, misfits challenging the powers that be, and one delightfully chaotic heroine.

Thea is the mortal child on the other side of a changeling story: stolen from the human world and raised among the fae. Now an outsider with a unique place in the Winter Court, she's determined to help the wild fae and create a little well-intentioned trouble along the way. Enter Kerboros, her tightly controlled, isolated opposite, and a romance Ann designed to feel like a cup of warm tea on a cool fall day.

🍂 What happens to the human child stolen away in a faerie changeling story?
✨ What if love and found family are the only things standing between a heroine and her evil queen era?
💕 And what happens when a chaos bunny meets the ultimate grump... who falls first?

If you love cozy fantasy, faerie courts, found family, grumpy/sunshine, he falls first, pining, chaotic heroines, opposites attract, magical road trips, misfits, fall vibes, and stories that feel like a warm drink on a cold day, this episode is for you.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Ann's childhood dream of becoming an author, including the unforgettable moment Shel Silverstein helped her realize writing could actually be a career.
✨ Why Ann rejects “write what you know” and believes writers should give themselves permission to imagine beyond their own experiences.
✨ The twenty-year journey from her first novel and rejection as a teenager to finally becoming a traditionally published author.
✨ The Hocus Pocus Handbook and Ann's twist on changeling lore: what happens to the mortal child taken away and raised in Faerie?
✨ Creating Thea, a chaotic-good outsider whose upbringing and adoptive father's love may have saved her from becoming an evil queen.
✨ The grumpy/sunshine, he-falls-first romance between social chaos bunny Thea and tightly controlled, isolated Kerberos.
✨ Discovering she'd chosen the completely wrong love interest and rewriting the entire first act once the characters set her straight.
✨ Thea's tender relationship with her adoptive father and Ann's belief that the people we choose as family are every bit as real as the ones we're born into.
✨ Building a completely original fae realm and exploring Thea's complicated role as both an outsider and someone valuable to the Winter Court.
✨ Why Ann hopes readers finish the story feeling seen, safe, happier, and a little more restored than when they started.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Ann Aguirre – @Ann_Aguirre_Author

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