Beyond the Coven: The Story Behind White Haven Hunters

I thought it was about time that I wrote about why I wrote the White Haven Hunters series, which is the first spin-off in my White Haven world. I should say that at that time, I had no idea that I would write another two series set in this world, or that there might be more - because there could well be.

Just a warning that in this post there will be some spoilers, but I don't divulge the Hunters' plots. If you've read the White Haven Witches, you're all good! I suggest you read them first, so if you haven't discovered this series yet, follow the link: White Haven Witches.

It all goes back to 2019 when I was writing the first few books in the White Haven Witches series. Buried Magic had come out at the end of 2018, and then Magic Unbound at the beginning of the next year. I already had a really good feeling about this series. I loved the characters. I loved the world it was set in. I decided it would be good to think about ways to expand it. In addition, readers seemed to be loving it, which was the absolute most important part, and books were selling.

At the end of Magic Unbound, something happened that allowed me to bring something different into the White Haven world, and in Magic Unleashed I expanded on that. The Nephilim arrived, as did the three paranormal investigators, and the Cornwall Coven, so lots of new characters to play with!

Back to the Nephilim. I decided to create seven of them, and very quickly I realised that these characters had so much backstory to dive into, set in places I could explore, and historical events that I could write about. I really loved that idea. I am a fan of fast-paced action adventures with a blend of the occult, so it was my opportunity to write my own version.

Over the course of the next couple of White Haven books, I expanded their characters. The Nephilim, obviously, are the sons of Fallen Angels. That’s a biblical story, and I didn’t particularly want to write about the Christian religion in my series, but nevertheless, they are characters of myths and legend, and I wanted to put my own spin on those.

While the White Haven witches are essentially good people, the Nephilim are morally grey. They are soldiers who are skilled in fighting with blades and who were engaged in war campaigns in their first lifetime, told to do things that they didn’t necessarily want to do by their Fallen Angel fathers. 

They’re hunters, they’re fighters, they’re skilled swordsmen, they’re thieves, and they’re rogues. They're also big men, described as giants in some stories, so in my books they're well over six feet in height (or just under two metres), muscular, have wings that they can magically hide, and, because they're half angelic, are not without charm. They also have paranormal skills and can speak any language. 

My witches are based, obviously, in White Haven in Cornwall, so the stories are set in a certain place. They live there, their businesses are there, their friends are there. The idea with the White Haven Hunters was that I could take them out of Cornwall and explore other parts of the UK, and take them into Europe and the Middle East where they are originally from. It was a great chance to have occult adventures there, including searching for ancient artefacts, forbidden magic, and secrets they need to uncover. 

But they also needed to earn money, so this was going to be a way for them to find a new way to live in this new world, which of course is very different to their own. They’re intelligent, so they adapt quickly, but they needed to find ways to work. Initially the White Haven Witches were a way to do that, because they offered them employment in some of their businesses.

However, to develop a series with them in, I needed to have the bones of that new life set in place. At the end of All Hallows' Magic, the climax meant that in Undying Magic, book 5, another new character appeared. Another morally grey warrior called Shadow. I won’t go into how she ended up working with the Nephilim, but that evolved. And then in Crossroads Magic, which is book six in the White Haven Witches series, I needed another character that was going to offer the Nephilim and Shadow new opportunities. These eight characters were now living in a world that was not their own. Cue the Orphic Guild and Harlan Beckett.

Spirit of the Fallen, the first White Haven Hunters book, is set after Crossroads Magic, and from that point in, I wrote one White Haven Witches book and one Hunters book. I keep the storylines quite separate, but obviously there is some reference to the other characters and what’s happening within that world. By this time, the Nephilim and Shadow are good friends of the witches.

There’s a lot of witchcraft in my books, because I love writing about witches. The Hunters series was an opportunity to step away from some of the witchcraft and write about other paranormal events. I love myths and legends, so paranormal fantasy with mythology, ancient history, and a bit of globetrotting was fantastic.  For me this series is Indiana Jones meets Supernatural, and I have so much fun with them.

I also needed to develop their antagonists. When you have paranormal strong creatures who are very skilled at fighting, you need someone strong for them to go up against. Black Cronos arrived.

The Nephilim break a lot of rules, and the first book was set in London, so I needed another DI to investigate the trouble they cause - welcome foul-mouthed DI Maggie Milne. How I love that woman! So seven books equals a lot of fun. And yes, it's a little bit different to the witches, which just offers another spin on that world.

So that’s basically the premise for the White Haven Hunters. In the next blog, I’m going to talk about who those characters are and what they end up getting up to. If you want to explore the White Haven Hunters, head to this page: White Haven Hunters.

You don’t have to read them in conjunction with the White Haven Witches, but if you like immersive world-building, then you absolutely do want to start layering in those Hunters books with the Witches. Here’s the link to my suggestions for how to read these series: https://happenstancebookshop.com/pages/reading-order-of-tjgreens-books

This is a complete seven book series, but I had a very important storyline to tie up that I needed time to address, for reasons that will become obvious if you haven't read it. Child of Light, the long novella, is that story. You can buy that here: Child of Light.