Q&A With Seana Kelly 

Today’s Q&A is with USA Today Bestselling author of the fantasy series Sea Wicche Chronicles & The Sam Quinn novels, Seana Kelly. 

Q: Seana, would you like to tell the readers of the blog and I a little bit about your series Sea Wicche Chronicles & The Sam Quinn novels? Where did the ideas for both series come from?

A: The Sam Quinn books are set in San Francisco, CA. Sam is a werewolf book nerd who owns The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore & Bar. The Slaughtered Lamb is carved out of a cliff, with a wall of aquarium glass windows overlooking the water. The ocean level against the wind rises and falls with the tide. When we first meet Sam, she’s being trapped in horrific visions by someone trying to scare her to death. Sam is confused as to why anyone would target her, as she’s kept to herself for years. The scars covering her body are only one of the reasons. The Slaughtered Lamb is only accessible by other supernaturals, including Clive, the vampire Master of the City, who is doing what he can to help while trying not to fall for the secretly kind and funny young woman in the baggy jeans and long sleeve tops. 

The Sea Wicche Chronicles are set in Monterey, CA. Arwyn is opening The Sea Wicche (an antiquated, genderless spelling of witch), her art gallery in a converted cannery on the ocean. She is a Cassandra wicche, meaning she can see the future. She’s one of the most powerful her family has ever produced, probably because of her fae father. She is a clairvoyant, as well as an incredibly gifted artist. She is also, quite reluctantly, a police consultant. An old classmate who is now a detective remembers the rumors about Arwyn and comes to see her when she has a child abduction case with no clues. Further complicating Arwyn’s life is a hot wolf who is rebuilding her deck and thinks all psychics are crooks. That would be more than enough, except Arwyn is sure a member of her family has turned to sorcery, ensuring death and destruction in their wake. 

Q: I see on Amazon book 7 of the Sam Quinn series The Bloody Ruin Asylum & Taproom will be available on October 1st of this year. Are you currently writing another book in the Sea Wicche Chronicles, the beginning of a new series or a standalone novel this time around?

A: I’m currently working on Wicche Hunt, the 2nd book in the Sea Wicche Chronicles. It’ll be out April 16th of this year. I’ve fallen into a pattern of Sam Quinn books in the fall and Sea Wicche in the spring. I also write a short story set in this world every year that is first given free to my newsletter subscribers and then later sold on all the usual platforms. 

Q: What made you choose to write fantasy? If you were to explore writing in other genres, which genres would they be and why?

A: I love fantasy and always have. Why would I write about workplace conflicts when I can write about dragons, werewolves, vampires, witches, gods and goddesses, the fae… Just like lots of other fantasy readers, I need the escape. Fantasy, by its very nature, has a heightened sense of tension and drama. The stakes are usually life and death, and though I write supernatural characters, the stories explore our own humanity, good, evil, and that gray place in between. 

The first book I published was a small-town romance. I’d planned to write a trilogy set in Bar Harbor, Maine, but Harlequin shut down the line I was writing for (SuperRomance). Someday, when I have the time, I’ll finish the series and self-pub the books. 

Someday, if I’m feeling very brave, I may try my hand at a historical novel. I love them, but I’ll need to do a great deal of research before I ever attempt it.

Q: Does Hollywood have the rights to your series? The entertainment industry needs more original content again and getting more popular books to be great movies and tv wouldn’t hurt. 

A: I wish! I had a psychic once tell me my books would be a TV show. I’m still hoping that one happens ☺

Q: How does it feel that your books are on the USA Today Bestsellers List? It sounds like a dream come true!

A: It absolutely was! The first book to hit the list was The Wicche Glass Tavern. I was at my day job, a high school teacher-librarian. I had to help proctor a big standardized test that day. Tables were lined up in the gym and I had my section I was watching & helping. I got a call from my agent, which was unusual. She emails me when she needs to tell me something. I saw her name pop up on my phone and knew it was around the time the bestseller list was published. I got a little light-headed and went to an empty corner of the gym to answer the phone. It was at a point in the testing that I was supposed to be collecting something, but instead I was listening to this amazing news and celebrating silently in a corner. I quickly got off the phone and went to do my job—thankfully another proctor was covering my tables—and then I started texting my husband and my critique partner while confetti was going off in my head.