C.M. Waggoner Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

C.M. Waggoner
Author C. M. Waggoner grew up in rural upstate New York, where she spent plenty of time reading fantasy novels in a swamp.

She studied creative writing at SUNY Purchase and lived in China for eight years before she moved with her husband to Albany, New York.

During her spare time, she performs kitchen experiments, volunteers, asks if she can pet your dog, and gardens pretty badly.

She has been influenced by the combination of the fantasy she read as a kid and the classic authors that wrote especially witty or beautiful prose. Her childhood fantasy favorites probably Monica Furlong, Diana Wynn Jones, and Tamora Pierce. And in terms of classics: P. G. Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, and Raymond Chandler are also inspirations. Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and N. K. Jemisin are also authors she likes as well.

The first piece she recalls writing was a terrible and pretty plotless stab at a fantasy novel when she was around fourteen. She thinks she gave up at about 150 pages after realizing she hadn’t thought out as far as an ending.

Her initial inspiration for “Unnatural Magic” came from having consumed so much fantasy when she was a child and young adult, and just wanting to explore the tropes that she encountered in these books in a more playful way. This includes “outsider learns they’re the Chosen One” or “woman falls in love with monster”.

The world building came into being after this. One of the huge changes is she began with pretty straightforward trope reversal, however wound up getting farther away from that while going along and attempted to make her characters and world feel more like cultures and people which actually could exist.

When she began writing the novel, she set some ground rules for herself. She didn’t want any of her protagonists to ride a horse, wield a sword, or save the world. She is in interested in telling more intimate stories with much smaller stakes, and she doesn’t want to accidentally write herself into some corner where the one place left for any of the characters to go is preventing the apocalypse.

Both “Unnatural Magic” and “The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry” are set in the same world, but follow different characters with different stories running around in the same universe and bump into one another sometimes. She wanted to do this, since she loves the way Tamora Pierce does it, rather than write a traditional series that follows the same characters throughout.

Waggoner’s debut novel, called “Unnatural Magic”, was released in the year 2019. Her work is from the fantasy genre.

“Unnatural Magic” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2019. Onna is able to write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the other young men in her village school. However despite her incredible talents, she is denied a spot at the nation’s premier arcane academy.

Undaunted, she sails off to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping she can find a place at a university where they do not think there is anything untoward about providing a woman with her magical education. However just as soon as she arrives, she is drawn into the mysterious murder of four trolls.

Tsira is a troll that never exactly fit into her clan, despite being the daughter of the leader. She figures it is time to strike out on her own and find work in a human city, however while on her way she stumbles across the body of a half-dead human soldier in the snow. While she slowly nurses him back to health, an unlikely bond begins to form between the two of them, one which gets tested when this unknown mage makes an attempt on Tsira’s life. Before long, unbeknownst to one another, Tsira and Onna both start devoting their considerable talents to figure out who’s targeting trolls, and before their homeland gets ripped apart.

Waggoner delivers a novel with easily relatable, smartly developed, and likable characters, lots of super powers, magic, and some amazing girl power, with an intriguing plot, entertaining, and captivating writing. Readers found it easy to just get lost in this magical world, and provides a nice escape from your own stressful daily life and allow the characters give you a quick ride in all the different sorts of universes.

“The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry” is the second stand alone novel and was released in the year 2021. Sparks start to fly in this enchanting fantasy book when a down-and-out fire witch and a young gentlewoman join up against a lethal conspiracy.

Dellaria Wells, the hard drinking, occasional thief, petty con artist, and a partly educated fire witch, is behind on her rent in the city of Leiscourt. Again. Then she sees the “wanted” sign, seeking Female Persons, of Martial or Magical ability, to guard a Lady of some importance, before the celebration of her Marriage. Delly fast talks her way into this job and joins this team of highly strange women tasked with keeping their wealthy charge safe from some unknown hitmen.

Delly soon sets her sights on one of her companions, the well-bred and confident Winn Cynallum. The job seems like nothing but easy money and romance until things take a lethal (and undead) turn. With the aid of a bird-loving necromancer, a shapeshifting schoolgirl, and one ill-tempered reanimated mouse called Buttons, Winn and Delly are determined to get the best of an adversary that wields a twisted magic and has friends in the highest of all places.

This is another action packed, brilliant, well written story that takes readers back to the Unnatural Magic world. Waggoner hooks you right from the start into this enchanting tale with her unique and quirky writing style, and her dialogue makes it feel as though the characters speak a completely different language. This colorful language helps pull you into the world that much more. These characters are well written and work well with each other, and readers enjoyed their banter, the mystery, and learning even more about everybody’s backgrounds.