Fast-paced urban fantasy and paranormal mystery novels with lots of the supernatural, a sprinkling of horror, a touch of romance, and a big splash of humor.
The Goddess's Daughter
Urban Fantasies
The tiny city of San Marcos, the oldest city in America, is crowded with a variety of supernatural creatures. But since the city’s founding, they have kept their existence secret from humans. Until the Great Unmasking. Supernaturals are being revealed, alarming the human population. Are certain people profiting politically from the fear and loathing of witches and monsters?
Sophie is a witch with anger issues who uses magic as a weapon. But when she discovers she’s also an empath, her newfound sensitivity makes her want to hang up her sword for good. Until she must go into battle to save herself and other supernaturals. And to protect her mother.
Darla, her mother, owns an historic inn. She has psychic powers which put her in danger from the hysteria. But more importantly, she’s the human vessel of an ancient goddess who is returning to the world through her. And making her fight to save not just her city but the world.
The Goddess’s Daughter urban fantasy series is set in the same world of San Marcos as the midlife paranormal mystery thriller series The Memory Guild, but it can be enjoyed independently.
Memory Guild
Midlife paranormal mystery thrillers
My name is Darla and I'm a psychometrist. That means I can read other people's memories by touching objects they’ve touched. That's a dangerous ability to have when you live in 500-year-old city, run a 300-year-old bed-and-breakfast, and have a mother (a witch) who owns an antique shop.
But it's why I was recruited to the Memory Guild, and it helps me investigate mysteries from the present and the past. Like murders. And why my second husband disappeared. Now that I’ve reached my fifties, life has gotten wild.
In the tradition of paranormal women’s fiction, except that the author has a Y chromosome.
Monsters of Jellyfish Beach
Paranormal mystery adventures
You’d think I’ve had enough of monsters after being a home-health nurse for retired vampires and werewolves. You’d think concentrating on my witchcraft and helping run an occult shop would be enough for me.
And you’d be wrong. Because I received a grant from the Friends of Cryptids Society. And they want me to catalog additional monsters, keep them from getting into trouble, and help them when they do. Sort of a cross between an occult detective and a monster wrangler.
In sleepy Jellyfish Beach, Florida, the murder rate is way higher than you’d expect for a small city. And I try to find the culprits to make sure they’re not monsters. Thankfully, I have a ghost and my iguana witch’s familiar to help me. Along with my cute reporter friend who is dead set on marrying me.
This is a follow-up series to Freaky Florida, but it stands on its own, and you can start with either series.
Freaky Florida
Part paranormal mystery, part urban fantasy, two parts satirical humor.
A madcap mixture of magic, monsters, and Florida Man. Follow midlife nurse and witch Missy Mindle as she solves murders blamed on her retired vampire patients, rescues an injured dragon with a price on its head, uncovers magical secrets in her past while battling ghouls, tries to stop an uprising of enchanted garden gnomes, and much, much more.
© 2025 by Ward Parker.