The Story Behind Hush Hush City by Jo Denning

I’ve always loved fantasy and fairy tales. As I got older, I also developed an interest in mystery and darker, grittier stories. Urban fantasy is a good mix of both. Setting the Saoirse Reilly series in an urban fantasy world gave me the opportunity to do some genre-bending and subvert readers’ expectations. I won’t give too much detail about that to avoid spoilers!

I began writing Dead Blood City, the first book in the Saoirse Reilly series, while working in a psychiatric hospital at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and following the death of a thirteen-year-old patient by suicide. The magic and monsters in Reilly’s world are metaphors for the very real evil and darkness that exists in our world. The painful experiences of my characters are things that real people go through every day. Unfortunately, treatment is not always enough to help them escape the darkness inside their own minds. 

I always knew Dead Blood City would have a sequel. In Hush Hush City, I wanted to address some of the questions readers had about Reilly’s heritage and her burgeoning powers. Other inspirations included Norse myths of the undead, the overlap of Viking and Irish culture, and the long, troubled history between Ukraine and Russia. But my overarching inspiration for the book was imagining someone presented with a series of distinct choices and choosing wrong every single time. Where would they end up?

Writing Hush Hush City allowed me to continue a journey of healing and self-forgiveness that I started in my first novel. Reilly is on a treacherous and painful path but we are all walking it together. When I was working on DBC at work, in waiting rooms, at airports, and on my couch, I often wondered if there was any reason for it. And, sometimes, I felt very alone in a very dark place. Now the sun is shining through my windows, I have hundreds of readers, and I’m publishing the sequel. I hope that you, too, will read and grow.

If you haven’t read Dead Blood City yet, email subscribers to my website www.JoDenning.com can grab a free e-copy. Hush Hush City is available on Amazon for Kindle or paperback. I love hearing from readers so feel free to reach out! In the meantime, I’m hard at work on the third installment, Black Sight City, so named because it will be the darkest yet. This will be a major turning point for the series. For those wanting (demanding) more about Reilly’s heritage and the mysterious world we’ve only seen in flashbacks, this is the book for you! But be careful what you wish for. It is always darkest before dawn.

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