There are many themes running through the first six books of my Witches of the New Forest series, but perhaps one of the most obvious, and the one that is dearest to my heart, is the dynamic between sisters.

In these books, both Hunter and Ryder are different aspects of both my own sister and me. Hunter, with her long red hair, is very similar to my sister, and Ryder, with her blonde hair, is very similar to me (although our heights have been reversed and I made Hunter tall, Ryder short—sorry Shorty, I mean, Sis…). Ryder’s impulsive ‘leap before you look’ attitude reflects my own life and all the joys and hardships that I have experienced in these last fifty-plus years. It’s taken me a long time to come back to my true passion, which is writing fiction, because I would just go headlong into anything and everything. My older sister, however, has inspired Hunter’s cautious nature: thinking things through, planning and mapping out her life. She landed her life’s passion straight out of university, knowing what she wanted to do with her life and is incredible at it.

Growing up, my sister and I were very close in age, which does greatly differ from Hunter and Ryder’s story. When we became a little bit older, we felt the need to differentiate ourselves somehow (which is very hard to do when you always have to wear your sister’s hand-me-down clothing). That difficult period turned into several years of struggle before we were finally granted our own rooms. In that new dynamic, she helped me through some very difficult times, such as leaving a small-town elementary (primary) school that only had around fifty children in total from grades one to six, and then moving on to a high school (secondary) that had six to eight hundred kids. After high school, it was yet another large shock to move to the city and go to college, where again the school size seemed to increase exponentially. To get me through these transitions, she drew me a colour-coded map for both high school and college, so that I would be able to find my way around, which I then passed down to my little brother.

And I think that is what older sisters and siblings do: they help you to find your way, and then they take a step back, knowing that you have to do this yourself. Much as they may want to protect you, you still have to make your own mistakes (sometimes for decades). They have blazed that trail all on their own first, and then, if they could, they handed you a map to make your path easier. But the truth of the matter is that even though I only really get to talk to my sister once a week through video chat, when I’m physically near her, I’m home again, and things are just easier. There is a comfort in her presence, where before, when we were growing up, there was a challenge. We have become our own people now, our own separate selves, different and yet so similar in so many ways. I think we understand each other a lot more now than we ever did when we were younger and sleeping in the same room together. My sister is an incredible, compassionate person who has inspired me through her own actions and in the way that she moves through this world.

And so, if you are reading this and have a sibling or other found family, I hope that you can see the different dynamics, similarities and differences within the two characters of Hunter and Ryder and in your own relationships with your family. Maybe pause, smile, and then give that special person a call just to let them know just how much they mean to you.

(And then maybe even give them the books to enjoy!)