Megan E Hotchkiss Books in Order

Megan E. Hotchkiss is a Canadian writer whose stories for young readers pair familiar Canadian places with magical worlds beneath the sea. She lives in Kingston, Ontario, with her two cats, and her published fiction centers on the underwater realm of Marinesia.

Fantasy has been part of her life for a very practical reason. Hotchkiss was born with a rare congenital birth defect, and the chronic pain, surgeries, and hospital visits that came with it led her to invent places where she could get away from the discomfort for a while. Marinesia grew from that imaginative space.

She began telling stories when she was very young and started writing them as soon as she could hold a pencil. By age nine, she was attending writers' workshops. At thirteen, her children's fantasy story The Trees Talk won first prize in the Napanee Conservation Authority's short story contest.

Writing was already becoming a serious part of her life.

Before her first published novel, Hotchkiss had completed a fantasy manuscript called Fairyquest while working toward publication. She was also developing The Seadrop Pendant, the story that would introduce the characters and setting that became The Marinesia Trilogy. Her early work was aimed at young adult readers and showed her interest in fantasy adventures rooted in friendship and family.

The Seadrop Pendant, published in 2018, follows fourteen-year-old Taryn Noble after she moves from Toronto to Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. A mysterious birthday gift pulls Taryn, her younger blind sister Kaileigh, and their neighbor Malcolm McKenna into Marinesia, where a dangerous break between worlds must be sealed. The novel sets up a quest for magical artifacts, with merfolk allies and the sea serpent Leviathan standing at the heart of the conflict.

Hotchkiss continued that story in The Tidal Bracelet. This time Kaileigh takes a more central role when the search for another artifact becomes tied to the disappearance of the sisters' Aunt Sisi. The book keeps the larger threat in view while giving Kaileigh room to use her imagination, judgment, and courage.

The adventure is shared, not carried by one hero alone.

Across the Marinesia books, Hotchkiss returns to sibling bonds, new friendships, hidden worlds, and characters learning to trust their own abilities. The stories move between Peggy's Cove and an underwater fantasy setting, so everyday worries can quickly become part of a much larger mission. Her settings also keep the action close to Canada, from Toronto to the Nova Scotia coast.

For readers, that combination is the appeal. The books offer an artifact hunt and a looming threat to two worlds, but they also make space for young people figuring out what they can do when others underestimate them. Hotchkiss's own path into writing gives Marinesia an especially personal starting point.