Drawing On Strength Found In Communities Of Women IRL And In Fiction

By Evette Davis

I recently had the good fortune to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of co-founding my San Francisco-based public relations firm. The same celebration also highlighted my firm’s recent acquisition by another company. After more than two decades, I’m no longer entirely in control of my destiny—if one can ever do such a thing. It took us a year to agree to the terms of the deal. Not surprisingly –  after being a working mom and novelist for two decades, who never had to ask for permission to be sick or take a vacation – negotiations centered heavily around autonomy and independence. 

When I co-founded my firm in 1999, there were less than a handful of women-owned public affairs firms in San Francisco. While we were fortunate to have great mentors and patrons—male and female—every time a new male consultant started his own business, I worried it would be the end of us. We lost out on work and new projects to male consultants, seemingly because they were, well, men.

It weighed on my psyche so much that I started writing a play about a female political consultant who is down on her luck and feels sorry for herself. One day, out of the corner of her eye, she sees an ancient female warrior speaking to her. The consultant is the only person who can see the warrior, who, in her stern way, offers advice about being a leader and taking what she’s entitled to – even if it means removing an adversary’s head with a sword. 

It turns out I am a terrible playwright, but out of that experience came ‘The Others’, the first book in ‘The Council Trilogy’, which features a heroine named Olivia who is drawn into the shadowy world of The Council, a secret society of supernatural beings that interfere in human affairs to help save humanity. The novel opens with a hungover Olivia seeing her spirit guide for the first time.

Targeted by an ambitious male competitor who steals her clients and torments her, Olivia begins a slow slide into depression. Elsa appears in her kitchen, a time-walking female warrior sent by Olivia’s ancestors to help her regain her skills as an empath. The novel sets the stage for Olivia’s journey as she learns how to find her power, master it, and become the leader she was meant to be. It’s not exactly my life story, but it explores some of my experiences and mirrors the journey of countless other women around the globe who must come to terms with their authority and how to wield it. 

Olivia must learn to trust her instincts and assert herself. This is an uncomfortable role for her as she has closed herself off to her emotions out of self-preservation. The Council Trilogy is, first and foremost, a thrilling paranormal romance. But it’s also a meditation on how women derive their power and a celebration of what women can accomplish when they work together. This, too, mirrors my own experiences as a professional. 

The Others – the entire Trilogy – is built around a network of women characters who control the world’s fate in their hands. There is Elsa, the enigmatic time walker and shapeshifter who moves through centuries doing penance for a terrible mistake—Olivia, her student, who turns out to have a lineage that is not exactly human. Olivia’s best friend is Lily, a fairy and a San Francisco librarian. By the time the three books are complete, there is a litany of female leaders, dead and alive, who have supported Olivia and helped save the fate of mankind, including an ambassador, a secretary of state, a New Orleans hotelier, and voodoo practitioner, as well as Olivia’s ancestors. 

These women work together as a team. They tell each other hard truths and support one another through their challenges. Olivia’s allies are realists who care enough to discuss uncomfortable situations and their deadly consequences. Olivia faces her adversity, trains to become a lethal fighter, and comes to understand the meaning of fidelity to ideas beyond self-preservation. 

In my own life, I’ve been fortunate to experience some of this – albeit without sword fights, explosions, and witchcraft. Being a professional with a network of female colleagues and friends has been a great source of strength as I’ve gone through many iterations of myself over the last two-plus decades. I’m fortunate to have multi-generational friendships that have allowed me to gain insights into pivotal moments as I have gone from wife and entrepreneur to mother and then empty nester. 

My life experiences spurred me to write a story that mimicked my frustrations and successes as a leader. Hopefully, it resonates with female readers who will see their journey in the pages of The Others and feel the magic of their unique lives is represented. 


Evette Davis is a science-fiction and fantasy writer. She is most recently the author of The Others, the first installment of The Council Trilogy, which won the International Fiction Award for fantasy and was shortlisted for the Ozma Book Awards. Davis is a member of the Board of Directors for Litquake, San Francisco’s annual literary festival. In 2023 and 2017, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library honored Davis as a Library Laureate. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle and Writer’s Digest. Davis splits her time between San Francisco and Sun Valley, Idaho. For more information or to sign up for her newsletter, visit www.evettedavis.com. You can also follow Evette on Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads.