K.M. Shea's Blog, page 13

Sheacon 2022 Panels!

Hello, Champions! Sheacon is coming up later this month (July 29th, 30th, and 31st) ​and we have our panelist schedule! (Note: There will be loads of activities, too, but these are the panelists so you can strategize what you want to try attending!) ​All panel times are in the central time zone!

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Friday:

Opening Ceremony at 6 pmPanel with Jo Lallo and Kitty (RPG and Fantasy Authors) at 7 pm

Saturday:

Kitty Q&A #1 at 11 amPanel with Kate Stradling and Emily Deady (Fantasy Authors) at 1 pmPanel with Kitty and Dr Kimberly, PHBook (Analyzing Angelique and Pip’s Big Lies) at 5 pmCelebrity Retha and Dragons with Jo Lallo, Sally Britton, Emily Deady, and our Vin at 7 pm

Sunday:

Kitty Writing Panel at 10 amPanel with Sarah Courtney and Sally Britton (Regency Authors) at 2 pmKitty Q&A #2 at 3 pmChampion Trivia with Kitty at 7 pm

Also, this is your last reminder to to submit your questions about books, future plans, writing style/process, etc, for me or any of our Sheacon guest panelists before July 6th. To keep my panels running on time we will not be taking questions during my panels so if you have a question you want me to answer you MUST submit it ahead of time!

Click here to submit a question for me, and click here to submit a question for any other panelist!

 

Once again, a huge thank you to the Sheacon Planning Committee for organizing this and making it all happen! You guys are the best!

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Sheacon 2022 T-shirts!

Greetings, Champions! For those of you who are excited for Sheacon, I’m thrilled to share with you that we have t-shirts available to purchase featuring RayJay’s lovely art to commemorate this year’s Sheacon!

There are two types: , the basic T-shirt, and the slightly more expensive V-Neck T-shirt. (Note: the basic T-shirt runs a little big, however they’re 100% cotton, so expect shrinkage!)

If you’re interested, make sure you order soon so the t-shirts have time to arrive before Sheacon! (Which runs July 29th, 30th, and 31st!)

Stay tuned for upcoming info about the Sheacon panel times, and more! (I’ll also give a health update later in July, so keep an eye out for that.) Until then, thanks for reading!

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Happy Mother’s and Father’s Day!

Time for another episode of “Kitty forgot she wrote this short story twice in a row!”

Recently I realized that–even though I completely forgot about them–I have themed short stories for Father’s day and Mother’s day!

The Father’s Day short story is for the King Arthur and her Knights series. King Arthur stars the modern-day woman, Britt Arthurs, masquerading as the legendary King Arthur. To read it, click this link–although in fair warning it might hit in you the feels, especially if you’ve recently read the ending of the series.

And since I completely forgot about Mother’s Day back in May let me take this opportunity to mention the Magiford short, Parent’s Night, and the Snow White short, A Mother’s Responsibility. The Magiford short story is more about parents in general, but the Snow White short story is focused on the relationship between a step-mom and daughter!

In conclusion, Happy Parents’ day to everyone!

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Book-fun!

Hello, Champions! Last month’s video was a smashing success–it is so much faster for me to do these videos, so I’m going to try experimenting with recording one once a month! This month’s discussion topic is the trope, Found Family! I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for watching! (PS: Youtube and Facebook always have THE BEST icons for my videos, buwahah!)

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Available in Paperback!

Let’s give a cheer, some books we’ve been waiting for in paperback format are finally here! That’s right, the Pack of Dawn and Destiny trilogy is finally available in paperback!

A big thank you to Meg for making this happen! She formats the paperbacks and takes care of the reported errors (which is why we always wait a few months until after the first book releases before putting them in paperback) and does a lot of work to get my stories into a paperback format.

We’ll be working to get Pack of Dawn and Destiny made into audio books later this year, but it’s a pretty long process depending on the narrators, so they probably won’t be available until 2023.

But in even more fun news, the Robyn Hood books got new covers, an edit from a lovely Champion who I am sooo thankful for, and paperback versions, so for you loyal Champions who have been asking for them for so many years, they’re here!

Enjoy the new paperbacks, Champions! I’ll be waiting for mine for another week or so–they’re always slow with my author copies–but thank you for reading!

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Book Talk!

This summer I decided I want to try experimenting with video as a way to connect with you Champions and our community, so I am pleased to share my first (and very unpolished/unedited) attempt!

As part two of this little experiment, I also joined TikTok....though I’m not certain I’m going to stay on there. (As I said, this is all just testing things out!)

Let me know what you think of this experiment in the comments! My team and I will be watching as this is an easier way for me to connect despite my health issues, so I’m trying to make it work! (That’s also why I’m not editing it–I’m attempting to make this as streamlined and fast as possible.) Otherwise, if you enjoyed it let me know if there’s something specific you’d like me to ramble about! Until next time, thanks for reading–and watching!

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Sheacon 2022 Authors!

I’m happy to announce the lineup of authors coming to Sheacon 2022! Attending this year is: Regency author Sally Britton,  regency author Sarah Courtney, fairy tale author Emily Deady, fantasy author Joseph Lallo, and fantasy/fairy tale author Kate Stradling!

These authors represent a wide variety of genres–for you Sohma fans, Joseph Lallo even has aRPG book–and have a massive library of books between them all, so stock up your “To Be Read” lists!

Additionally, the Sheacon planners wanted to give you a chance to ask these visiting authors questions. Click here to submit questions for my Q&A Panel, and click here to submit questions for our guests!
(Important note from the Sheacon planners: Please submit your questions about books, future plans, writing style/process, etc, for Kitty or any of our guest panelists before July 2nd!)

Finally, as a reminder, this year’s Sheacon is July 29th, 30th, and 31st! I hope to see you there!

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2021: Year in Review

So this post is very long overdue, but between all the Magiford fun, and the mayhem of an announcement I had to make, my annual wrap up is coming out in spring. That’s way off timewise, but we did some awesome stuff last year that I want to make sure we remember!

In 2021 I…Wrote Trial of Magic, book 4 of Fairy Tale Enchantress, which, WOW, took a couple years off my life. It clocked in as the longest book I’ve ever written, hitting at just over 193,000 words…which longer than any two Magiford books smashed together. BUT, this book had plot-things I’d spent years of my life setting up, and I was ever so pleased that you Champions loved it!Released my second Urban Fantasy series, Court of Midnight and Deception! This series was a surprise hit for me. Fae don’t always do great in urban fantasy, but Leila and her crew were my best selling series ever at the time (Pip and her Pack have given her a run for her money, but that’s for the 2022 reflection post! ). I also wrote The Queen’s Crown in 2021, so it was a busy year writing wise because I also…Wrote Pack of Dawn and Destiny, and learned a lot about wolves in the process! As you all know, PoDaD has done amazing, but that’s something we’ll have to celebrate in 2022’s reflection post next year. Had some really unfortunate health issues, but with some support from the Community and the help of my team, we pulled together and I still got PoDaD written!In 2021 the KM Shea Team…Worked together to release the audiobook versions of Hall of Blood and Mercy. This trilogy marks the first audiobook–produced by Bee Audio–that my team finished since I signed a contract with Tantor for Red Rope of Fate. A huge thank you to Cimorrene and BookMadWoman for listening to/editing all three HoBaM audiobooks–it was a time consuming job and they were amazing for pulling it off!Welcomed a new discord moderator, BookMadWoman, to the Mod Squad!Commissioned a bunch of new covers, which I’ll FINALLY be releasing this year with the help of Meg who has diligently been going through my backlist books, updating backmatter, fixing errors, and updating copyrights to reflect the new covers. The first batch you’ve already seen–The King Arthur boxset cover and the Snow Queen books–but there are a few more waiting for their unveiling later this year!Introduced the Retha Guild Emblems in the AM Sohma newsletter, as well as the Vocab Comics. While the horrible art for the vocab terms are my own handiwork, the gorgeous Guild Emblems are done by our very talented RayJay!Brought new meaning to the word Prank while headed by Community Manager Vin! There was a Groundhog’s Day Discord prank in which the Mod Squad and I repeated our posts for two days in a row, a Star Wars prank in which we split our discord forces between Jedi and Sith, and the Facebook Champions aided me in multiple prank wars against my author Pal, Brittany Fichter. (Love you, Brittany!)Released our “KM Shea Book Matchmaker” quiz, which took a looot of testing from some discord Champions, so thank you to everyone who helped with this massive project!In 2021 the Community…Threw Sheacon 2021! I could make an entire post about this–in fact, I HAVE, click here the post that has links to all the panels, a summary of what happened and list of everyone who helped make this event happen! We had so many amazing authors speak at Sheacon 2021, like Kimberly Rogers, Tara Grayce, Julie Hall, and more, and there were so many fun games–like Puzzles, Drawing with a Twist, and Riddles! But to me, what made the event so special was seeing the community pull together for an entire weekend of book-themed fun. I want to give one more standing ovation to the Sheacon Planners for all the work they put into last year’s event. You guys are amazing, and we’re all so thankful for the time and effort you spent so we could have that fun!Released a Rumpelstiltskin Audio Production, which made its debut in Sheacon 2021! This project features the incredible voice acting talent of so many Champions, you need to listen to it ASAP! Here’s a link to the project, complete with the cast list!Showed off their amazing art skills by submitting art for the Fanart gallery, and using the new line of coloring book pages that are available for free! (The amazing coloring book artists are Olena Shkavron and Hend_Draw!)Discord server made me laugh endlessly with their theories on everything ranging from Timeless Fairy Tale’s “Clowncil” to the mysterious cat heroine featured in Magiford. Reading your observations, predictions, and comments is such a treat, and you never fail to make me laugh. Thank you! <3Continued to grow with the KM Shea/AM Sohma Champions Facebook group! Whenever I pop in on the group you all have the BEST book recommendations, and I can’t tell you how much it warms my heart to see you discussing books–whether it’s mine or others–and just generally having a fun time. Book people are the best sort of people!Made me laugh endlessly with their observations over the “Which Fae Court Do You Belong To?” Quiz, which we launched in 2021 as well!Did some writing themselves as Vin has continued to host the Wednesday weekly writing sprints! (In NaNoWriMo, she hosted those writing sprints multiple times per week, and both she and I were impressed with the fortitude of the champions who showed up, had fun, and got words written!)Threw smaller community focused parties! Our Lord of the Rings Online kinship had several fun parties, and Vin hosted a few amazing animal crossing parties, including a board game themed one that ended with sumo wrestling. (If you have a Nintendo Switch, or you have a kid who has a Nintendo Switch, I highly suggest you sign up for a party–they are so much fun!)

 

Over the past few months I’ve had the opportunity to sit back and look at everything we’ve done since I first started releasing books back in ye-olden-days of 2012 with Princess Ahira, the community, team, and I have come so far! Thank you, Champions, for joining me on this crazy ride. I can’t wait to see what shenanigans we get into with the rest of 2022!

 

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Need a break?

My health issues slowed me down a bit in April, which meant I had more time to relish in my most guilty of guilty pleasures: Crafting! Or more correctly, watching people craft. (I can’t do anything DIY or crafty worth a hill of beans.)

I found so much cool stuff, that I decided to show you some of my favorite finds! I am aware that as an author it’s a little odd I’m discussing an entirely different entertainment form, but all of these craft makers and creators were so comforting when I was feeling miserable, and I’m hoping they might be able to bring you a bit of joy today, too. (And don’t worry, I’m feeling a lot better now!)

So, let’s look at some of my favorite crafting/creating youtube channels!

To start our list, here’s Sweet Impact!

Sweet Impact is a cake making/decorating channel, in which our intrepid baker shows off his amazing decorating skills in one minute clips! Highly recommend if you’re stuck waiting for an appointment or in line to pick up your kiddo, particularly since his videos are perfectly formatted for cell phone viewing. (Also, Sweet Impact is kid safe!)

Up next we have one of my favorite seamstresses ever, Micarah Tewers!

Micarah serves the incredibly niche market of funny/entertaining sewing tutorials. Seriously, even if you have zero interest in learning how to sew, Micarah is bound to entertain you with her unique and quirky humor. She’s made a slew of Disney Princess dresses that I’m sure my fairy tale Champions will love, but I chose to share this particular tutorial of hers as many of you have shared with me that the Barbie movies are actually quite entertaining! (Micarah is also kid friendly!)

What about if you’re in the mood for something that’s more on the artistic and soothing side of crafting? I’ve got you covered with my next pick, Azukibean Hobbies

Azukibean Hobbies is based in Australia, and she does a lot of adorable and creative crafts, from making tiny books with washi tape, to DIY bookmarks! Her channel has a lot of bright colors and soothing music, with no talking at all–but she does have subtitles so make sure you turn those on! I particularly like this video I selected to share with this post, because the Book Nook kit she makes is available on Etsy! (There’s actually a slew of them, including a forest one with a massive deer that I’ve been eyeing up for months!) So if you’ve ever been interested in a book nook kit, this will give you a pretty good idea of the work that goes into them. (Azukibean is also 100% kid safe!)

For something equally as memorizing, but in a totally different crafting style, I recommend Royalty Soaps!

Royalty Soaps is run by the youtuber Katie–the Duchess of suds! She’s got lots videos with a wide variety soap designs–she’s done everything from Lord of the Rings to Disney Princess designs, more recently she did a cow soap, and she’s also done a series of Studio Ghibli soaps! Royalty Soaps is perfect to have playing in the background if you’re cooking/cleaning, or to watch if you’re just relaxing after a long day of work! (Royalty soaps is fully kid safe!)

Finally, we have one of the most well known DIY-ers/crafters team in the nerd realm, Nerd Forge!

Nerd Forge is a Norwegian couple-team, and they do everything from giant model replicas of castles, to book bindings, book nooks, resin casting, cosplay props, and more. If you want to see amazing crafts that most of us mere mortals couldn’t possibly hope to recreate, this is your channel! Their creations–and the work they do to bring them to life–are amazing! Important: Nerd Forge gets a PG-13 rating for swearing! 

Do you have any crafters/DIY-ers you like to watch–or even projects of your own? Leave a comment down below to share! Until next time, thanks for reading, Champions!

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Sheacon 2022

I’ve got some awesome news/updates for Sheacon 2022, Champions!

First of all, a date has been chosen! Mark your calendars for July 29th, 30th, and 31st! For those of you who are new to the community, Sheacon is a weekend of book-dedicated community fun held on a private discord server. We have guest panelists, games–like my favorite, Drawing With A Twist where moderators give piece by piece descriptions of a scene from one of my books and you franticly try to fix your personal drawing to match their description–activities, and more! (This year, RayJay even made us the above icon! The cat with the crown is my favorite part, buwahah!)

As the weekend draws closer we’ll release instructions about joining Sheacon, but you do need to be a member of my Discord server so you can get an invite to Sheacon! Additionally, In June I’ll announce our guest author-speakers and some of the planned activities, so stay tuned for more information.

In other Sheacon news–which some of you might have heard previously–I’ve added another member to the Shea Team as the chief Sheacon planner: Cindy!

Cindy has been helping plan Sheacon since our first year back in 2020. As an official team member, she’ll use her awe-inspiring skills of organization and leadership to map out Sheacon, and is responsible for inviting and scheduling the authors/panelists who speak during the convention, plotting out everything that needs to be done in order to make Sheacon happen, and leads all the other amazing volunteers in everything from vetting games to helping me find artists to commission freebies I give away to you Champions.

This year we’ve got a wonderful pack of volunteers who are helping Cindy take on this task! Without them, Sheacon wouldn’t happen, so a huge thank you to: Anneli, Battatack, Bluefires, Chelsc, Cheybri, Cwang, Dino, Ellarose, Gwen, Kay, Lavalectrix, LouBerry, Miriel, Narel, PumpkinPi, Rachel, wish.I.was.in.a.fairytale, Wertful, and last–but certainly not least–Zooknar.

I’m very aware that having an entire online conference dedicated to…uh…me (which, I feel really sheepish even saying that) is rare and special. I’m so proud of our community, and I’m happy and honored to be a part of it, and there’s a part of me that still thinks this whole thing is a dream. I can’t thank you Champions enough–from those like Cindy and the Sheacon volunteers to everyone who comes to Sheacon to join in the fun. Thank you for making the community so welcoming, inviting, and fun. I can’t wait to see you all at the conference, beginning July 29th!

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