K.M. Shea's Blog, page 2
April 2, 2024
Order of Blood and Ruin: Available for Pre-Order
The final book in the Magic on Main Street trilogy, The Games of Enemies and Allies is available for preorder, and is releasing in a few days on April 5th!
And for today’s news I have the book description I get to share with you! (IMPORTANT: This description contains SPOILERS for the previous book in the series! If you haven’t started reading this series yet, you’ll want to skip reading this description!)
What else is coming this week? There is not going to be a Spot It! tracker for this story because there aren’t any new cameos to watch for. But I am definitely bringing back this game for future series as it was so much fun!
I’ll also be publishing a new Book Spoilers blog post so you can discuss the book and all your theories with other Champions right here on the website. Or if you prefer, you can join the conversation on Discord or Facebook.
And I am once again going to be offering a bonus short story when we get 100 honest reviews across Goodreads + Amazon for The Games of Enemies and Allies. Thank you in advance for every Champion who leaves a review on Goodreads or Amazon, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with other readers. The last two book releases reached the 100 threshold in record time, and I’m hoping we have a similar response this time because I am sooo excited for you to read this short story – it was a ton of fun for me to write.
Amazon.com | All other Amazon stores
They used to be enemies. Now they’re partners.
I never imagined Considine Maledictus—one of the most powerful vampires alive—would go from ruling the streets at night to joining the supernatural task force just to become my partner, but here we are.
Considine claims he “fancies” me. He also used to hide his identity and pose as my charming next-door neighbor, so forgive me if I don’t believe him.
As bad as that is, my work life is worse.
My slayer identity—kept a secret since a lone slayer is an easy target—has been leaked by a suspect from a previous case. This brings a new level of danger to my job, especially since the suspect is obviously holding a grudge against me.
But I’m more worried about my city. Bad things are going down, and whatever is stirring in the shadows is more than I can handle alone. Can I trust Considine to watch my back when he used to be the biggest threat to my life?
And why is it that despite everything that has happened, a part of me wonders if it’s possible for a slayer and vampire to be together…
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March 27, 2024
Order of Blood and Ruin: How to Get Ready!
Let’s get ready to rock and roll, Champions, as we are about 9 days away from the release of the Order of Blood and Ruin, the final book in the Magic on Main Street trilogy!
Many of you have been reading each book as it is released but others have been waiting until all three books are out before you start. Since there’s been a lot of fun games and short stories as part of this series, I want to make sure all of you are “in the know” for all the fun stuff, so please enjoy this handy checklist!
Before you start the series (or book 3):I highly recommend you read the Hall of Blood & Mercy trilogy first if you have time. The Magic on Main Street trilogy is almost a direct sequel to the Hall of Blood and Mercy series and you will better catch the cameos and other references if you have recently read the Hall of Blood and Mercy series.Read the prequel short story: A Vampire Visit. In this story Killian (from Hall of Blood and Mercy) introduces you to the main hero of Magic on Main Street, and you quickly learn a lot more important facts about Killian Drake!Play a round of Old Maid and Go Fish. I know this sounds crazy but if you are familiar with the rules it will make some scenes in the books make more sense!Review the Magiford Series timeline so you understand how this new series fits with the other trilogies. Click here for the timeline.I have more suggestions for how to prepare for the new series, including a cool ASMR video I found, on this blog post.Get the books:Book 1: Amazon.com | All other Amazon stores
Book 2: Amazon.com | All other Amazon stores
Pre-order Book 3: Amazon.com | All other Amazon stores
Book 1 Goodies:Spot it! Cameo tracker (Hard Version): For this series we introduce a new game where you can use the tracking page provided in this blog post to catch each cameo you find from another Magiford series. This is the version of the tracker that only includes an image hint and doesn’t list the name of the character or place.Spot it! Cameo tracker (Easy version): This version of the Cameo tracker includes the image hint + the name of the character/place so you can use it for hints if you get stuck.Read the bonus short story: Family Bonding This bonus short story is a prequel to the series so it doesn’t spoil any events from the books, but it gives you a closer look at Jade’s background and the relationship she has with her family.Book 2 Goodies:Spot it! Cameo tracker (Hard Version): There is a new tracking page for all the new cameos found in this book (any character or place that appeared in book #1 doesn’t appear on the book #2 tracking page). Once again this is the hard version of the tracker so it only includes an image hint.Spot it! Cameo tracker (Easy Version): This is the version of the cameo tracker for book #2 that includes the image hint + the name of the character/place.Read the bonus short story: Annoyed Eminence This bonus short story features some of the most popular Drake vampires but it also has massive spoilers for book #2!Book 3 Goodies:Make your own book reading smoothie! The main character Jade eats a lot of smoothies so if you want to make one to enjoy while you are reading you can check out this Smoothie blog post for my personal tips, or see the recipes I list on my Magiford Recipes Pinterest board.We aren’t doing a Spot it! cameo tracker for book #3 because there aren’t any new cameos to watch out for, but you will continue to see characters + places from the first two books appear again!There will be a new bonus short story released on this blog once The Order of Blood and Ruin reaches 100 reviews across Goodreads + Amazon. I can’t wait to share this new short with you – you get to see a lot more characters other than Jade + Considine!The last thing to do to prepare for the new release? Get lots of sleep! This third book is looong, so if you’re planning to read late into the night, start fortifying yourself now!
And that’s everything, Champions. Consider yourselves ready for The Order of Blood and Ruin!
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March 20, 2024
Short Story Audio: The Duke’s New Clothes
I’m taking a break from all the Magiford discussion to share this special treat just for the fairy tale readers among us!
On the Finding Fantasy Reads podcast fantasy author Karyne Norton narrates a new short story every week by a different fantasy author. She only features clean fantasy and if you check the Youtube channel for the podcast you will see she has already shared short stories from several authors you recognize from Shea-con including: Kate Stradling, Deborah Grace White, and Hanna Sandvig. Karyne narrates each story herself and she does a great job with adding inflection and overall providing a nice listening experience.
This week Karyne featured two of my short stories on her podcast: The Duke’s New Clothes and the Robber Maiden! Click here to listen on Youtube! Or to see the other listening options on the podcast website click here.
The Duke’s New Clothes is a bonus short story for the Fairy Tale Enchantress series (it is mentioned in book #1 but you don’t see it in the book). The Robber Maiden is a bonus short story for the Snow Queen saga, and the rest of the short stories for this series are in the audio book boxset on Audible. If you prefer to read instead of listen you can read both short stories on the Freebies page.
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March 13, 2024
2025 Readers Take Denver Event
I’m so excited to announce this! I’ll be at the Readers Take Denver event: February 6-9th, 2025 in Aurora, Colorado.
This is my first ever reader event and lucky for me it has been going on for years so the know how to bring the book fun! This will be your chance to get stuff signed (yes, I will be doing signings), and have a great time attending panels and talking with other readers about books!
The Readers Take Denver is a multi genre event and the main hosts are Thriller authors so be warned that this event is not limited to sweet/clean books or only fantasy writers. You can check the current list of authors attending here and confirm who else is attending.
I’m announcing this almost 11 months before the event because you have to buy a ticket to attend. Historically this event has sold out months before the scheduled dates so if you definitely want to attend I recommend you buy your ticket soon.
Get your 2025 Readers Take Denver tickets here.
The 2024 Readers Take Denver event is scheduled for April this year (I will NOT be attending the 2024 event!). It is already sold out but you can look at the 2024 event schedule to get an idea of what kinds of panels and sessions they typically have planned.
Why am I attending this event? Because my author pal, Julie Hall, is also attending and has powerful persuasion skills. This is an experiment for me and I’m not committing to any other events until I successfully survive this one.
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March 6, 2024
Magic on Main Street Smoothies!
Everyone loved the blog post with Greyson’s Hot Chocolate Recipe from the Pack of Dawn and Destiny series, so I wanted to do something similar for smoothies since those are Jade’s beverage of choice in the Magic on Main street series.
I don’t have a specific recipe to share but instead I’m going to share some of my top tips with you! If you weren’t aware, I’ve had a lot of teeth procedures from 2021-2024 and all of them required me to go on a liquid/very soft foods only diet afterwards. Because of this I explored a lot of different smoothie options and the smoothies Jade makes in the Magic on Main Street series are based on my own personal testing. (It’s also why Jade has a lot of veggie/fruit smoothies instead of dessert smoothies. I ate copious amounts of ice cream and popsicles during my liquid diets, so for my smoothies I focused on trying to get fruits, veggies, and protein. I used a lot of yogurt and peanut butter.)
Tip #1: Make sure you have the right equipment.
You need a really good blender if you are going to make smoothies – make sure your blender is capable of crushing ice even if you aren’t going to use ice cubes (see next tip). I eventually upgraded to a Ninja Fit Blender which I don’t love enough to say I’m a “super fan” but it does do a better job of crushing up the frozen stuff compared to the regular blender I was using before. A wooden spoon with a long handle is also great if you need to dig around in the blender (the spinach is the biggest culprit of this).
Tip #2: Use frozen cucumbers or carrots instead of ice cubes.
I don’t like watery smoothies, so instead of using ice cubes I cut cucumbers into slices and put them side by side in a baggie (like cookie dough on a baking sheet) and froze them. The reason why you have to put them flat and side by side is so they don’t stick together – otherwise you will end up with a giant blob of frozen cucumbers and you would need an industrial blender to break up. I used cucumbers as my based because they don’t have a super strong flavor on their own.
Special note: You can also freeze carrots and use them instead of cucumbers! To save time, buy shredded carrots and toss them in the freezer, but make sure you blend them well in the smoothie as the first step, or you’ll have gritty bits like Jade occasionally had. Neither cucumbers or carrots will give your smoothie a very strong flavor, which is why I usually chose to make a base with one of these two veggies. Though if you use a lot of these for your base, and a lot of spinach, it will feel like you’re eating an iced salad, sooooo keep that in mind.
Tip #3: Use whatever other frozen ingredients you can instead of fresh ingredients.
Similar to tip #2, to avoid having to use ice I would use frozen fruit whenever possible instead of fresh fruit because it meant I didn’t have to use ice, and most frozen items shatter so they pulverize better than fresh items (fresh items tend to mush). You don’t have to buy them frozen either, I cut up so many bananas and froze them flat just like the cucumber slices so they would blend up well.
Special note: The amount of fruit you use directly impacts how delicious your smoothie is! The more fruit you use, the sweeter and more delicious your smoothie will be!
Tip #4: Spinach doesn’t change the flavor much but it will probably change the color to green (which turns an unappetizing gray when frozen).
I love spinach and I added a LOT of spinach to my smoothies but yeah, just a word of warning that combining spinach with most fruits is going to make your smoothie grey or brown-grey if you freeze it after making it, and even if you don’t freeze it, it will turn bright green. This situation happens to Jade in the Magic on Main Street series since like me she was trying to pack spinach into her smoothies.
Tip #5: Frozen pineapple + sweetened condensed milk = a Dole Whip dupe!
When I was sick of my veggie packed smoothies and I didn’t want ice cream, I’d treat myself to a homemade version of the famous Disney Land/Disney World treat, a dole whip! The internet has hundreds of recipes that you can use for reference, but after a lot of experimenting I found the magic ingredients are FROZEN pineapple (it must be frozen!!) and sweetened condensed milk, so watch for recipes that contain those two specific ingredients!
Kitty’s basic smoothie process:
Start with the frozen cucumbers or carrots and pulverize/blend–it becomes powdery, like veggie snow.Add fruit as desired and blend (some ideas of what I’ve used: bananas, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and avocados (but not all at the same time!))Add some milk so you can mix the ingredients–since I didn’t ever use ice which waters the smoothie down, my smoothies would be THICK, which some blenders might not be able to handle, so you might need to add milk throughout the process.Add spinachAdd other desired ingredients (examples: peanut butter, maple syrup/sugar, chocolate chips, or Greek yogurt)Blend and add additional milk to make it less thick if needed.If sad, make a Dole Whip Dupe.
There you go, Champions! This has been, “Kitty’s Guide to Not Starve While on a Liquid Diet If You’re Sick of Soup.” If you have a smoothie recipe and you’d like to share it, post it in the comments down below! Until next week, thanks for reading!
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February 29, 2024
2024 Sweet Fantasy Romance
It’s a long wait until the beginning of April when the final book in the Magic on Main Street series will be released. So to give you something to read in the meanwhile I teamed up with some other authors to give you a collection of free short stories and novellas to choose from!
Even better, all the books are in the fantasy genre and they all have romance as a main plot point or a sub-plot!
Quick note about the heat level! This promotion is only for sweet/clean books and our Discord Manager, Vin, spent a lot of time vetting the other authors to make sure they meet that requirement. She didn’t have time to read every book they’ve ever written but she did her best to make sure their content matches my books. However, it’s still wise to check reviews on Goodreads or Amazon before you plunge into a new author’s books.
Click here to see the list of available short stories/novellas – for some of them you may have to agree to signup for the author’s newsletter first but you can get my book without signing up for my newsletter.
Most of these books are meant to be samplers or prequels to another book or series the author has written. For example, I included The Princess and the Pea, which is a prequel to my Timeless Fairy Tales series. So if you like any of these stories the author probably has a lot more you will enjoy on Amazon!
Once again, click here for the full list of free books, including my novella! Happy Reading, Champions, I hope you find some great new reads
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February 22, 2024
Magiford Side Character Short Stories
Fun Fact Time! Did you notice that the short story bonus I release for book #2 in a Magiford series is always from the perspective of a side character?
I’ve been doing this intentionally from the start because I only do viewpoints from the heroine + hero in the book, and it’s fun to see what the side characters are thinking/going through! (Sometimes the other bonus short stories are also from the perspective of a side character but I always make sure the book #2 is from a side character’s point of view.)
Let’s take a look at the side character stories I’ve written for the past book #2 releases!
The Annoyed Eminence – Magic on Main Street #2
I know this short story just came out but I wanted to make sure you saw it was available, especially because I haveseen Champions wondering what the Drakes’ reaction was to the events near the end of book #2. When I was writing the scene from Considine’s perspective I knew this is what was going on in the background (and I was laughing about Killian’s suffering) and I was so happy I got to share this as a short story! (Warning: This short story has massive spoilers for book #2, so don’t read it if you haven’t finished book #2.)
A Jaded Vampire – Hall of Blood and Mercy #2
Since the Hall of Blood and Mercy series is the series that overlaps the most with the Magic on Main Street series, let’s talk about this one next! This side story is once again focused on vampires but this time it is from the perspective of Rupert! Yes, Rupert the vampire stars in multiple short stories! This story gives a look at Rupert’s backstory but it does include spoilers for the first two books in the Hall of Blood and Mercy series.
A Lawful Wolf – Pack of Dawn and Destiny #2
The Pack of Dawn and Destiny series is the first time I wrote a Magiford Supernatural City series that visited Magiford but the main location was another place (the small town of Timber Ridge). Because of this, even though it takes place at the same time as the Magic on Main Street series the characters don’t interact at all. This short story has massive spoilers for book #2 (United) to the point where all I can think to say that wouldn’t be a huge spoiler is this short give you more perspective as to how the humans of the town view the local werewolves.
Enemies, Friends, or Terror? – Court of Midnight and Deception #2
I got carried away when I was writing the Court of Midnight and Deception series and I include WAY TOO MANY side characters! I love all of them so I regret nothing. In the books I gave more page time to Skye and Indigo so for this short I wanted to focus on Eventide and Azure (Eventide is the faun that helps Leila a lot at the beginning and Azure is the naiad who is Leila’s driver and in charge of the cars owned by the Night Court). It also gives you a perspective of how the Night Court views the relationship between Leila and Rigel.
A Clocktower Meeting – Gate of Myth and Power #2
This short story packs a double punch because you get to see the Regional Committee of Magic characters plus a very annoyed Aristide, Ker, and Charon. It’s technically a prequel, so it won’t really spoil anything for the main series but it is likely to be confusing if you haven’t read at least book #1 in the Gate of Myth and Power series. Did you notice the build-in-progress clocktower cameo in the Magic on Main Street series?
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February 14, 2024
Magiford Sale: Gate of Myth and Power
Happy Valentine’s Day, Champions! Valentine’s Day continues to be one of my favorite holidays–an entire day dedicated to sweets and showing everyone I love how special they are to me? Sign me up!
This year I have a fabulous Magiford sale to give you as a gift (it’s almost as great a chocolate!) the first book in the Gate of Myth and Power series is FREE and the second book is only $0.99. The King’s Captive will be free for only 5 days so grab your copy now while it is available. Feel free to pass this super sale along to any of your friends or family who you think might like these books. I love gifting free books to non-Champions too!
Get your free book 1: Amazon.com | All other Amazon stores
Discount book 2: Amazon.com | All other Amazon stores
This series takes place after the current Magic on Main Street series but there are some Jade and Considine cameos in it. The Gate of Myth and Power series was my chance to write a Hades and Persephone retelling but set it in Magiford with my own special spin (which is why I made it so the male hero doesn’t realize he kidnapped the heroine in my version).
Here’s the description from book 1 if you want a little more info about the series:
I can turn into a housecat.
It’s a fun magic, except in a world filled with vampires and werewolves, it doesn’t exactly make me a powerhouse. Instead, the supernatural community has classified me as an outcast, which means one thing: Picking on me is open season all day, every day.
The local fae are the worst of all, and it’s during one of their regular “capture the cat-girl” sessions that I shift into my cat form and meet HIM for the first time.
Noctus is so powerful his magic radiates off him like a sun, and my fae captors can barely look in his general direction. And then my life gets even more terrifying when Noctus decides to take me with him. As a pet.
Why did he pick today to “adopt don’t shop” a cat?
It gets worse when I realize he’s an elf, a ruling race of supernaturals that was supposedly killed off centuries ago.
But he’s not just any elf, no. He’s an elven king, with heaps of secrets to protect. Secrets that I am quickly learning since he includes his new pet in everything from breaking into buildings to inspect classified paperwork to tracking down sketchy supernaturals.
All this means if he gets even a hint that I’m not a real cat, I’m going to find out firsthand how elves treat their prisoners.
So, escaping Noctus is priority #1. How hard can it be? (Answer: very.)
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February 9, 2024
FebFest 2024
Every summer we have SeaCon which is a fan organized event hosted on Discord with guest authors and fun activities. Last year we experimented with a mini event in February and this year the SheaCon Planners are bringing back the fun! You can look forward to fun activities like bingo and trivia!
Here’s a special message direct from the planners with all the details:
Come one, come all to SheaCon FebFest 2024! For a few hours only, Kitty’s discord server will be hosting special Sheacon activities. We hope to see you there on Saturday, February 24th starting at 1 pm US Central time. The channels for the event will magically appear here on Kitty’s server when it is time to party.
If you haven’t joined Kitty’s discord server yet, learn how to here!
Sadly, I (Kitty) will not be attending FebFest this year because I will still be frantically working on the final book in the Magic on Main Street series. But it will still be an amazing time and there will be a lot of fun things you can do even if you haven’t read all my books. I hope you have a blast!
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February 5, 2024
Magiford Series Timeline
Hello Champions! I have noticed a lot of confusion regarding how the Magic on Main Street series fits with the rest of the Magiford series. Which makes sense! There are now five series in the Magiford Supernatural City timeline, and I went back in time with the Magic on Main Street books so the confusion in understandable.
To make things easier here is a graphic showing the timeline, and I’m going to add some extra notes to this blog post as well:
The four series in the middle of the graphic (including the series for Shiloh which isn’t written yet and won’t be coming for a while) are all related to each other because they all deal with the search the Paragon has been doing and the reason he is hanging out in the Midwest. (Read Gate of Myth and Power series for more details about his search, I’m trying to avoid dropping spoiler bombs here, hahaha.) The other books, including Pack of Dawn and Destiny, Magic on Main Street, and the unnamed series I am writing next are obviously part of the same Magiford world but they aren’t related to the Paragon’s search which is also the reason why he does not have a major role in these books. You can think of them as spin offs!
While I am talking about the Paragon: NO the Paragon is NOT the ML for Shiloh’s series or my next series. I haven’t decided yet if I will write a series for him – if I do it will be several years in the future before it happens.
As you can see in this graphic we went back in time with the Magic on Main Street series and these books directly overlap with the timeline of the Pack of Dawn and Destiny series.
And yes, the next series is also going “back in time” because it will take place before the events of the Gate of Myth and Power series. This next series is also related to Jade + Considine’s story, and that’s all you get to hear for now because anything more is spoiler territory for Jade’s final book!
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