K.M. Shea's Blog, page 21

Series Experiment: Fae Emperor

Warning: Today’s post has big spoilers for Court of Midnight and Deception! Do not proceed if you haven’t read it yet!

When I wrote the Hall of Blood and Mercy series, I mentioned I pulled a few experiments. I had repeating scenes that you see in every book–in HoBaM it was dinner with the vampires, in CoMaD it’s the cafe scenes–that I played around with, and I experimented with plotting systems, characters, and more. (If you want to read more, click here!)

In Court of Midnight and Deception I carried out another mini experiment–or perhaps we could even call it a mini quest–and that was combatting power creep.

Power creep is what you see in long book series/TV series/movies as the heroes acquire new skills that make them increasingly more powerful and are then pitted against increasingly powerful villains. (It’s also commonly called Power Escalation.)

You may start a series where the villain is threatening the city and in order to save the city our hero has to learn the most ultimate of all magic skills: Power XYZ. At the end of the book, the hero learns XYZ and is able to defeat the villain. But what can the writer do for the next book? They have to up the tension, of course, which means the baddie will now threaten the entire country, and power XYZ isn’t strong enough to overcome it! The hero has to learn a new ultimate skill!

You’ll see this most often in fantasy shows/books/movies, but it’s pretty prevalent in entertainment in general.

The danger of power creep is that it can make things feel boring. By the third time it happens, you know the Hero is going to get the new ultimate skill to conquer the villain–who is now the 5th generation of badness our hero is facing and frankly not frightening given that you’ve seen this happen again and again and again.

Power creep tends to especially be a problem with magically inclined heroines/heroes. Their magical powers keep increasing so they can face the problems they come across–because they have to since the hero needs to face everything all by themselves, right?

Leila, as an inexperienced queen with a broke Court and ungrateful citizens was in serious danger of experiencing power creep. Sure, I could make her charisma what wins her people over, and give her a hefty amount of magic so she can do cool things like wake up a hydra, and there would be little danger there, particularly since Queen Rime is around and she can kick Leila’s butt any day.

The real danger would be if Leila was the one to save the night realm all by herself–talk about over powered!–and if she also became the sole figure the fae rallied behind.

The problem was…Leila needed to become the monarch the fae look to. Given what I have planned for future series that follow the Paragon’s search (more on this coming in future posts!) I needed the fae to get it together and collectively wake up and stop all the infighting.

Leila is best suited for that for all the reasons laid out in the books…but the power creep!!

So I tempered her powers by requiring her Court to stand with her to save the Night Realm and even to get her wings. She still doesn’t have wings unless her people are there and standing in the gap between Leila and the Night Realm for her. But that still wasn’t quite enough to steer her into the clear.

Leila saves her Court–which was bankrupt, on the brink of destruction, and the biggest dumpster fire ever–in the span of a year. If I added into it that she needed to become the fae empress–which requires the blessing/support of Courts from multiple regions, not just the Midwest?? I’d never be able to pull it off in three books–there would be too many Courts to introduce–and it would make Leila ridiculously powerful in the span of a few months. No thanks.

So, I decided to slowly have Leila gather additional support in the background of future trilogies. She’s got the Midwest behind her, but as we know there are lots of fae Courts out there in other regions–including all of Rime’s siblings that rule the Winter Courts.

And giving Leila the opportunity to keep growing is something unique I can pull off because we’ll keep seeing her. Hazel is similar. She’s the Elite’s trainee, not the Elite herself–it’s kind of like she’s got training wheels on, so it shows how important she is without making her the most-important-wizard-in-the-whole-universe.

Hazel and/or Leila working by themselves won’t be able to fix magic and save supernaturals. Even if the two of them work together they still couldn’t pull it off. It’s going to require help from a lot of groups/people, including supernaturals who are older, stronger, and more experienced than them.

And THAT is how I figured out how to combat power creep in this series, muwahahah!

I hope you enjoyed this peek behind the curtains of my mind. I typically do have some sort of writing issue/axe to grind with every series I write. For Leila’s series, it was power creep!

Thanks for reading, Champions, I hope you have a fun-filled week!

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2020 Reflection

We’re briefly interrupting the Court of Midnight and Deception themed posts to take part in an annual tradition!

I’ve made it into a tradition to look back at the end of the year and reflect on everything I’ve accomplished, and see how the community has grown. (You can check out my 2019, 2018, and 2017 Reflections if you’re curious!) And since 2021 has dawned upon us, it’s time to share all that I have learned! (Admittedly…a little later than I planned, ahahah.)

In 2020 I…

Wrote SO MUCH! I launched the entire Hall of Blood and Mercy trilogy, Prince’s Bargain (Elves of Lessa #3), and two of the three Court of Midnight and Deception books! MY FINGERS HURT!!Went through the entire Brandon Sanderson online course–again. (Link to the FREE class here.) I listened to a bunch of his lectures in 2019, but when he released 2020’s edition of the class I was in quarantine, so I decided to listen again. I feel like the class helped me to level up big time, specifically in writing characters. I’m always trying to improve–especially in writing romance–but I’ve found I have better luck if I target specific things and then work on them in my current manuscript. I listened to Sanderson’s lectures on characters about 3-4 times each before making adjustments to The Prince’s Bargain, and I did a total rewrite of the first 30 pages of Crown of Shadows, too, in order to apply some of what I learned. (What fun that was…)Experimented with urban fantasy and a new world, as well as a new writing system! I’m really loving the trilogies–I find them faster/easer to write than longer series–and being able to release them in short succession.Got started on Fairy Tale Enchantress book #4, Trail of Magic! It’s hard to say where I’m at in the story because rather than write linearly I bounced around a bit and wrote some of the important pieces, but I have a great start on it! (I’m hoping I’m over halfway through, but after Reign of Magic turned into a giant behemoth that was double the length of book one…I try not to get my hopes up.) This is the book I’ll be working on next, so hopefully it will be available this summer!

 

In 2020 the KM Shea Team…

Grew! We brought in Vin, our Community Manager who has become the glue of our community and a huge help to me in so many ways I can’t even list them all here. She’s the special guardian of our Discord server and our Facebook group, but she has been a huge help in organizing things like my Facebook live, the December event, and Sheacon, too! Please allow me to tell you her scheduling abilities are now legendary among the KM Shea Team and we all admire her for her ability to come up with fun games when we’re all brain dead.Welcomed Mythical Cat and SuperRog as our first moderators on the Discord Mod Squad–these guys are the best! SuperRog is the server’s dad, and Mythical Cat has the ability to find memes and gifs that I feel in my soul.Pulled off a Christmas miracle when Meg managed to get Hall of Blood and Mercy and the Prince’s Bargain in paperback before December! Thanks, Meg!launched the two Magiford quizzes–the first being our very popular “which Supernatural are you?” and “Which Fae Court do you belong to?”

 

In 2020 our Community…

Held Sheacon in August! Seriously, that weekend was amazing. We had games, riddles, drawing, panels–so many fun things, and so many fun memories in a year that was tough for everyone. And Sheacon wouldn’t have been possible if not for the hard work of the organizers/hosts/tech gurus: Xoffy, Dino, Cindy, Anneli, Ellarose, Batattack, Lemon Duck, Narel, Emarynn, and Zooknar! Thanks, guys. You’re the best! <3Launched the KM Shea/AM Sohma Champion Facebook Group! I resisted this for a while because I was scared no one would want to join, ahahah! But you Champions showed your love and loyalty, and we now have over 1,200 members! (And it’s a WONDERFUL place! Between all the funny memes, great book recommendations, and general love of books, it has become a fantastic piece of our community!)Continued to submit beautiful and fun works of art to our fanart gallery on the website, and the new “Fabulous Fan Art” channel in discord, as well as show off mad art skills in the Facebook Group as well. Our community is a talented bunch of Champions! Voted in the most enormous Summer of Polls event! Approximately 1,370 Champions voted in four different polls, picking out the community’s favorite heroine, hero, animal side kick, and couple! (You can read the wrap up here!)Threw several parties on Lord of the Rings Online, and in Animal Crossing! (Vin hosted, and she gets an award for having the most beautifully decorated Island EVER! Though my fellow attendees should each get awards for their adorable outfits!)Newsletter Champions voted for Royal Magic as the annual Valentine’s Day free book–but the AM Sohma Champions showed up in a big way and Second Age of Retha Book #2, The Desperate Quest, lost out by only a handful of votes, so I made that free over the summer!

2020 was a really rough year for the world, but I was incredibly proud of the way our community pulled together, stayed kind, and shared plenty of book recommendations to distract us all! You, Champions, are what makes our community so special. Thank you for joining in our fun. I can’t wait to see what we’ll do in 2021!

 

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The Night Mares’ Inspiration

The night mares are an integral piece of the Court of Midnight and Deception books, and I knew when I was plotting the trilogy out that I wanted them to play the roles of kingmakers and supporters. But when it came time to write, the night mares stampeded into the books with vivid personalities, specific body language, and a planned arc.

A lot of that was inspired by a real life gelding I rode, who was named Abo.

Abo was a huge gelding–his height specifically influenced Solstice–and he was a retired jumper with more training that I ever knew how to use. (This also inspired a lot of the scenes where the night mares jump and do fancy things that Leila is unable to keep up with.) As an older gelding, he greatly inspired Fax because it wasn’t safe for him to jump much, but he was still impressive enough to school me in riding even though I spent my childhood around horses.

Me and Abo! He was actually a dark, almost black-bay color, he just bleached out a lot under the summer sun!

Abo acted a lot like a grumpy grandpa–his body language very specifically inspired the night mares because he went through life with his ears half pinned more often then not, but he was the sweetest teddy bear ever. He nickered whenever he saw me, let me lean into him and wrap my arms around him whenever I’d had a particularly rough day, he’d press his muzzle against my temple after I kissed his nose, and he had the brightest, sweetest eyes.

Unfortunately, Abo died in October, right after I finished Crown of Moonlight. It was unexpected and very sudden, and it broke my heart. It’s been months and I still miss him and still cry for him occasionally, but it’s gotten a lot better. (I now ride a hilarious goofball of a horse who makes me laugh, so I’m still riding!)

The worst time was when I knew I needed to write the Queen’s Crown, and I had no idea how I was going to drag myself through writing about Leila and the night mares–who had to play a key role in several scenes in order to carry out the story properly–when I’d lost the horse that had inspired them.

How was I going to write about these horses, who all resembled Abo in a thousand different ways?

I’m afraid the books did suffer a little–the night mares aren’t in the beginning of Queen’s Crown very much as I was trying to figure out how to write them without crying. But I’m still really happy with Fax and the night mares and their contribution in the second half of the book, and this series will always be very special to me because of what Abo meant to me.

I’m afraid that’s all I’ve got in me for today. Have a lovely week, Champions! I hope you love the night mares a little more after learning about their inspiration.

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Every January Newsletter Champions get to vote for the book they’d like me put up for free on Valentine’s Day as my personal Valentine’s Gift to our wonderful community. This year, they selected Heart of Ice!

Amazon.com | All other Amazon Stores

Rakel has spent most of her life exiled on a mountain and feared because of her vast magical powers. But when invaders take over her country, can she save the people who used to hate her?

Heart of Ice is Book #1 of the Snow Queen duology, which is an epic fantasy retelling of the Snow Queen fairy tale. It’s an enemies-to-lovers sweet romance between a powerful heroine who has been hurt by the people who are now begging for her help, and a deadly enemy magic user whose noble heart makes him question everything he fights for. (Also, it features one of my most favorite characters ever: Phile, the robber maiden.)

Snag it today while it’s free!

Also, if you’re particularly in the Valentine spirit, remember I have a love themed short story for the Fairy Tale Enchantress series! It’s called The Love Potion!

I hope you enjoy the freebies, Champions, and I especially hope you have a great Valentine’s Day filled with love from friends and family!

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Chase & Indigo

We’re continuing our deep dive into Court of Midnight and Deception characters! I’m delighted to present to you today the first fantastic werewolf secondary character in the Magiford universe, and the fae who I dearly loved to write since she “happened” to love all my fandoms!

Chase Washington is Leila’s Director of Security who hails from the Northern Lakes werewolf pack in Wisconsin. He is a mini golf champion, fiercely loyal, and takes his job Very Seriously.

I designed Chase because I knew Leila needed someone who wasn’t a fae to help guard her back–or Miss-Paranoid-the-fae-hater was going to die of a nervous breakdown. But although he was essentially supposed to be Leila’s insurance policy, he became so much more both to her and the story.

For starters, Chase let’s us readers see the werewolf perspective on things–which naturally helps confirm how warped fae thinking is, but also shows the ways werewolves are unique. Chase displays their natural athleticism, stronger senses, and their deep loyalty.

But as a character Chase changes through out the CoMaD trilogy, too. In the first book he’s all business and is professional to an almost impersonal degree. He’s likable–all the shades and glooms love him and he’s able to tell them apart! But Leila’s the only one who would find that quality admirable. In the second book we get to see his intelligence and cunning–despite Rigel being an assassin Chase judges Leila to be safe with him, he worked to get a truck in the night realm, etc–which also shows why he’s able to thrive among the fae. We know all the fae working for him respect him and–as side effect–Leila. But it’s not until the third book that we see how important he is to the Night Court, and how much he’s adapted to life among the fae. He shows up to help with the barrier with all the other fae, when technically as a werewolf he shouldn’t even be able to help! But that also reveals how much Leila, Rigel, and the whole crew mean to him.

To werewolves, pack is everything. And technically it shouldn’t be possible for them to bond as a pack with anything besides werewolves…and yet Chase acknowledges in Queen’s Crown that he’s starting to see the fae as his “pack” and Leila as the “alpha.” (Which tells you something about Leila!)

Of course, we also get to see Chrysanthe’s feelings develop for the oblivious werewolf. In future series in this world, you’ll get to see continued glimpses and peeks of this pair, but that’s a topic for another day!

I had a blast writing Indigo–mostly because she just “happens” to share all the fandoms I personally love and adore. She’s got a savage wit about her, doesn’t take guff from anyone, is a fantastic chef, and is the first of Leila’s staff to understand the new Night Queen. Not gonna lie, she’s one of my favorites. (Which is why Indigo was gifted with the first opportunity to deliver King Fell a knock-out blow in Crown of Moonlight!)

Indigo’s baking abilities were greatly inspired by two youtube channels I love, Rosanna Pansino’s Nerdy Nummies and Feast of Fiction! And a lot of what she created, I’ve made myself! (My rose flavored Turkish Delight was about as delicious as Leila makes it out to be. I’m telling you, it tasted like a bathbomb.)

Indigo has the same kind of logical street smart streak that Leila has–which is why Leila’s antics bother her less than the typical fae. Maybe it’s because she shares a love of human entertainment?

I really wanted to write Indigo as being even more nerdy than she was–I wanted to use more gaming references and Disney/Star wars references. Buuuuuut trademarks used in books are tricky things, so in the end I had to downplay it a lot more than I was planning because I don’t want to get sued. Hahah.

As a character, Indigo perfectly rounds out Leila’s circle of close friends. She’s more wry than Skye or Chase, but easy going so she readily accepts Chrysanthe even though the previously-bratty fae lady once nearly injured her. In addition to her chef skills, Leila needs Indigo’s taste for fashion, or she’d go around in jeans and a flannel shirt all the time. Indigo is perhaps the quietest about the role she plays, but the fact is her touch on Leila’s life is the most predominant out of all other characters when you match her cooking with overseeing Leila’s wardrobe.

That rounds out Leila’s inner circle of friends! We’ll take a look at Rigel and our leading lady herself, but I’ve got some other fun themed posts we’ll go over first. Until next time, Champions, have a delightful day, and thanks for reading!

 

 

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The Ballad of Tam Lin

In a previous post I mentioned pieces of Court of Midnight and Deception were inspired by the story of Tam Lin, so I thought today we’d go over the original ballad.

For those of you who are new to the community, it’s become a bit of a tradition for our community and have me sarcastically and badly retell the story with editorial notes from yours truly. But! It’s important to note that most fairy tales have layers of morals to them and history/concepts we don’t understand today. (ie: In Rumpelstiltskin the king demands the heroine spin straw into gold–which is impossible on several levels because straw can’t be woven into anything since it doesn’t have the fibers needed to spin thread/yarn/anything) This is about 5,000 times more true in the case of Tam Lin, more so than a lot of the traditional stories we’ve gone through. Story telling was a different kind of art back when the ballad of Tam Lin was being sung and there’s a lot of cultural stuff, and some events I’ll never touch and will skip over. Even so, I’m still going to skewer it, because this is just for laughs, and to give everyone a rough background of the original story.

To start out, when I say my trilogy was inspired by Tam Lin that’s kind of confusing because there are about a dozen variations of the story of Tam Lin. (That’s pretty common for fairy tales.)

But out of all the variations, I settled on covering the Tam Lin Child 39A version. The story is actually a Scottish ballad, so if you want to read the original you probably want a translation guide for help. (I found this website extremely helpful!)

Our not-creepy-at-all (ahhh the sarcasm begins) Tam Lin Child 39A version of the ballad opens with an instruction to maidens not to go to Caterhaugh–an area in Scotland–because Tam Lin lives there. In the woods. I’m not saying Tam Lin is about as useful as Cinderella’s prince (which is to say not at all) but the guy lives in the woods and possibly creeps on girls. Things do not look good.

Our heroine is Janet–a young maiden with blonde hair, a green dress, and questionable intelligence because she runs to Caterhaugh. While running around this woods she finds Tam Lin’s horse. (Sadly no description is given about this animal, but it’s presumably fae given its owners issues, which we’ll talk about shortly. Just sayin’ I would have way preferred a description about a fae horse than seeing Tam Lin lecture Janet.)

Tam Lin isn’t around, but Janet decides to start picking flowers. She plucks a rose, and out pops Tam Lin demanding to know why she’s in Caterhaugh without his permission. Janet responds that Caterhaugh is hers (What?) and that her Father gave it to her. (Debatable on whether it’s true since the song doesn’t confirm it. But if it’s hers, why, then, would she run there by foot? At worst, if her father did give it to her, he was a terrible parent given the ballad’s opening line!)

So…I decided to cover the Tam Lin Child 39A version because everything stays PG. But there are variations that take a much…darker tone that puts Tam Lin the wood-creeper as being on par with the Sleeping Beauty’s “prince” from the original fairy tale, and is definitely not kid safe. But the Child 39A version skips all of that and time travels with an abrupt change in scenery.

The ballad now finds Janet at her father’s hall, and remarks that twenty four ladies play with a ball and Janet is the fairest of them all. These twenty four ladies then play chess (We’ve got some smart and active ladies here–I approve!) and what do you know, Janet looks green and sick.

What’s wrong with our bonnie Janet? She’s got morning sickness! Janet and one of her father’s old knights get involved in a shouting match when everyone figures out she’s pregnant. Her father asks her who the baby’s dad is, which inspires Janet to start reciting poetry about Tam Lin the wood-creeper, who somehow went from “eccentric keeper of the forest who pops out to yell at people that pick flowers” to “My true love is a fae knight with the most spectacular horse that’s lighter than wind.” (Good on you, Janet, for giving us that important horse description! I just might like you by the end of this.)

Janet displays her independence by heading back to Caterhaugh. She again finds the (majestic) fae horse but Tam Lin isn’t around–until she plucks a rose again. Tam Lin appears and asks why she’s plucking flowers and endangering their baby. Janet then asks for confirmation that he’s been in a chapel–aka “Are you human?” since it was believed fae couldn’t stand chapels or symbols of Christianity. (I think. That’s me reading between the lines of some translations.)

Tam Lin assures her that he’s actually the grandson of a lord, but when he was out with his grandfather he fell from his horse and the fae queen caught him. He explains that it’s pleasant in fairy land, but they have to pay a tithe to hades every seven years (Yeah, that’s straight from the ballad. These fae don’t mess around!) and Tam Lin the wood-creeper is pretty sure he’s the next tithe.

But! Good news! Tam Lin the wood-creeper is also pretty sure Janet can win him from the fairies the night he’s supposed to be sacrificed, if she finds the procession at midnight. Janet then asks (with her own mouth hole!!) How will I recognize you–the father of my child–among all these unfamiliar knights? (…For real? Janet, HE’LL BE THE ONLY ONE YOU RECOGNIZE!)

But apparently the fairy knights will all be wearing armor or something, because Tam Lin does not tell her the obvious (That she can look at his FACE to figure out who he is!!) and instead tells her to let the knights on the black horses and brown horses pass, and then he’ll come on a milk-white horse. He tells her she needs to yank him off the horse, and that she can be extra sure it’s him because he’ll wear a glove on his right hand but not left, his hair will be combed, and his hat will be cocked up. (Wait, scratch the armor part. She’s just that much of an idiot, apparently, that she’ can’t recognize Tam Lin when he’s standing with anyone.)

Tam Lin warns her that the fairies will turn him into a lizard or snake when she holds onto him after yanking him off the horse, but even if they turn him into a bear or lion she needs to keep holding on and fear not, because he’s the father of her baby. (Aka, don’t wig out, it’s still me!) He also warns her that after the animal shape shifting they’ll then turn him into a hot iron rod (…okay…) and then into a burning coal, and when that happens she needs to chuck him down the well, which will transform him into a naked knight. (A very important distinction. Thank you, Tam Lin. I 100% needed to know that you’re no longer wearing your hat or your one glove.) He finishes his long-winded instructions by telling her that then she’ll need to cover him with her green mantle, and then he’ll be free.

Spunky-but-apparently-bad-eye-sighted Janet does exactly what Tam Lin tells her to, and she crashes the fae procession the night they’re going to sacrifice Tam Lin. She lets the horses pass her until she sees the milk-white horse. She barrels up to the knight and yanks him off. The poem sums up the whole “animal/fire transformation” scene by just saying “She did what he said and won Tam Lin.” (Such great tension. I was on the edge of my seat.)

The Queen of the Fairies pops out of a bush and she is furious. She yells at Janet for taking the best knight out of her company (Lady, if that’s true why the heck were you going to sacrifice him?!) and curses her with an “ill death may she die.” The angry queen then tells Tam Lin if she had known she would have taken out his eyes and put wood in instead. Another variation of the ballad adds that she would have taken out his heart and put in a stone instead, too. The heart of stone threat meant that then he wouldn’t have been able to love Janet, but an example of cultural knowledge of the time–which is no longer common knowledge–was that humans didn’t know how to get into the fairy land. They were usually blindfolded, or had their eyes plucked out after they left. But since Tam Lin was “won” by Janet, they could no longer touch him, which meant he got to sashay off with Janet with the knowledge of how to get in and out of the fairy lands as they couldn’t do anything to his eyes.

Annnnnd that’s it. The ballad ends on the incredibly cheerful note of the queen threatening Janet and gnashing her teeth over Tam Lin. How romantic!

With this sarcastic retelling, you can probably see the aspects I borrowed from this ballad had very little to do with the actual story, and more with the details about the fae. The fairies have a queen AND a fairy land that only they have access to, there’s an entire government with fairy knights, bargains and the like are die hard rules set in stone as seen by the way the angry queen lets Janet and Tam Lin go, the night mares’ importance was more than a little inspired by all the horse imagery–including that they are faster than the wind–even all the tricky outsmarting of the fae is prevalent through the Court of Midnight and Deception trilogy.

But I would say my most clever tip of the hat to Tam Lin, was when Rigel and Leila kiss and Leila notes that it feels like fire. (Just like when Janet had to hold onto Tam Lin when he turned into a burning coal.)

If you want to read a true-blue retelling of Tam Lin, the best one I know of is called “Perilous Guard,” and it’s so fantastic, I 100% recommend it. Way better than the original, somewhat creepy version. Five stars!

Thanks for reading, Champions; I hope you found this sarcastic retelling entertaining. Until next time!

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Chrysanthe & Skye

A lot of work goes into my side characters between shaping their personalities and carefully creating their backgrounds, so I thought it would be fun to repeat a Hall of Blood and Mercy blog series, and have a few posts about some of the secondary and main characters from Court of Midnight and Deception. Today, we’re looking at Lady Chrysanthe and Skye! Important: All of these posts will be filled with SPOILERS! So if you haven’t read the Court of Midnight and Deception trilogy yet, you’ll want to steer clear!

Lady Chrysanthe is the fae noble who–before Leila showed up–others believed would be selected as the next monarch of the Night Court. Of course, this made her more than a little frosty at the start of Leila’s reign, but when she’s betrayed by a fae she thought was a friend and Leila is the one who uncovers it, she starts to have a change of heart. Eventually, she becomes a close friend to Leila, Skye, and Indigo.

Chrys is a unique character, because she best can understand the expectations and pressure Leila is under due to all the training she received from her family back when they thought she’d be queen. As a result, she’s the only other character besides Leila who shares in her deep hatred of the original king or–as Leila likes to call him–the Original Creep. And while Skye acts with tact with the nobles while Indigo mostly scoffs at them (or knocks them out, as is the case with King Fell) Chrys will act like a herding dog and will scare them away, get them to line up, and will generally yell/do whatever necessary to get them to do what she believes Leila wants/needs.

Her loyalty to Leila goes deep–not because Leila will one day likely be the fae empress, or even because Leila has essentially saved the Night Court, but because Leila offered Chrysanthe the gift of friendship–true friendship, with a foundation of support and loyalty. For Chrys, a fae, that kind of friendship was impossible, which is why she views her friendship with Leila and the others as something precious, and she’ll put her life on the line to protect them.

But the way their friendship affects Chrys goes behind just companionship. Chrys is the noble ally Leila needs, and because Leila offers her friendship, Chrys no longer cares what other nobles think/feel about her, which is incredibly freeing to her. It changes the way she dresses, acts–she would have never been bold enough to act like a herding dog and herd up the other fae previously–and even the way she fights. By the last book, Chrys doesn’t settle for sly tricks or traps. She goes all out, helping Leila, watching Chase’s back, and even hauls the despised Original Creep’s artifact around.

I love a good redemption arc–particularly friendship redemption arcs. Chrysanthe is a mean girl redemption arc wrapped up in a heart of determined loyalty and awkward love.

I have a lot of friends who work office/desk jobs, and while I personally admire them (They can schedule days/events like nobody’s business, sail through chaos/crises with a calmness I wish I had, and solve crazy problems that make huge differences in lives/society) I’ve noticed that office workers don’t typically get moments to shine in books. Thus, Skye was born.

Skye is a champion of office workers with a work ethic that makes Santa look lazy, tech skills that could put anyone to shame, and the ability to run Leila, the mansion, and the employees smoothly–and all of this only on the power of antacids!

The antacid quirk is something I figured would be a natural starting point for someone as diligent, structured, and hard working as Skye when dealing with Leila–who mostly runs the Court from gut instinct, will gleefully go against the flow, and is constantly getting sucked into unexpected battles/fights. But I also wanted to see growth in this area, so by the final book you’ll notice Skye rarely pops antacids and instead is using other methods of handling stress. (It has not escaped me that I, being somewhat infamous among my team members, for putting myself through huge amounts of stress could learn something from Skye, buuuuuut let’s move on!)

Leila and Skye are a surprise match made in heaven as Leila appreciates Skye’s work, and relies on her without expecting Skye to handle everything. Skye–given her temperament–was always determined to treat Leila with respect–which says a lot about her character. But Leila’s desire to improve (all her reading and lessons) and perseverance in addressing the Court’s debt problem made Skye respect her on a more personal level, which eventually led to their friendship.

That friendship is why Leila is comfortable asking he questions about fae wings, and is also why Skye explained to her what tea means to fae.

Which brings up another important point in her character. Besides giving office workers the respect they deserve and acting as the help Leila badly needed, Skye also serves another important and perhaps more often overlooked role. As a half-fae, she understands a lot of Leila’s struggles.

I did this on purpose because I wanted someone in Leila’s corner in terms of struggling with her humanity vs fae-ness–something no one besides Skye and Leila experiences. It made for some hilarious moments–neither Skye or Leila still 100% get the whole wings thing, though Leila better understands it now–but Skye is also able to offer perspective on other issues, like Leila’s relationship with Linus.

In the end, I want all my characters serving specific purposes in the story, and while I mentioned with Chrysanthe that I’m a real sucker for redemption arcs, Skye–at the heart of it all–offers a peaceful, soft kind of friendship built on trust and acceptance. Their relationship is a safe haven Leila badly needs in the chaos of fae, and is the basis for a lot of change in the Night Court.

I hope you enjoyed learning about these characters! It’s hard for me to pick one specific favorite character since a piece of my heart goes into each one of them, but I am especially proud of Leila’s crew and the friendship between them.

Until next time, Champions, thanks for reading!

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Mansion teapots

Over the years tea–and tea culture–has become increasingly important to the fae. I’d established as much in Hall of Blood and Mercy when the Paragon waxes on and on to Hazel and Killian about fae and tea in the last book, and I knew I wanted to take it a step farther and explain why it’s such a big deal in Court of Midnight and Deception. That was why I decided to make Leila a coffee drinker–to drive home how different she is from the fae, and so she has an outsider’s perspective on the fae obsession with tea and learns the reason behind it along with us readers.

It took Leila three books to understand that tea–and teatime–is one of the few moments of peace fae can actually enjoy. But I needed to keep subtle reminders about the importance of tea in the book, so I decided to layer tea culture throughout Leila’s home by making every room in the mansion contain a tea set, tea implements, or some kind of art that honored tea. I thought it would be fun to review all the tea sets in the mansion and talk a little about where some of them are from.

A Yixing Teapot

The first tea set appears when Leila is taken to a conference room to pick out a steward, and she comments on seeing a clay teapot. She didn’t know the name, but I can share that it’s a Yixing Clay teapot–a kind of traditional teapot made from clay sourced near Yixing in China. Yixing teaware is famous because the pot absorbs trace amounts of tea, which gradually builds up and gives a unique flavor to newly brewed tea!

In the room where Leila first meets Indigo there is a classic English tea set and porcelain cups, where as out in the stable you see the much more artsy glass teapot on display. The first set you see in Leila’s library/personal study is a Moroccan tea set.

A Celadon tea set

The sitting room where Leila greets King Solis contains a Korean Celadon stoneware tea set–unique because of its jade green glaze. Celadon is a multi-country art, but I specifically chose a Korean tea set because I was attempting to use the wide variety of cultural tea sets to show just how deeply the fae care about tea.

a Polish Boleslawiec tea set

That’s why there are traditional Japanese tea ceremony implements in the glass case at the portrait gallery the first time Leila visits it, and at her second visit she sees a Polish pottery tea set–which is made in the tradition of Boleslawiec pottery.

A Kulhar clay cup

After defeating the skull monster, Leila and her gang are served masala chai in clay Kulhar cups–a handle-less clay disposable cup from India. (A huge thanks to some knowledgeable Discord Champions who shared this particular idea with me!)

Finally, when Rigel is walking with Chase–who is checking in with the guards–Rigel sees a Lomonosov Porcelain tea set–which is Russian in origins.

A Lomonosov Porcelain teapot

As a tea lover, I had an absolute blast research all the various kinds of tea sets/teaware is used across the globe, and I also had fun slipping in tea-related art. (I think my favorite was the shrubbery trimmed to resemble a teapot!)

I hope you enjoyed the tea-culture of the fae! (Or if you’re a coffee or coco drinker, I hoped you enjoyed Leila’s sentiments on tea!) Thanks for reading, Champions. If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to enjoy a cup of tea!

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New short story: Parents’ Night!

Hey-howdy, Champions! I’m in shock and awe at about five different levels over The Queen’s Crown and its release! First of all, it reached #8 in the entire Amazon store! Yeah, #8! I almost didn’t believe it when I saw it! So a HUGE thanks to Champions, for all your support and encouragement and for your loyalty. Court of Midnight and Deception has done amazingly well, and I’m so thankful for you all and your support.

Your support–might I add–is so lavish, I wasn’t quite prepared for it! I took a peek at the reviews on Saturday and saw I still had time–which was good because the freebie/celebrate short wasn’t quite fully edited. I try not to work on Sundays so I was blissfully unaware until I woke up this morning and saw you guys had outdone yourselves and the book had over 150 reviews. (Now, as I’m typing this, it’s almost 200.) This prompted a mild freak out because I was not prepared for that, but here we are!

The final freebie is Parents’ Night: Click here for the PDF!

It’s fairly long for my freebies, but I had a very specific emotional arc I wanted to tie up, so I hope you enjoy it, and that it makes you laugh!

We’ve got all kinds of Leila & Co. themed posts coming up which will take us through February. We’ll do some in depth look at characters, talk a little about what you can expect in the next urban fantasy trilogy (which is planned for early 2022) and take a look at some behind-the-scenes inspirations and secret Easter Eggs!

Until then, enjoy the short, Champions, and thank you for this amazing launch.

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The Queen’s Crown — Now Available!

The Queen’s Crown–the final book in the Court of Midnight and Deception trilogy–is out now! I’m so excited! I really fell in love with the characters in this trilogy, and I hope you find their ending just as satisfactory as I do!

Amazon.com | All other Amazon Stores

To thank all of you Champions for your support and loyalty, I’ll release a free short story once The Queen’s Crown gets approximately 100 votes. (That’s 100 votes total, across Goodreads and all the Amazon stores!) I can’t tell you how grateful I am for your honest and thoughtful reviews. They help with advertising of course, but the big difference is that you guys give excellent reviews that help other readers figure out if the Queen’s Crown is something they’d be interested in or not. Thank you so much!

Okay, I’m sure you’d all rather be reading right now so I’ll cut this short. Have a lovely day and weekend, Champions, and I really, really hope this last book in Leila’s story makes you laugh.

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