K.M. Shea's Blog, page 41

2018 Reader Survey and Snow White bonus!

Hi Champions, would you like a special sneak peek at Chapter 1 of Snow White?

Last year I did my first ever reader survey and as a thank you for completing the survey I gave a sneak peek of Frog Prince Chapter 1. It was so successful I decided to do it again this year, only the bonus this time is the first chapter of Snow White! (You’ll also get an exclusive look at the cover!)

Click here to start the survey now!

The survey asks you some basic information about your book reading and buying habits. The information helps me plan my future book releases, figure out what you guys want in everything from books to giveaways, and determine how to find more readers like you! I tried to keep the survey as short as possible so it shouldn’t take you long to complete.

Keep in mind, since I’m still in the writing process, this chapter of Snow White is unedited so there are definitely mistakes in it that I will be correcting before the final version goes out.

The survey will close on October 19th so make sure you fill it out before then!

I really appreciate your feedback so thank you so much for taking the time to complete this survey. I’m also selfishly excited to see what the answers are to the last question (other authors you like) as I’m always looking for more good books to read!

Fanart Update

Hello Champions! I’m back from vacation! (Pictures will be coming!) But in the meantime I have some amazing fanart coming your way.

Rakel of Snow Queen by Emily

Emily did a stunning job with Rakel’s dress. You seriously need to look at this image up close–that gorgeous snowflake on the center of her skirt actually has a tiny reindeer at its center! (A+ for complex detail!) She added a lot of other detail to the dress–which really captures the Nordic/Norwegian inspiration I used when designing Verglas.

The next two images are both by Philosophy Snail!

 

Phile the Robber Maiden by Philosophy Snail

 

Angelique’s color-changing dress, by Philosophy Snail

I really loved the shading on the top image of Phile (and her long flowing hair!) but I thought Angelique’s dress was especially fun! (I’m a real sucker for the big, beautiful dresses, so it was reaaalllyyy fun to see Philosophy Snail’s rendition of the dress! And the colors are beautiful, too!)

 

Rakel by Lunadragongirl

 

Briar Rose by Lunadragongirl

Here we have another Rakel image, this one by Lunadragongirl! Lunadragongirl masterfully used her color palette, so not only does the image really pop, but it gives you that cold, wintery feeling that Rakel emits. (Plus I love the dress, the dynamic color in contrast to the sky is just awesome! Same to the subtly highlights in her hair.) Lunadragongirl also completed a fan art of Briar Rose from Sleeping Beauty! I love that she has depicted her at the start of the book when she lives in the forest, and the sublet roses in the background are a hint of both her name and her true identity!

Gemma from Rumpelstiltskin by Sophia

Here’s a lovely image of Gemma from the story Rumpelstiltskin drawn by Sophia. I love Gemma’s blue dress and how she has her hands behind her back – it’s a very Gemma like action!

 

And last–but certainly not least–we have a drawing of Gwendafyn by Rose Spangler!

“Unleashed” – a drawing by Rose Spangler

Rose did a tremendous job with the finer details of Fyn’s outfit like her arm guards and long hair, but in particular I love her sword belt and sword! (And as those are probably what Gwendafyn prizes most highly, I think it’s very fitting!) Moreover, this is an action pose with a sword, something that is really hard to pull off so well–amazing job, Rose!

I was really happy to receive Rose’s fanart, because usually it takes a couple of months before a new heroine gets fanart made of her, so this was a real treat!

Thank you again to all the amazing artists who have submitted their work to me! It’s a wonderful and yet humbling experience to see what you do with your skills. That’s all for today, Champions!

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Return to Luminos

Greetings, Champions! I’d like to start with a big thank you to everyone who took the time to leave an honest review on The Revived! I really appreciate reviews because they give me feedback and help other readers decide if the book is something they would be interested in. So thank you from the bottom of my heart!

To celebrate the reviews and The Revived‘s launch in general, I’m releasing a short story: Return To Luminos. (PDF in the link)

The short story–which maybe could be called an extra chapter??–continues where The Revived left off and follows Kit back to Luminos where the guildmasters of the big/elite guilds are waiting for her. I hope you guys enjoy it!

This weekend–over on my A. M. Sohma facebook page–some Champions and I were discussing who of the new characters were their favorite! Noir seemed to be the most popular, but Trash Panda, Fame & Fortune, and Alistair were all really well liked too. Surprisingly–happily so–Solus Miles popped up a lot as well! Since he has a bigger role in this book you get to know him a lot better, and he proves he has a sense of humor (maybe?) in several different occasions.

What do you guys think? Who was your favorite new character?

As usual, thanks for reading, and enjoy the short!

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Release Fun!

The time has finally arrived! The Revived launched yesterday, and I’m absolutely humbled by the outpouring of love you Champions have sent my way, thank you! (Did you guys like Noir? He’s probably my favorite addition, though I do like Alistair and the pirates a lot as well.) I’m also really excited because Solus Miles is actually around for the majority of this book. It was so much fun to really bring him into the fold of things. (And, I’m not gonna lie, I love it whenever he uses Sinistre–his dragon–for combat!)

 

As a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review The Revived, I have a short story/extra chapter I’m going to release when the book hits about 70 reviews across Goodreads, Amazon.com, Amazon.uk, etc. The extra is called Return to Luminos. I’m excited about it, because the next book jumps right back into the middle of things, and I did want to show you all the “Fun” that goes down when Kit and the others get back to the big city. Buwahaha.

In other exciting news, the first King Arthurs and Her Knights Boxset is free today through Tuesday, September 18! This boxset contains books 1-3 (Enthroned, Enchanted, and Embittered) and some bonus material that isn’t available anywhere else. So even if you have a copy of the first three books, you still might wanna snag this boxset for the extras. Please feel free to tell any friends/family members that might enjoy the series about this deal as well!

Thanks again for all of your support, Champions! I hope The Revived makes you laugh, and/or that you enjoy Britt’s adventures in ancient Britain. Have a lovely weekend!

 

 

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The Revived – Releases Sept 14th!

The wait is over! The pre-order for The Revived (Book 3 in the Second Age of Retha series) is now available. The book releases on Friday, September 14th!

The Revived features even more of what you’ve come to expect from this series: crazy characters, amazing fantasy locations, funny one-liners, and more high stakes situations for Kit and her team to get through. And the slow burn romance is there for those of you who are rooting for Kit + Solus Miles.

The Revived links:  Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

Since the book is already on pre-order I can’t do a cover reveal so instead I’m going to show you what the full cover image looks like. (The left side of the image below will only be seen on the back of the paperback.) As you can probably guess from the image there will be a scene with pirates in this book!

The Revived Character Name Contest Winners

Thanks to everyone who participated in the character naming contest for The Revived. There were so many good names it was really hard to pick just a few. The winners (and the name they submitted) are listed below. If I didn’t pick one of your names, don’t worry! I’m going to save all the entries and I plan to use them for names in books 4 and 5, so your submitted name still might make it into a book! (Particularly since that last one is going to be a doozy)

This adorable artwork concerning the contest was done by the awesome Champion Zeke–I love the hat on “Smart me”

Okay, and the winners are (grouped together, might I add, by the characters’ guilds/parties)…

Shooty D’Arrow is the name of the hunter– submitted by Melanie, and the hunter is joined by guildmates Metronome–submitted by Hannah–and Konk–submitted by Alvin Greunke.
The female scout claimed the name Hide_N_Seek by Cherie Smith, while the swordsman selected Arild Edge by Elizabeth Davis, the spellbinder chose Glowrious–compliments of Glowrious–and the Mystic went for Lumina Myst, submitted by Dawn.
The crazy fantasy name I picked for the super-fantasy fan is: Ai’lan’therristos–submitted by Ravi!

I also had some unexpected additional winners:

Lydia, who suggested Edmund Ironside–a name snatched up by a first officer I was finishing with!
Zeke, submitted name: Nick; Jake, submitted name Greg; and Aidan, submitted name Kellivar–their submitted names went to a pack of guildmates seen briefly at the end of the book.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted a name! You guys had some awesome names I can’t wait to add into Book 4 and Book 5. But in the meantime, stay tuned for information about The Revived‘s release date! (Spoiler: It’s not too much longer!!) Thanks for participating, and thanks for reading, Champions. As usual, you guys wowed me.

 

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End of the Summer Reading Event

Summer (for the Northern Hemisphere anyway) has come to a close, and with it ends our Summer Reading Event. I owe a huge thanks to the authors who took part in the program, and to those who donated their books for the event, and a big thank you to Myrrhlynn and Rock-Star-Assistant-Meg for all the work they put in behind the scenes to make this event possible.

We learned a lot and had just as much fun! Going forward, we’ll try to put the helpful hints we picked up along the way into practice, so the next time we do an event like this it will be even better!

I hope you all had fun and found some great new authors. It was so much fun to read your comments and see what books you Champions were trying out, and also to compare notes on what books we liked most and why that was. The Facebook Live sessions and the YouTube videos were really fun for me! I hoping that going forward I’ll be able to post one or two Youtube movies per month–just as a fun break thing–and I am going to try to integrate Facebook Live sessions , but more on that in a future post!

In conclusion, I hope you all had a lovely summer and enjoyed this event! Thanks for reading, Champions, and have a lovely day.

PS: I’ll release winners of the name game by tomorrow night–they’re getting placed into The Revived today!

 

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Summer Reading Event Week 9

It’s the last week everyone! I have a jam-packed week so we can finish with a bang! First, the last of the short stories, The Princess Who Chased Sheep, has unlocked. A T-shirt giveaway is now open. And we have more dragons, incredible characters, and fantastic worlds for your to explore.

BONUS: The short story The Princess Who Chased Sheep unlocked this week!

Giveaways:

Paperback and T-shirt bundles by Honor Raconteur
Today is the last day to download books in the Clean Summer Reading bundle!
Did you get the FREE Novella The Princess and the Pea? It will be taken down when the event ends so get it now!

Books for you to check out:

Warlords Ascending by Honor Raconteur (Warlords)

This is book two in an Epic fantasy series in the tradition of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

A Keeper’s Tale: The Story of Tomkin and the Dragon by J.A. Andrews (The Keeper Chronicles)

Tomkin is supposed to defeat a dragon and save the damsel. Instead, the damsel refuses to be rescued and Tomkin falls off a ledge onto the (no longer) sleeping dragon.

Recoil by Joanne Macgregor (Recoil Trilogy #1)

Recruited as a sniper in the war terror, Jinxy discovers there’s more than one enemy and more than one war.

This is the last week of the event, thanks for participating! I hope you enjoyed yourself, found some great new books, and had fun!

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Survey! and Summer Reading Event Week 9

Did you enjoy the Summer Reading Event the past few weeks? Tell me about it by filling out this survey! Your input will help me to decide how I do events in the future.

It’s the last week everyone! I have a jam-packed week so we can finish with a bang! First, the last of the short stories, The Princess Who Chased Sheep, has unlocked. A T-shirt giveaway is now open. And we have more dragons, incredible characters, and fantastic worlds for your to explore.

BONUS: The short story The Princess Who Chased Sheep unlocked this week!

Giveaways:

Paperback and T-shirt bundles by Honor Raconteur
Today is the last day to download books in the Clean Summer Reading bundle!
Did you get the FREE Novella The Princess and the Pea? It will be taken down when the event ends so get it now!

Books for you to check out:

Warlords Ascending by Honor Raconteur (Warlords)

This is book two in an Epic fantasy series in the tradition of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

A Keeper’s Tale: The Story of Tomkin and the Dragon by J.A. Andrews (The Keeper Chronicles)

Tomkin is supposed to defeat a dragon and save the damsel. Instead, the damsel refuses to be rescued and Tomkin falls off a ledge onto the (no longer) sleeping dragon.

Recoil by Joanne Macgregor (Recoil Trilogy #1)

Recruited as a sniper in the war terror, Jinxy discovers there’s more than one enemy and more than one war.

This is the last week of the event, thanks for participating! I hope you enjoyed yourself, found some great new books, and had fun!

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Revived Name Game

It’s the last week in the Summer Reading event, and while we still have an awesome giveaway going this week from the incredible author Honor Raconteur, I’m running a slightly different contest as well.

The Revived, the third book in my A. M. Sohma series “Second Age of Retha” is on track to launch in mid September, but I wanted you guys to be part of it, so I thought it would be awesome if I gave you all a chance to submit character name! That’s right, a handful of minor characters in The Revived are waiting to be named.

The contest starts today and lasts through Friday, August 31. Each reader can only submit once, and each submission can contain a maximum of two names total. If you submit more than two names, you’ll be automatically disqualified. (This is to give everyone a fair and equal chance, and to ensure that the winners have read the rules!) Submission is easy–just leave your suggestions in the comments section. (Some necessary legal stuff is down below, too.)

Here’s a few details about some of the names I’m looking for:

female mystic
male spellbinder
a REALLY fantasy-ish name of either gender (We’re talking hardcore fantasy here)
female scout
male swordsman
female bard
male rogue
a gender neutral name for a hunter

Once the Summer Reading Event ends, I’ll post the winning names! Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this last week of giveaways, recommendations, and book fun. Thanks for reading, Champions!

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If one of your suggested names is chosen, you are not entitled to rewards, royalties, or wages, monetary or otherwise. By offering suggestions for names, you’re agreeing to contribute the name for the book, movie, audiobook, and any other version or form of the book without any sort of reward, wage, or royalty. While there are eight characters that need names, K. M. Shea reserves the right to adjust the number of chosen names to her discretion.

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