K.M. Shea's Blog, page 45

2018 Annual Hero Poll Results

Greetings and salutations, Champions! It is the moment you have all been waiting for! The winners of the 2018 Annual Hero poll ARE:

First Place: Merlin with 460 votes

Second Place: Stil of Rumpelstiltskin with 255 votes

Third Place: Emerys of Twelve Dancing Princesses with 224 votes

In honorable mentions we have Farrin of Snow Queen snagging fourth with 214 votes, Friedrich of Cinderella taking home fifth place with 160 votes, Captain Arion of Red Rope of Fate winning sixth place with 127 votes, and Asher and Aaron of Life Reader coming in seventh with 98 votes.

In total we had 683 voters this year–an increase from last year! Woohoo!

 

The competition was especially tough this time around, and this is first year ever that Rumpelstiltskin has been dethroned. In fact, Merlin beat him so solidly I spent some time trying to figure out if there was some sort of glitch in the voting!

A big thank you to everyone who voted…but we’re not done yet!

To celebrate this year’s results, I’m going to be taking Champion questions and interviewing a few of these handsome fellas. The guys who will be answering your questions are: Merlin, Emerys, Farrin, and Friedrich! To submit a question leave it in the comments below! BUT! This is a limited time event! I’ll only be taking questions for THREE DAYS. The last day you can submit a question is Thursday, March 22, and remember, your question must be for Merlin, Emerys, Farrin, or Friedrich. (I can’t have a free-for all, or I’ll go completely nuts trying to organize and write the thing!)

After Thursday, we’ll be turning off comments in this post, and we’ll post the 2018 Annual Most-Wanted Hero Poll to take it’s place! (Warning: The interview likely won’t be available until after the Most-Wanted Hero Poll is finished due to my current writing schedule.) The Most-Wanted Hero poll looks like it’s going to be epic this year, so I can’t wait to see what sort of heroes you guys vote to the top!

That’s all for today! Thanks again for voting, and the guys and I can’t wait to see what sort of questions you have for them!

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Pending Poll & Parties

A big thank you to everyone who voted in this year’s Annual Hero Poll! I’m doing things a little differently this year so I’m not announcing the winners quite yet, and we’re still tabulating the answers for the second poll. The good news is everything should be up by the middle of next week!

I also wanted to take this chance to brag on our Britta–she helps me out with random side projects and most recently has been serving as a beta-reader/editor, but she’s been with us for about a year and a half, now! Anyway, Britta has an awesome (and heart wrenching) webcomic that she writes and illustrates. It’s called “Facing Dragons.” She has a few chapters out now, so if you’d like to see her work click here to read the first chapter!

Lastly, this coming Tuesday–that’s March 20–Julie Hall is throwing a launch party to celebrate the final book in her “Life After” series! All day long she has free goodies and guests–including yours truly! I’ll be MCing the party from 2:30 to 3:00 pm Pacific–which is 4:30 to 5:00 pm Central–so please drop by so we can hang out! (Also so you can grab the first book in the Life After series as Julie will be giving it away for free that day. Her series is a YA Christian Fantasy–sorta like Mortal Instruments!) Other guests you might know of who will be popping in are the amazing Frost Kay and Elise Kova! You can check out the facebook event HERE to learn more!

To join in with the celebration, I’ll be offering Beauty and the Beast as well as Enthroned for free on March 20, so if you don’t have copies yet, snag ’em then!

That’s all for today! I can’t wait to show you guys the new twist I’m putting on the end of the Annual Hero Poll, so stay tuned for more later this week!

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Blogger, Bookstagramer, Punk Rocker: Darque Dreamer Reads

Greetings, Champions! I hope you have had a wonderful week. Before we jump in today, I wanted to remind everyone that the Annual Hero Poll is still in full swing–it has about one more week, so if you haven’t voted yet make sure you get your votes in! (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, or if you want to vote, check out this blog post!) A few of you pointed out that it’s especially hard to vote given that the number of guys keeps increasing–which is a pretty valid point! Unfortunately it’s too late for me to do anything about that now, but for this year’s Heroine poll I’ll make sure I give you more votes.

2018 Annual Hero Poll

And now, the post you all have been waiting for! It’s time for the 2018 Annual Hero poll!

Every year I hold a hero poll in which you get to vote for your favorite K. M. Shea/A. M. Sohma heroes! You have three votes, but you only get to cast your vote once–so choose carefully! (Side note: The heroines get their own poll in summer, so this poll is completely male focused.)

The Poll closes: March 16th!

But wait, there’s more! Once the winning hero is picked, I’ll be holding the second half of my annual poll, in which you vote for the kind of hero you would most like to see in future books. (Alexsei of Swan Lake was modeled after 2016’s winner–the overlooked sweet/good guy—and Emerys was loosely modeled after 2017’s second place winner, pretends to be grouchy/snarky but is kind to friends, so I do take your votes seriously–though I can’t guarantee I’ll use them.)

In preparation for that poll, please shout out what kind of hero you would like to see in the comments below! (Keep your descriptions limited to a few words, like “stoic-marshmellow” or “batman-esque” or “cute nerd,” etc.)

Okay, now vote as you have never voted before, and may the best hero win!

View Poll

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Entwined Tales Party!

Come one, come all to the Entwined Tales Launch Party! To celebrate National Fairy Tale day myself and the five other authors who wrote an Entwined Tales book are throwing a party on Facebook! Come visit us for games, free books, drawings for paperbacks, and more! The fun starts at 5 PM PST (That’s 7:00 central) but I won’t be on until roughly 5:40.

Visit us on the Facebook event page (Link: HERE) to join in the fun. I hope to see you there!

To give you a taste for tonight, one of the free party favors for everyone is the ebook version of my Cinderella and the Colonel! (You can snag it HERE!)

I really recommend you check out our party, even if you can only stay for a few minutes! (Because I’m not the only author giving away free ebooks as party favors today….)

Tomorrow we’ll be picking up our usual post–spoiler, it’s the annual Favorite Hero poll–but in the meantime I hope you have a lovely day, and thanks for reading!

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2017: A Year in Review

Hello Champions! Today the third book in the Entwined Tales series comes out, A Bear’s Bride! This story is written by Shari L. Tapscott and is a retelling of “East of the Sun, West of the Moon.” Shari has the best sense of humor ever, and she’s great at writing fast-paced fantasy stories, so I highly recommend you check this one out. You will laugh, I guarantee it! Just like the other books, you can buy it or borrow it through Kindle Unlimited. Click here for the link to check it out!

Moving along, I FINALLY took the time to look back 2017 and the things I learned. Normally I try to do this sort of post much earlier in January, but we were in the middle of the prep and subsequent launch for both Twelve Dancing Princesses and A Goose Girl. Better late than never, though. Right?? *WARNING: There are a few spoilers listed here for the Timeless Fairy Tales Series!*

 

What I learned as a writer:

I need to vary my projects, or I will go INSANE! This was partially why I launched A. M. Sohma and the Second Age of Retha series. I was starting to sneeze fairy dust after all of my Timeless Fairy Tales work, so even though The Luckless and Desperate Quest take place in a fantasy world, being able to write contemporary main characters was an absolute blast and helped me take a break!
Secondary characters really make the story. This is something I’ve suspected for a while, but the massive Favorite Secondary Character Poll drove it home. It’s not just the main characters who need to be bright and vivid, but the secondary characters too. Even if that’s always been my gut instinct, I’m trying to make it more purposeful now instead of just my preference.
Finishing a series is bittersweet. Before I finished King Arthur and Her Knights with book 7 in the series, Endings, I thought I would want to throw a party and form a parade when I closed it out. (I loved the series, but it was getting to be more difficult to write due to the massive cast of characters, and I really wanted to have a finished series as well.) Instead it ended up being possibly the most difficult book I’ve ever written. Closing out Britt Arthurs’ story and saying farewell to Merlin and all the knights was a lot harder than I expected. Even so, I feel like the story ended well, and Britt and her boys are in a great spot.
I should never be afraid to ask you Champions questions. In 2017 I held a marketing survey that reaaalllyy helped me learn a lot about you guys–your likes, dislikes, how you found me, what you want, etc. This helped me a lot in figuring out how I should move forward in the future. Before I held the survey I was afraid you guys might be upset or think I’m prying, but I was so touched by the great–and HELPFUL–feedback I got!

 

Fun Memories from 2017:

The aforementioned Favorite Secondary Character Poll! I felt so honored (and loved) to see how passionate you Champions were about the secondary characters–who normally get overlooked! It was also a great joy of mine to crown Cagney and Dooley the reigning champions of 2017.
Revealing The Chosen as the ultimate bad villains in Timeless Fairy Tales. I have been waiting for that for SO LONG, but your reactions made the wait (and all the work that went into it) well worth the payoff!
Exchanging fairy tale book recommendations in my blog–I’m still working through some of the recommendations from there!
Attempting Facebook Live and Youtube Live. It was so fun to be able to interact with Champions in real time! That’s something I want to do more of in the future.
Revealing the MBRC’s and Life Reader’s new book covers!
Laughing with my facebook Champions over all the funny pictures/memes I have dredged up over the past year. (Including swapping dream library photos, that was so fun!)
Discovering the @Broodingyahero twitter feed–check it out if you need a laugh!
This Kitkat commercial
Taking part in the Excellence in Indie Publishing giveaway at Reading is My Superpower
Showing off my geekyside with my A. M. Sohma pen name and facebook page!

Looking Forward to 2018

It’s always tough to try and predict what I’ll do in a year, but I am hoping to finish The Second Age of Retha series with books three and four, and Snow White will for certain be released in December 2018. Snow White will be the final fairy tale in this current arc of the Timeless Fairy Tales series. The arc will officially conclude with Angelique’s trilogy in 2019!

I’m also going to try and get a bit more organized in terms of communicating with you Champions–watch for changes in the newsletter as I drill down and try to understand what you guys want.

And that’s it for this lengthy post! Thank you, everyone–whether you’re a passionate, brand new Champion or a patient old-timer. I’m so thankful and grateful that I can be an author, and I’m honored and humbled by the love you have shown me and my stories. Until next time, take care!

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Catch up

Good day to you, Champions! Today marks the release of the second Entwined Tales book, An Unnatural Beanstalk, written by Brittany Fichter. An Unnatural Beanstalk is a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, and the main heroine is Eva–the sweetest of the woodcutters’ children who also happens to be the sister Rynn is closest to. It’s in KU, or is available to purchase for $2.99. I hope you guys enjoy this newest addition to the series!

And with this we have finally closed out all the blog posts for A Goose Girl and Twelve Dancing Princesses. Before we move on, there’s some housekeeping stuff I wanted cover.

Firstly, the Timeless Fairy Tale PDF has been updated! (You can see the PDF Here, or in the Timeless Fairy Tale tab under books.) It is filled with spoilers, so don’t check it out unless you’ve read the whole series.

Next we have some amazing fanart by Mary.bt! Mary drew a fantastic picture of Kit from my Second Age of Retha series!

Kit from The Luckless by Mary.bt

I had to admire Mary’s willingness to draw Kit. Between the fluttering fabric of her skirt and her strands of hair, Kit is a BEAST to draw, and Mary did a fantastic job with all the other details of the outfit–like her belt and necklaces! Thanks again, Mary.bt, for using your skills to bring Kit to life!

Goose Girl and Weird Symbolism

I’m just going to put it out there, the symbolism and the moral of the original Goose Girl story is awfully muddled. In fact, it seems like the Brothers Grimm–who are usually quite clear cut in their morals–can’t decide if they are telling a coming of age story, or a tale to remind kids to listen to their elders.

Here’s my case:

So the old queen is sending her beautiful daughter off to a far away country to get married–a pretty clear transition from girlhood to adulthood, right? Well some of the weirder parts of the story drive that point home, specifically the handkerchief with the three drops of blood on it.

In my research I found several reasons for why the handkerchief was important–some explanations said it was divine proof of the princess’s royal identity, others say it places the princess under the old queen’s care and protection. But what everyone agrees on, is that the handkerchief ties the princess to the queen and by losing it, she severs the bond between them which is how the maid manages her takeover.

So let’s recap: The princess is traveling to a foreign country BY HERSELF to get married, but because she steps entirely out of her childhood she ends up dooming herself and the maid takes over. (That’s not exactly an encouraging coming of age tale.)

The princess’s continued action doesn’t make it any better either. When they arrive at the kingdom of her husband-to-be, she stands around in the courtyard and does NOTHING until the old King (not her intended) basically asks “Why is there a random girl doing nothing in my courtyard?”

Her inattention continues, even to the point where when Falada–who is called her faithful steed–is KILLED. Indeed, the princess shows no signs of growing up at all until Little Conrad tries to pluck her hair and she sicks the wind on him. After that, she grows a little more proactive, but she only speaks to the King because Conrad complained about her so if this really was a coming of age story it’s a pretty poor one. (“Sit on your bum, kids, and one day you too will be crowned princess because one of your co-workers complained to HR!”)

The Goose Girl by Walter Crane.

I did read a few explanations that argued that princess is displaying meekness and sweet temperament–which prove her divine status as a royal. These same explanations claimed that her return to her royal status just shows that nobility is more than just a title but is something you’re born with that will eventually reveal itself. Honestly I think that’s a load of horse droppings–birth does NOT make you better or lesser than someone. Plus this doesn’t really help the coming of age argument anyway, all it does is make a case for the many childish kings/queens from history.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the actions of the old King that point to the story of being more of the “listen to your elders” instructive parable.

The King notices the princess when she arrives, actually listens to Little Conrad and then summons the princess, and he’s also the one who figures out how the princess can get around her vow by telling the stove, and he’s the one who handles the chambermaid when her betrayal is revealed.

But the whole bit at the start–where the old queen bids farewell to her daughter in what is clearly a bid for the childhood-to-adulthood-narrative–kinda messes up the King’s often overlooked wisdom and intelligence.

Personally, I’m more inclined to go for the ‘listen to your elders’ moral, but I admittedly have very little patience for heroines who aren’t proactive or even just productive.

But what do you think, Champions? Does the original story make a little more sense, now? What kind of story do YOU think it is?

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Goose Girl: The original Story

Today is the day, A Goose Girl–book 1 in the multi-author Entwined Tales series–is available for purchase, or to read in KU! (Reminder: it’s a novella, so it is the same length as a King Arthurs story!) To celebrate the release–and to keep myself from blurting out spoilers–I’m going to go over the original fairy tale in today’s post!

The Goose Girl, as many of the fairy tales I’ve retold, was first recorded by the Brothers Grimm, and was published in 1815. Although the goose girl is the specific Brothers Grimm version, there’s actually so many stories/variants like it, it has it’s own “Type.” (Sort of the way Sleeping Beauty and the Wild Swans have sooooo many variants as well.) A similar version of the story is “the Golden Bracelet.”

But on to the fairy tale–hold one, this one gets weird. (Also, warning, it is pretty gory.)

So there’s an old queen who has a daughter–a beautiful princess who is promised to a prince in a far away kingdom. When the time comes, the queen sends the beautiful princess off with a huge dowry/amount of money because she loves her daughter so much. (She loved her so much, in fact, that the only escort she sent with the princess was a chambermaid. Yeah. I don’t buy it!)

Before the girls set off the queen gives the princess a handkerchief with three drops of her blood on it, and tells her daughter it will be of service to her. (No explanation is given for this. I’m assuming there is some kind of symbolism that is lost to us due to the massive culture shift. At least I hope so, because GUARDS would have been a far more practical gift…)

The princess and the chambermaid travel for a while, until the princesses gets thirsty and tells the chambermaid to go fetch her some water. The chambermaid tells her to do it herself, which the princess does with a lot of melodrama. (The princess is sad because she can’t be bothered to get fetch her golden cup for herself so she has to lie down on the ground and drink–because also there is apparently something wrong with her arms so she can’t LIFT THEM TO HER FACE. Then the drops of blood on the cloth tell the princess her mother’s heart would break in two if she saw her now–good times all around.)

This happens again, but this time when the princess leans over the water she drops her handkerchief into the stream and loses it. Next–and this is a direct quote from the original–“…the chambermaid saw what happened, and she rejoiced to think that she now had power over the bride, for by losing the drops of blood, the princess had become weak and powerless.”

…Okay, okay, in my research I uncovered several reasons for why this was a big deal, but if you don’t do the cultural research this is truly a “what the heck just happened?” moment. I’ll be going into it with my next post, but for now just try to roll with it.

So because the princess is “powerless” now, the chambermaid orders her to swap clothes and horses, and forces her to vow that she will say not one word of this to anyone at the royal court or she will be killed on the spot. (How you ask? No idea.) The chambermaid then rides Falada–the princess’ horse who can apparently talk(??)– to the kingdom.

When they arrive the chambermaid is greeted as the princess and is taken up into the castle while the real princess is left standing in the courtyard like an idiot. (I know she has taken the vow and everything, but seriously, girl, standing around was the most helpful thing for your situation that came to your mind?)

The king (NOT the prince!) notices the princess in the courtyard and sees that she has surprisingly beautiful features, so he asks the chambermaid about her. The maid lies and says she’s a random girl she picked up as a traveling companion, and that the king should give her work to do. So the king sends her to tend to the royal geese with the goose boy, Little Conrad. (That’s actually the name given to him in the fairy tale!)

Meanwhile, the maid/false princess gets nervous about Falada, and fearing that he might tell everyone the truth (Honestly, the fact that horses can talk in this story might be the least weird thing about it.) she has him killed.

So the princess-turned-goose-girl hears about this, and asks the guy who slayed Falada if he would stuff the horse’s head and nail it above the gate she passes through every morning while taking the geese out. Whenever she passes by the horse head, it repeats a line very similar to the one recited by the drops of blood on the handkerchief.

Little Conrad notices the exchange, just as he notices that the princess has gorgeous gold hair that she unbinds and brushes whenever they’re SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING GEESE! He wants to pluck a few of her hairs for himself (I would too if she was supposed to be helping me and instead sat on her rear brushing her hair) but when he tries to do so the princess tells the wind to blow Conrad’s hat so he’ll chase it until she’s done with her beauty routine. AND THE WIND LISTENS. (Say whaaaat?)

This also happens twice before Little Conrad loses his temper and tells the king he can’t work with the princess/goose girl, and then relays the entire story. (Good on you, Little Conrad, for having excellent communication skills!)

The king calls for the princess/goose girl, who says she has taken a vow so she cannot tell anyone. The king then tells that, if that is the case, she should pour out her sorrows to an iron stove and then walks away. The princess does so, not knowing that the King had hurried around to the stove’s vent, so he can hear everything she says. When the full story is told the King dresses her in royal clothes, summons his son and tells him everything that has happened–and as it goes in many fairy tales, the prince sees her beauty and falls in love with the princess on the spot–and throws a party.

The chambermaid attends the party, but doesn’t recognize the princess in her splendor. (Maybe she’s related to Cinderella’s prince?) So the king questions the chambermaid, and asks her what should happen to a servant who betrays their master.

The maid tells the king the servant deserves to be stripped naked, placed in a barrel studded with nails, and dragged through the streets by horses. The king essentially tells her “You are the betrayer, and so this will be done to her,” and just as he promises it is done.

…but then the princess and shallow prince marry and live happily ever after! Yaaaaayy!

If you want to read a retelling that is really true to the original–without making it seem quite so unbelievably/weird, I highly recommend Shannon Hale’s “Goose Girl.” Despite the base material, it’s a beautiful retelling of the story, and my absolute favorite version. But that’s all for today, Champions! I hope you enjoy A Goose Girl–if you would review it on Amazon or Goodreads I would really appreciate it! Until the next post, have a lovely week!

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Entwined Tales: A Goose Girl

We are still having some 12 Dancing Princesses fun, but to close our our month of “Christmas in January,” I had to tell you guys about the super secret project I’ve been working on since October!

February contains the much celebrated National Fairy Tale day! I’ve always wanted to do something to celebrate the day, so I got together with six other authors–Brittany Fichter, Shari L Tapscott, Kenley Davidson, Aya Ling, and Melanie Cellier.

We decided to each write and release a novella that are all set in the same world, and thus Entwined Tales was born!

Everyone wishes they had a fairy godmother to make the world a little more magical…

They’ve never met Mortimer.

Every good deed merits a reward, at least according to the Fairy Council. But when a kind woodcutter’s family is rewarded with a grumpy, sarcastic, irresponsible fairy godfather named Mortimer, their lives are changed forever… and not in a good way.

Follow the woodcutter’s seven children as Corynn, Eva, Sophie, Elisette, Martin, Anneliese, and Penelope head out into the world to find adventure, new friends, and their very own happily-ever-afters. Their greatest challenge? Avoiding their fairy godfather’s disastrous attempts to help.

My novella–a retelling of The Goose Girl that is oh-so-cleverly titled “A Goose Girl“–is the first in the series, and it’s about the eldest of the woodcutters’ children, Corynn. It will launch February 5 and it’s about the same length as a King Arthur story.

As a royal lady’s maid, Rynn has one task: Escort the princess of Astoria to her intended’s kingdom and return home. Unfortunately for the former goose girl, the princess has other plans.

When her charge flees, Rynn’s not only forced to take the princess’s place, but she must also contend with a spiteful fairy horse, a good dose of political intrigue, and Conrad…the mysterious and all-too observant lord who consumes more of her thoughts than he should.

But with war looming on the horizon, Rynn stands to lose more than her heart. Can she convince the princess to return, end the charade, and make peace between the kingdoms?

More importantly, can she possibly avoid a death sentence when the truth is revealed?

I’ll be talking about it closer to the release day as tradition, but I did want to talk a little bit about the novella. I know I’ve gone on the record before of stating that I would never do a Goose Girl retelling–Shannon Hale did the best version ever in my opinion, and I could never hope to come near to it if I went at it from a traditional angle like I usually do.

But when we hatched the idea of one family showing up in all these different fairy tales, it gave me the opportunity to (reluctantly) explore the fairy tale from the maid’s perspective!

…Also it’s one of the only fairy tales I know of where a horse plays a starring role and I just really, really wanted to write a horse character.