K.M. Shea's Blog, page 48

On Frogs and Art

It’s time to officially reveal Book 9 in the Timeless Fairy Tales series: The Frog Prince! The story will follow Prince Lucien–crown prince of Loire and Severin’s half-brother–and a neat-nut maid named Ariane as they attend the Summit meeting and dodge two rogue mages who are out to kill Lucien.

It was really tough keeping this story under-wraps for as long as I did–I actually foreshadowed it way back in Beauty and the Beast when Angelique threatens to turn Lucien into a toad! It’s a story that took a lot of effort to write, because it brings back so many characters from other books. (Severin, Elle, Rumpelstiltskin, Gemma, Dylan, Callan, Gabrielle, Steffen, and Elise just to name a few!) Actually, this is the FIRST BOOK in the Timeless Fairy Tale series that technically isn’t a standalone! Since so much of the story wraps around the series’ current events, if you really want to enjoy it you need to read the other books first. (Believe me, it will pay off in the end!)

I’m looking at a late October/early November release date, so it won’t be too long until you have a new book to sink your teeth into!

On that happy note, I also wanted to display some awesome artwork sent to me by two lovely Champions!

I Might Not Make it? Image of Dylan from Little Selkie By Cami John

Up first we have a beautiful image of Dylan from The Little Selkie which is taken from my FAVORITE SCENE in the whole book–when she’s facing the giant wave caused by the sea witch! The wonderful Cami John made this image–and wow did she nail the water and sunlight! (The foam at the top of the wave is especially amazing.)

Kit from Second Age of Retha Series, by Jess Wurms

Jess Wurms–you might remember her from some previous pieces–created another lovely drawing–this one of Kit from The Luckless, my A. M. Sohma series! I really have to tip my hat to Jess on this one–she remembered Kit’s obnoxious face tattoo! (It’s particularly impressive given that I purposely don’t have the cover artist include it on the covers, but Jess is really amazing at adding small details like that.)

Thank you to both Cami and Jess for letting me show off their work! I’m really honored that you two enjoyed my stories enough to use your talents to make some amazing artwork!

That’s all for today, Champions! Thank you for reading, and let me know if you guessed that Lucien was going to be the Frog Prince!

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The Favorite Secondary Characters Poll: COMPLETE

After seven rounds and one final, immense battle between the best of the brightest of my secondary characters, we have a winner! Champions, the most favorite secondary characters who won with a whopping 185 votes are…Cagney and Dooley of Little Selkie!

In a very close second place with 174 votes was Puss of Puss in Boots. Phile the Robber Maiden of the Snow Queen Series snagged third with 160 votes, and Sir Kay of King Arthur took fourth with 142 votes.

In honorable mentions we have: Seer Ringali, 116 votes; Oskar, 99 votes; Lady/Queen Linnea, 95 votes; Zerah and the First Regiment of the Dragon Army with 90 votes; Harrison with 83 votes, the Lady of the Lake, 77 votes; and Hunter 74 votes.

There was a grand total of 1,918 votes–which means approximately 480 of you cast a ballot. It was pretty interesting to observe, because the winning characters’ vote counts weren’t as high as the winning characters of the various heats were, but that was because all the characters received a great amount of votes, and the competition was really fierce. (This is probably because we were pitting the most beloved against the most beloved.)

It was especially fun to see the different series represented in the winning characters and the honorable mentions. I wasn’t too surprised Cagney and Dooley took first–I knew when I put them on the same entry that I was stacking the odds in their favor–but I was especially glad that Puss gave them a serious run, particularly as there is only one puss and two of them! Phile, Sir Kay, and Seer Ringali ruling the other top places were a very fun surprise. (It’s a good sign when I have characters from other series landing in the top, and that the Timeless Fairy Tales didn’t completely trash everyone!)

A big thank you to everyone who voted–this was a really fun way to pass the summer and the perfect close out to the season.

In equally exciting news, right now I’m running a K. M. Shea Reader Survey. The survey is pretty short and asks you a few questions (ie: are you a KU subscriber, how did you find me, etc) that should only take you a few minutes to finish. It will help me learn more about the Champions as a group and will impact future marketing decisions and the general direction I decide to go in as an author. Naturally, I would really appreciate it if you would fill it out!

As a thank you for completing the survey, everyone who fills it out gets an unedited sample chapter (in a PDF) of the next Timeless Fairy Tale I’m currently writing! (And no, it’s not the 12 Dancing Princesses that will launch in December, but that unnamed fairy tale I’ve been teasing you guys with for a few weeks.)

If you want the sample chapter, fill out the survey, and then click submit at the bottom of the form. The next page–a short little thank you message–will pop up once your survey has been successfully submitted. The link to the PDF is in that thank you message!

I want to close out with another thank you to everyone who participated in the Secondary Character Poll. It was so fun to see how all the different characters were loved and appreciated. I hope you fill out the survey and enjoy the sample chapter! (I’ve been dying to discuss it!) Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

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The Favorite Secondary Character

After seven difficult rounds that pitted secondary characters from all my books against each other, we have the final round. This round contains the winners from all the previous heats.

The rules are as follows: You have one ballot and can vote for up to four characters when you cast your ballot. The character with the highest number of votes, wins the title of the most beloved secondary character out of all K. M. Shea books. The poll opens today, and runs through September 10th. Share the word and tell everyone you know, because this is the fight to end all fights!

To make it easier to vote, each character is listed with a brief description and are tagged by the book/series they belong to. (They are, however, not listed in any particular order and will actually change every time you refresh your screen. We have to keep things fair, yes?)

And that’s everything. Hang on, Champions, we’re in for one heck-of-a ride!

View Poll

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Team Update

Greetings, Champions! The final round of the Favorite Secondary Character Poll is just about ready! You can expect to see it out sometime next week. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun if I gave a bit of a team update!

As many of you are aware, I can’t do this alone. I have a whole slew of people who stand in the gaps and help me. Here’s what my amazing crew has been up to:

Myrrhlynn: Cover-artist: Though Nibelart made the actual artwork for my Second Age of Retha series, Myrrhlynn still did the typography, and she and I worked together to create the concept design. She just finished the updated MBRC covers (More on that in future posts) but she already has the image picked out for my next Timeless Fairy Tale cover!

Editor #1: Comma Queen: Editor #1 has been hard at work whipping the next Second Age of Retha book, The Desperate Quest, into shape! I owe her a big thanks for tackling this project. She doesn’t know much about video games so when editing The Luckless her comments were both insightful and hilarious whenever she came across a gaming concept that was a bit weird. (She says Desperate Quest is an easier read!)

Editor #2: Stylistic Wizard: Editor #2 has been very busy with her own work! Her book, Strains of Silence, was recently published by Harbourlight Books! (The book is contemporary and tackles some heavy topics, but it’s got Editor #2’s beautiful style of writing!)

Britta: Head beta-reader: I’m super excited for Britta because she’s about to start writing a creative writing class–woohoo–but I really owe her a big thanks, or a gallon of ice cream or something. Britta has been powering through some of my old books, looking for typos and mistakes. (And I mean OLD BOOKS. We’re talking Princess Ahira old.) Her role is particularly key given that the books need to be cleaned up for Meg’s job.

Rock-Star-Meg: Assistant: Pretty soon here Meg will be sweeping away all my manuscripts, and will be update the formatting for the ebooks, and formatting every book for print publication! (Wooohooo!) We’re not ready quite yet as I’m still figuring out the formatting myself, but it’s coming!

As for me, I’m between books at the moment. I’ve been editing The Desperate Quest, but I’m also prepping for my next Timeless Fairy Tale story. There’s a million little things I need to do (like apply the typos Britta finds so Meg will be golden when the time comes) but I’m really looking forward to my next book. (And no, I’m not going to share what retelling it is…yet. Buwahah!)

That’s everything with us! Thanks for reading, Champions, I hope you have a fantastic day!

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A. M. Sohma vs K. M. Shea

The different rounds/heats for your “Favorite Secondary Character Poll” are finished! There’s only one poll left which will determine the absolute favorite secondary character! I need a little time to prep for it so I won’t be posting it today, but next week.

In the meantime, the winner’s from last week’s poll who will progress to the final round are: Puss with 145 votes, Pricker Patch with 83 votes, the Black Swan Smugglers with 77 votes, and Lady Delanna with 61 votes.

In honorable mentions we have the little orange kitty who fell in love with puss with 58 votes, Odile and her pets with 57 votes, Empress Sonya with 56 votes, and Mage Donaigh with 45 votes.

The results of this poll were both expected and a surprise. I was seriously banking on Puss taking first–he’s one of my favorite characters to write because of his attitude, so I was going to be heartbroken if he didn’t make it. I was happily surprised about Pricker Patch and the Black Swan Smugglers–though I did have an inkling that Lady Delanna would make it in as well.

A big thanks to everyone who voted–I can’t wait to see the final round! (Though I expect it will be pretty difficult.)

Since we’re not holding a poll today, I thought it would be a perfect time to cover a little more information about my new penname, and what it changes for future K. M. Shea books.

Thanks for reading, Champions! Have a lovely weekend!

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Favorite Secondary Characters: Round VII

Greetings, Champions! Last week was quite the battle between Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin, and the Little Selkie! The four victorious secondary characters were: Cagney & Dooley with 197 votes; Lady Linnea with 156 votes; the First Regiment of the Dragon Army/Friedrich’s men with 152 votes; and Grandmother Guri with 128 votes.

Honorable mentions include Oisin and Morri with 112 votes, Gemma’s Hvit and Dylan’s Kelpie with 79 votes, Gemma’s guards with 70 votes, Cinderella’s friend Marie with 57 votes, and Cinderella’s servants with 46 votes.

As I admitted in the comments, I pretty much knew that by pairing Cagney and Dooley together as one entry it was guaranteeing they would win, but I tried to give other characters a fighting chance. (It’s why all of Friedrich’s men were lumped together as well.) I’m really happy with this poll result because each book had a character(s) place–which is a very happy occurrence. I was pretty surprised, though. I had no idea Lady Linnea was so popular, or Grandmother Guri! I hoped Friedrich’s men or Cinderella’s servants would snag a place, so I was very happy to see Friedrich’s men snag the honor. A few of you pointed out I forgot to include Pricker Patch!! I have no idea how that happened as he was on my list, so I have included him in this week’s round.

A big thank you to everyone who voted! There were 1,348 votes with 337 people casting their ballots.

I am using this cute hedgehog to distract you from the fact that you are about to ruthlessly choose from a list of beloved characters who deserves distinction. …Enjoy!

It’s time for the Seventh–and final–Round of the “Favorite Secondary Character Poll!” The last line up is: Puss in Boots VERSUS Swan Lake VERSUS Sleeping Beauty!  As it is with my hero/heroine polls, you get to cast your ballot once, but you can vote for up to four characters. (Since it’s three books I thought I would have mercy again) This poll will close August 17–so you have ONE WEEK to vote!

Choose carefully! The top four characters of this poll will go on to the FINAL ROUND, which will begin next week! (I’m looking forward to seeing who will be crowned the champion–though I have a feeling it’s going to be hard for you all to choose.)

Ready? FIGHT!

View Poll

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Favorite Secondary Characters: Round VI

Greetings, Champions! Last week you voted between characters from Beauty and the Beast and Wild Swans. The three winners were: Emele, with an astounding 129 votes–almost double Oliver’s count. Which, as might have guessed, Oliver the stableboy came in second with 69 votes, and–because probability apparently isn’t a thing in these polls–we have a tie for third place between Bernadine the cook and Prince Mikk of Arcainia, both of which had 57 votes!

Nick–Mikk’s twin–just missed making it a three-way-tie as he had 56 votes. The close votes were sorta a theme, though, as the rest of the honorable mentions are: Captain Brida with 50 votes, Heloise the housekeeper with 48, votes, Jock the dog with 47, and Prince Gerhart with 46, and finally Prince Lucien with 42.

Over 230 people cast their ballots, bringing in a total of 695 votes! Thank you to everyone who participated! This was a particularly interesting poll for me, as Emele was a HUGE favorite, but then the votes for all the other top tiers were really close! But on to the next round.

Get ready, Champions. The next round is a doozy!

It’s time for the Sixth Round of the “Favorite Secondary Character Poll!” Today’s line up is: Cinderella VERSUS Rumpelstiltskin VERSUS The Little Selkie! As it is with my hero/heroine polls, you get to cast your ballot once, but because these three books are all great favorites, I’m letting you vote for up to four secondary characters. This poll will close 8/10–so you have ONE WEEK to vote!

Choose carefully! The top four secondary characters of this poll will go on to the FINAL ROUND!

Annnnd, go!

View Poll

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A Sohma Surprise

Greetings, Champions! I have got a bit of a surprise to spring on you all today.

As you might recall, near the start of summer I talked about working on my “passion project,” and I’m finally ready to reveal it. This summer I launched a pen name: A. M. Sohma. I created the pen name to work as a bit of a divider. My Sohma stories will be more adventure focused and less romance driven, and most of them will be in genres that probably won’t interest many of you–specifically sci fi and a particular genre called LitRPG.

At it’s core, LitRPG is basically a story in which the characters are stuck in a video game, or spend a lot of time in a video game. There’s a lot of gamer jargon, specific tropes are expected, and since the stories take place inside a video game things like levels, character stats, and skills are discussed a lot. All of that is really different from my beloved fairy tales, and I didn’t want to launch it as K. M. Shea, have you guys pick it up because you assumed it would be something you would enjoy, and end up disliking the story. So I decided to launch A. M. Sohma. In fact, A. M. Sohma’s first LitRPG book was released a few weeks ago: The Luckless.

Welcome to Retha, the full submersion video game where you can be the hero of your own adventure. Unfortunately for Kit, it only takes one moment to turn the game into a nightmare.

When Chronicles of Retha experiences a software malfunction, Kit—a disenchanted veteran player—is stuck in the game without a way to log off. Even worse, she’s trapped playing as the most defective character possible, an elf dancer that was meant to be a prank.

Thankfully, she receives word that there is a way out. But the only escape route is to defeat the game’s ultimate villain. Kit, in her joke character, must fight her way through some of the worst Retha has to offer. Her only help is a party of low-leveled players just as powerless as she is, and the occasional act of mercy from one of the best players in the game, the taciturn (and aloof) Solus Miles.

Can Kit and her new friends finish the quest, or will Retha be their end?

Here’s the thing. A. M. Sohma’s books are still going to contain all my usual signature things: quirky characters, humor, butt-kicking heroines, clean romance, the works. It’s really just that the subject matter is so different, I wanted to separate the two out to avoid any potential conflicts. I hope you give The Luckless a try, but if video games aren’t your thing, don’t worry about it. I want my books to be entertaining, and if it’s something you don’t like it won’t be able to entertain you!!

If you want to learn more you can check out the A. M. Sohma tab. I’m running a separate mailing list for it that way I can really keep the audiences separate, and just like my K. M. Shea Starter Pack, I give away a free Luckless short story to those who sign up for it.

I’ll talk about A. M. Sohma some more in the next few weeks to make sure that we’re all on the same page, but that’s the basic run down for now. Thanks for reading, Champions! I’ll see you on Friday when I announce the winners of the next round of the Favorite Secondary Characters Poll!

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Favorite Secondary Characters: Round V

Greetings, Champions! Four characters emerged victorious from last week’s battle of the titans, they are: Phile (of Snow Queen) with 171 votes; Seer Ringali (of Red Rope of Fate) with 130 votes; Oskar (of Snow Queen) with 105 votes; and lastly Snorri (of Snow Queen) with 69 votes.

In honorable mentions we have: Halvor (from Snow Queen) and Thad, Grygg, and Wilford (from Red Rope) were SO CLOSE with a tie of 66 votes! Just three votes off, boys! Then came Evlawyn (Tari’s maid) with 61 votes, then Kai and Gerta with 42 and 40 votes.

Approximately 260 people voted in this round, and there were 1,037 ballots cast–thanks to everyone who participated!

For the first time ever, this poll ended up roughly how I thought it would. I was a little surprised Halvor didn’t place higher, and I didn’t think Oskar would get as many votes as he did, but I had predicted that Phile and Seer Ringali would be the run-away-champions. (Which is actually quite funny if you think about it as they have opposite personalities, but I do feel that for both of their worlds they are the funniest characters in the story.) As for the honorable mentions, I did cheat a little by listing Wilford, Thad, and Grygg as one entry, but I figured since there’s only about two scenes where they don’t appear as a trio, it was fair. (Plus the Red Rope drinking scene has gone down in history as one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever written, and they are wholly responsible for it.)

It really warmed my heart to see characters from both books claim top places. (The poll was actually a close run–Thad, Grygg, and Wilford were in third place for most of the week until Snorri led an upstart!) While I love all my stories, Red Rope and Snow Queen are very dear and special to me, so it really makes me happy that they are so fiercely loved by you as well, Champions.

It’s time for the Fifth Round of the “Favorite Secondary Character Poll!” Today’s match is: Beauty and the Beast VERSUS Wild Swans! As it is with my hero/heroine polls, you get to cast your ballot once, but you can vote for up to three characters. This poll will close August 3rd–so you have ONE WEEK to vote!

Special Note:*Though Gabrielle, Puss, and Steffen all appear in Wild Swans, as Gabi and Steffen are the protagonists of their own story I’m not counting them, and Puss–as well as Toril–will appear in later polls*

Choose carefully! The top three characters of this poll will go on to the FINAL ROUND!

Ready? BEGIN!

View Poll

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Sale on Heart of Ice

Hello again, Champions! I forgot to mention this in my previous post, but Today (7/21) and tomorrow (7/22) I’m running a sale on Heart of Ice–Book #1 of the Snow Queen series!

Link to its Amazon page is here!

I’ll be deleting this post once the sale is over because I want to keep the focus on the Fourth Round of the Favorite Secondary Characters Poll!

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely weekend!

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