K.M. Shea's Blog, page 6
August 1, 2023
Sad News
Hello, Champions,
I have some sad news to share with everyone. A little over a week ago my beloved collie, Perfect Dog, passed away. I’ve avoided saying anything until now because the words just wouldn’t come in my heartbreak and grief.
There’s not really much more I can bear to say about it, except that I miss her a lot, she was the most amazing companion, and that I am so blessed to have had twelve wonderful years with her.
I could use a serious serotonin boost, so I’d appreciate it if you left a comment with a funny/cute story about your own pet, or even just a couple sentences about them. Thanks, Champions.
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July 28, 2023
Sheacon 2023 Goodie Bag
Sheacon 2023 is starting TODAY! Early access is available right now, in fact! (Reminder! To attend Sheacon, you’ll need to join the KM Shea Discord server! Once inside our community server, there is a special channel called “Sheacon-Announcements.” That channel contains a link to the Sheacon server–the place where the actual conference is held. If you have any problems navigating the discord server, feel free to ask questions! Vin, the Mod Squad, and the Sheacon Planners will be watching, so they can swoop in and save you!)
Once you’ve joined Sheacon sever, you’ll have access to the full schedule of events for the weekend–you can find it in the “schedule” channel! It’s also advised that you check out the server rules and info channel, and since the Opening Ceremony won’t take place until 6 PM central time, you’ve got time to explore all the activities–like puzzles–and check out the goodie bag! What is the goodie bag? I’m so glad you asked!
Every year I have a goodie bag of treats–for both Con attendees and Champions who couldn’t make it! This year, we have so much to share–important, the other attending authors/panelists have goodies to share, too, so if you’re attending Sheacon, check out the “Goodie Bag” channel on the server!
First of all the third boxset from the Timeless Fairy Tales series is free today (7/28) through Monday (7/31). This book was voted on by the newsletter Champions in my July newsletter, so thank you to everyone who voted – this boxset won by a landslide!
This boxset includes books 7-9 (Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Frog Prince) in the Timeless Fairy Tales series BUT if you haven’t read the earlier books you can still enjoy these stories because each book in this series is a stand-alone retelling of a popular fairy tale. This also means you can send this deal to your friends to get them to try the series and they won’t feel completely lost starting with #7 in the series.
Get the free boxset: Amazon.com | All Other Amazon Stores
Want to know a little more about each book?
Swan Lake – A Robin Hood-esque adventure where the cunning leader of a troop of cursed smugglers/outlaws and a clever but often overlooked prince fall in love. (Quick warning that the villain in this series is the most popular(?!) I’ve ever written and triggers a lot of feels for some people.)
Sleeping Beauty – A childhood friend to – lovers/bodyguard romance between a feisty princess who was raised to believe she was a peasant and the loyal knight sworn to protect her. (This series doesn’t have three good fairies like the Disney version but I think you will enjoy the pair of mages I included instead.)
Frog Prince – A fantasy boss/employee romance where the main male character has hidden depths and our plucky heroine, a maid who really loves cleaning, is brave enough to take on assassins with a broom. (If you read the first book in the series, Beauty and the Beast, you will love all the character crossovers that happen in this book!)
I also have a brand new coloring book page featuring everyone’s favorite fairy tale donkey:
Here’s a link to the PDF if you’d like to print this page off to color by hand, otherwise you can use the above JPEG file to color digitally! Get the PDF here
Magiford Champions might be feeling a little left out, but the best is yet to come! I have a brand new, never before seen Magiford short story for you! It’s called “Fireworks for Wizards,” and it focuses on Hazel Medeis and Killian Drake!
Click Here to read the PDF of this new short story!
Finally, we have a project for you audio lovers!
This summer the team converted my short story, “A Twisted Tale” into an audio format using AI narration, and we’ve uploaded it to Youtube for you to listen to–for free!
IMPORTANT NOTE! In the future I will only use AI narration for short stories–like A Twisted Tale–that will only be available for free on Youtube. Books, series, etc, will continue to have human narrators that will be available for purchase on Audible. (Basically, if we make any free audio stuff that I upload to Youtube, we’ll use AI narration programs since I’ll never be selling them/making a profit on them. Anything that gets packaged to sell will have human narrators!)
Listen to A Twisted Tale here!
And finally, if you’re looking for more free books check out these additional fantasy romances which are all FREE for this weekend! Click here for the full list!
You’ll recognize a several of the authors as guest authors from the current SheaCon (Charlotte Vane, Hanna Sandvig, and Celeste Baxendell all have free books for you) or previous years. Our Discord Manager, Vin, spent a lot of time vetting each author to make sure they meet the Sweet/Clean heat level but she didn’t have time to read every book they’ve ever written. Vin did her best to make sure their content matches my books however, it’s still wise to check reviews before you plunge into a new author’s books, particularly if it’s a series the author didn’t promote as part of this special.
I am so excited for this weekend, and I can’t wait to hang out with everyone! However, if you can’t come, we will have audio records of the panels available to listen to in a few weeks, so don’t stress!
That’s everything. I’ll see you at 6 pm (central time) for the opening ceremonies!
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July 22, 2023
SheaCon 2023: Battle of the Sheaverse
What is the Battle of the Sheaverse? The Battle of the Sheaverse is a 5 day series of challenges on Kitty’s Discord server leading up to SheaCon. These challenges will be set in the three main worlds of the Sheaverse. Each champion will have to decide where their allegiance lies, is it with Team Retha, Team TFT/FTE, or Team Magiford?Beginning on Monday, July 24th, and leading up to SheaCon, a unique prompt will be posted each day to each team’s channel. (This special section of the server for the Battle of the Sheaverse will not appear until July 24th.)Read the prompt, complete the task, and post in your team’s channel according to the instructions given. The team with the most posts (original responses to the daily post) will be crowned victor during the opening ceremonies of SheaCon!Note from Kitty: This is the first time we are ever having a Battle of the Sheaverse and I’m so excited to watch the fun! It’s also a great way to get familiar with using Discord prior to the start of Sheacon.If you haven’t joined my Discord server yet click here for the invite to join! Once you’re signed up click here to visit the channel at anytime!The post SheaCon 2023: Battle of the Sheaverse appeared first on K. M. Shea.
July 17, 2023
SheaCon2023: Activities!
Hello Champions, my name is Cindy. As Head Planner for SheaCon 2023 I need to give a loud shout out to the amazing work of all the planners. They are responsible for creating many of the new activities and preparing old ones to return.
We have a slew of Shea/Sohma themed activities broken up into three categories for you to enjoy! Solo Activities for you to complete on your own, Interactive Activities for you to participate in via text chat channels, and Hosted Activities at scheduled times in voice channels run by a pair of hosts who will lead the fun.
Solo Activities:
Returning and new solo activities will be in the Printable Activities channel and include Mad Gabs, Madlibs, Buzzword Word Search, Quote Cryptogram, Magical Creature Word Unscramble, and Trivia Crossword.In our puzzle channel you will find many virtual jigsaw puzzles of Kitty’s book quotes and cover images.Match your wits against a series of four puzzle challenges in our new Retha-themed virtual escape room!
Interactive Activities:
In our Art channel you can post Kitty fan-art or pictures of a KM Shea/AM Sohma character cosplay you’ve created.Do you like riddles? Do you like Emojis? Then step right into our new channel full of Emoji Guessing Games!The Vintertainment Writing Collaboration is back! Vin will start with a prompt and each Champion will have the opportunity to write a few sentences at a time to contribute to the new story.Vote for your favorite magiford snack in Snack Smackdown! Will it be Chips, Granola bars, Popcorn or Doughnuts?
Hosted Activities:
The fan favorite Drawing with a Twist will be back! Follow a series of drawing prompts and see which Shea/Sohma scene unfolds.Test your mettle in a round of K. M. Shea themed trivia Kahoot!Test your intelligencer abilities in Codenames! Codenames is a virtual card based guessing game with a spy theme.Pull up a Bingo card and listen carefully as your host calls out familiar Kitty related wordsHosted Elven Star Stretches will get your muscles moving after enjoying so much time sitting during SheaCon. (These will be similar to Aldelbert’s Glory Stretches from 2022!)Read-alongs will allow champions to read one of Kitty’s short stories or a chapter of one of her books together.Vin will be running her famed Writing Sprints on Saturday.Vin will also be hosting a LotRO (Lord of the Rings Online) watch party as she and others from the kin run around Middle Earth. If you’ve ever wondered what Retha might look like, be sure to join in.
All this is in addition to the panels with Kitty, guest author panelists, and Retha and Dragons, a Dungeon and Dragons game with an Age of Retha twist! We are very excited to see you at SheaCon 2023, so be sure to mark your calendars for July 28th through 30th!
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July 13, 2023
Even MORE sales!
This sale is good for today only, and my apologies to those outside these regions who don’t get the sale. ( That was Amazon’s decision, not mine.) But, here are the links you’ve been waiting for!Hall of Blood and Mercy Boxset: https://books2read.com/u/bxJ95qHunted: https://books2read.com/u/bWQRkGUnited: https://books2read.com/u/4XDnL5The post Even MORE sales! appeared first on K. M. Shea.
July 12, 2023
King Arthur and Her Knights: The Complete Series SALE
Are you looking for a new series you can binge? Do you like plenty of action mixed with your fantasy romance? Do you like the King Arthur myths but wish they weren’t so sad?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions you should check out the sale I have right now for my King Arthur and Her Knights series. You can get the completed series for only 99 cents! (It’s technically 7 books long but the first 6 books are novellas so it’s about the same length as a Magiford trilogy.)
Get the discounted boxset: Amazon.com | All other Amazon stores
In this series, the no-nonsense heroine pretends to be the male King Arthur as she gathers her knights, finds the Round Table, and bickers (read: flirts) with Merlin, a magical genius.
If you’re looking for a modern twist of humor combined with some good sword fights, a fantasy setting, and a sarcastic heroine who can kick butt, you’ve found your series!
I will be discounting the ebook from now until approximately July 17th so get it now while you still can.
P.S. There is an “official? Lancelot hate club in this series, so I hope that makes it clear that unlike the original King Arthur myths there are no love triangles in my retelling. 
I’ve had several Champions tell me they held off on trying this series because they happen to hate Lancelot, and they were mad at themselves for waiting so long when they finally decided to read it. I sometimes forget I changed my major King Arthur pet peeves when I wrote this story (one of which was Lancelot and Queen Guinevere’s betrayal of Arthur) so I wanted to make sure I called out that major difference.
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July 10, 2023
Series sale: The Snow Queen
Get the sale here!The Snow Queen Saga is about Rakel, an exiled princess who should have been queen, but is feared for her magic powers of snow and ice. When an enemy army invades her homeland, Rakel is all that stands between her country and annihilation. This series has tropes like found family, enemies to lovers, and features some of my favorite side characters ever who will make you laugh throughout this epic fantasy adventure! Side note: I apologize to those outside these regions who can’t get the sale–that was Amazon’s decision, not mine!The post Series sale: The Snow Queen appeared first on K. M. Shea.
July 5, 2023
SheaCon 2023: Panel Schedule
July is here which means it’s time to share the SheaCon 2023 panel Schedule! In addition to the panels there will be loads of other activities, but these are the panelists so you can strategize what you want to try attending! All panel times are in the central time zone!
Friday:
Opening Ceremony at 6 pmPanel with Hanna Sandvig and Charlotte Vane at 8 pmSaturday:
Kitty Q&A #1 at 11 amPanel with Elisa Rae and Celeste Baxendell at 2 pmHow to Train Your Champion Panel at 5 pmCelebrity Retha and Dragons with Kitty, Hanna Sanvig, Elisa Rae, and our Vin at 7 pmSunday:
Kitty Writing Panel at 12 pmKitty Q&A #2 at 3 pmKitty Hot Seat Panel at 7 pmJuly 6th is your last chance to submit your questions about books, writing style/process, etc, for me (Kitty) or any of our Sheacon 2023 guest panelists. To keep the panels running on time we will not be taking questions during the panels, so if you have a question you want me to answer you MUST submit it ahead of time! If you want to review the Sheacon guest panelists, there’s information in this blog post.
Click here to submit a question for Kitty, and click here to submit a question for any other panelist!
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June 30, 2023
Swan Lake: Romance & Length
Note from Kitty: I was performing a cleanup of my old blog posts and I found a few that I had left in draft status for some reason but never published them?!? So for the rest of this month you are getting these “Kitty’s Attic” blog posts – I hope you enjoy them!
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Normally when I write blog posts related to my books, I keep my posts focused on things like research and character development. However, because Swan Lake was such an unusual book for me in certain areas, I figured you guys might enjoy hearing about how it came together differently from manuscripts.
First of all, let’s begin this epic post with some background info. Beauty and the Beast was surprisingly difficult to write because of Severin and Elle. While I love those characters to death, and now I enjoy writing them because they’re married, writing a romance between them was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I have never before written characters who were so uninterested in each other. And the theme of two people who dislike each other and then fall in love is pretty common among the rest of my timeless fairy tales. Gabrielle and Steffen were fairly slow to come together, as were Rakel and Farrin. Heck, Cinderella hated Friedrich when she first met him!
Just about the only Timeless Fairy Tale I’ve written in which the couple fall in love with relative ease is Dylan and Callan from little Selkie. But those two still had a lot of drama to deal with, and it affected their relationship. Odette and Alexsei, however, were set on each other from the start.
Seriously, they have been the easiest couple to write to date, and I don’t hand out that phrase easily. Even though they both had other things on their mind (Odette for instance was always concerned about her people, and about keeping the princes safe) they drew each other in like magnets.
I actually wanted the book to be much longer. Originally I was planning for it to be at least 70,000 words. Instead, when I finished the first draft it sat at 58,000 words. I flushed it out, adding as many scenes as I could without creating extra/unnecessary fluff, and I got it up to 62,000 words. This makes it my second shortest fairy tale ever. (Beauty and the Beast 61,000 words.)
I considered trying to expand it or add extra subplots, but Odette and Alexsei wouldn’t let me! Whenever I tried to add a scene, or sketched out a new idea, those two would go through and muck everything up because they were so bent on getting to the end. It was actually kind of refreshing to have a couple that was focused on ending up together, but the same way it was oddly flustering being because I really wanted a longer book!
But, in all fairness, it is due to their personalities. Alexsei was created after I poured over the results from the “most wanted hero” poll I put up this January. The winning hero in that poll was the “overlooked good guy.” An overwhelming amount of you voted for that kind of hero, so I wanted to make sure that was the kind of male protagonist I created for Swan Lake. And that’s where the problems began.
You see, because I wrote Alexsei to be the overlooked good guy, and I made Odette crafty enough to see those who are often overlooked, those two hit it off immediately, and their personalities made it possible to keep them apart. Alexsei, though respectful, is very outspoken of his admiration for Odette because he’s the nice guy character type. On the other hand, Odette is observant enough to notice him and value him for who he is.
So I guess this post, while explaining the length and taking a closer look at Alexsei and Odette’s relationship, is in some ways a display. It shows that the way a romance blossoms between characters will impact a lot of the book. Beauty and the Beast and Swan Lake are similar lengths, however, Swan Lake is a lot more action-packed, and the characters are a lot more driven to go out and accomplish things because they want to be together. The majority of Beauty and the Beast is me locking Elle and Severin in the same room and forcing them to interact.
So, what do you think, Champions? Was Alexsei a proper “Overlooked good guy?” I tried, but I’m not certain I hit it just right. I think it would be easier to make a true “overlooked good guy” archtype in a contemporary novel, so I may try that sort of hero again when I get around to writing another modern-themed book. Leave a comment below with your thoughts! In the mean time, thanks for reading, and have a lovely week!
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June 23, 2023
SheaCon 2023: Ask your questions!
SheaCon is a little over a month away which means it’s time for me to share an update from Chief SheaCon Planner, Cindy!
I’m very excited to announce the SheaCon panelist authors! We have four very special ladies coming, so please read below for a summary of their works. You also can submit questions beforehand for their Q&A sessions at this link: https://forms.gle/SLm7C3GCzoqu8CeL6
Hanna Sandvig is the author of the Faerie Tale Romances, a series of standalone romances based on fairy tales set in the same world(s) with connecting characters, much like Timeless Fairy Tales. The main protagonists are all from our modern world that end up interacting with the fae realm via special gates. The Rose Gate and The Glass Gate are full length novels, while The Wolf Gate and The Lily Gate are novellas. The Frost Gate will come out in January 2024.
Elisa Rae is the author of the Elves of Eldarlan and Courts in Conflict series . The Elves of Eldarlan is a set of standalone romances novellas set in a fantasy world full of elves, woodwose, gargoyles, and brownies among others. There are connecting characters, much like Elves of Lessa, and these poor male elves seem to be stuck in various interesting situations with human women. The Elven Spymaster’s Thief is the first book, and the final one, The Shadow Elf’s Mission, comes out in October. Her newest novella, The Unseelie’s Wallflower, starts a new series set in a fae court and includes fated mates.
Celeste Baxendell is the author of the Bewitching Fairy Tales, a series of standalone romances. Each novel is set in the same world and based on two mashed up fairy tales. The series starts with Stalks of Gold, and was completed with Thorns of Gold, which came out earlier this year. Celeste has a new fantasy romance series releasing in August, starting with The Prince’s Captive, and is also contributing the stand-alone novel The Wicked Prince to an author collaboration with stories from the prince’s perspective, in this case, Prince John from Robin Hood.
Charlotte Vane is the author of the Apex: Moonbound series. This paranormal romance series features werewolves, fated mates, and found family. Set in the same community, there’s a different lead couple for each novel. There are currently three books out: To Protect a Wolf, To Heal a Wolf, and To Choose a Wolf, with the next one to be called To Trust a Wolf.
ALSO, it’s that time of year again: the SheaCon planners are collecting your questions for Kitty!
SheaCon will include several Q&A panels where Kitty will answer some of the presubmitted questions collected in this poll. Unfortunately due to time constraints and *spoilers*, we cannot guarantee answers to all questions. Submit questions for Kitty: https://forms.gle/g6aDx6RKK9M1sD5C7
Deadline for questions submissions is July 6th. And quick reminder that you don’t have to attend SheaCon on Discord to ask a question!
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