K.M. Shea's Blog, page 77

Book Banquet: Butterbeer

I’ve had a hankering to attempt a new Book Banquet. While trolling the internet for ideas I stumbled upon the fantastic Youtube channel Feasts of Fiction. Sadly Feasts of Fiction haven’t produced any new content in a few months, but the stuff they’ve made is fantastic! For today’s Book Banquet I’m going to pass the spotlight to Feasts of Fiction, who have three delicious Butterbeer recipes to share!

 

Thanks for watching, Champions, and enjoy your Butterbeer!

Are you Enchanted?

With the release of Enthroned, book one of King Arthur and Her Knights, I have naturally had a lot of questions about book two in the series, Enchanted.

In Enchanted  Britt is forced to defend her throne from a new kind of threat: Morgause–the beautiful wife of King Lot. When the gorgeous queen drops by Camelot in a show of ‘goodwill’ Britt’s knights fawn over Morgause and start insinuating they wished to have Lot as their king so Morgause could rule. Merlin refuses to help Britt snap her men out of it and claims it is beyond his skill. Even worse, Morgause has brought her sons with and one of them is the young Gawain–whom Britt knows to be a famous round table/Arthurian knight.

Enthroned served as Britt’s introduction to Britain. Enchanted is Britt’s introduction to kingship.  It focuses on espionage and court intrigue compared to Enthroned, which was mostly about war.

So far Morgause has been an utter blast to write. She is much more colorful than any of the kings who opposed Britt in Enthroned, and I absolutely love her little entourage/sons. Usually when I write female villains they are icy and calculating. Morgause smolders and simpers.

I’m also excited to write Enchanted because it introduces Gawain–my favorite Arthurian knight. Writing Gawain is proving to be a challenge, but that is mostly because coming to Camelot is a turning point in his life. There’s a few other well known Arthurian characters who  will be making their first official appearances, but I have to save some secrets for you to read in the book so that’s all I will say today!

As I have stated before Enchanted will (hopefully) be released in September. I think I will be able to meet that goal, but life enjoys exploding in my face so I’m not promising it quite yet.

Thanks for reading, Champions!

Enthroned News

Horrah, Enthroned has made it’s official Amazon debut! Today is the last day you can snag a copy for free. I’m pleased (and honored) to announce that it is currently #261 in the free Kindle Store and #5 in mythology, #5 in Fairy Tales, and #8 in New Adult romance! Thank you to everyone who bought/downloaded Ethroned, I hope you enjoy it!

I’ve been working on Enchanted–which I am strangely addicted to writing. The new characters that pop up in this book are just smashing! I’ll be releasing some character profiles so I can chatter your ears off about the new cast in the upcoming weeks, but with the rate I’ve been writing a September release date is probably with in reach. (Let there be a celebration!)

Today I’m humming with excitement. I’m going to Barnes & Nobles with a friend of mine tonight who needs to pick up some research materials. (Yes, I am such a book nerd my friends ask me to help them buy books.) I love all book stores, but the bigness of Barnes & Nobles store speaks to my soul. I might pick up additional King Arthur reference books while I’m there, some of the books I’m using are so old I think the pages are starting to disintegrate.

Thanks for reading, Champions, and have a fantastic week!

Enthroned has Arrived

Enthroned is on Amazon and available for purchase at the price of $0.99 today if you’re anxious to read it. Otherwise Enthroned will be available for free tomorrow, August 8, through Monday, August 12.

I reorganized parts of my blog to make book navigation easier. My books are now divided into two (technically three) categories: Books and Series. All stand alone books can be found in the Books page, while all series can be found in the Series page. I left Life Reader’s page up because it doesn’t really belong in either section–although it does have a blurb in the Books page–and because it is the only book I have out that is priced at $2.99.

A few of you readers were on the blog while I was mixing it up.  I apologize if I confused you and misdirected you during my blog remodeling.

I cannot tell you how happy I am that Enthroned is loaded and ready to go. Release deadlines always make me flighty–and a bit snappy if the words of my family can be trusted.

Speaking of which, I am canceling the Sword from the Stone contest. The various prizes I finally managed to come up with will work much better for book two  of King Arthur and Her Knights, Enchanted. Talk Shop is up and ready to go, though, so please review Enthroned to get the bonus material! (For details see the top post.)

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day!

Sneak Peek

It’s here! The cover art for Enthroned is here! Look at it, be awed by it, and thank my wonderful cover artist Myrrhlynn for it, please! For this cover Myrrhlynn decided to depict the lake where Britt obtains Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. It’s hard to tell on this size, but the black spot rising out of the fog is actually Excalibur. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the book, so I was thrilled that this was the cover idea Myrrhlynn went with.

Yes. Well, that’s really all I have to say. Enthroned has to be submitted to Amazon tomorrow if I want to keep up my freebies schedule so I’m really overhauling it right now. I will be making some changes to this blog, though, when I have Enthroned safely uploaded tomorrow. Please look forward to it, and thank you for reading, Champions!

Blogger Fail

Question: So, K.M., why have you been totally ruining your usual blog schedule and missing updates all together?

Answer: Ahaha I REGRET NOTHING!

Actually I do have a good explanation for once. You know how I said Enthroned was finished, and I just needed to edit it? Apparently Enthroned did not agree with that statement. These past three days I’ve added about four scenes of all new content, which means the editing process is taking much longer than I estimated.

Since I don’t really have any news to talk about, besides the fact that Enthroned is being an attention hogger, I thought I would take today to answer a common writer question.

Question: Are you the kind of writer who plans everything out, or do you fly by the seat of your pants and write as you go?

Answer: I’m a mixture of the two.

If I’m doing a historical novel then I have to do some research ahead of time, otherwise the story will end up down right shameful. With historical series, like Robyn Hood and King Arthur and her Knights, it is especially important to plan and plot out ahead of time because of all the historical legends and ballads I use. For instance, I can’t introduce a quest in King Arthur and Her Knights that Gawain takes part in if Gawain isn’t in the book yet.

With futuristic books or fantasy books I have the tendency to–in the beginning–make things up as I go along. This model works out great if the story isn’t super complex. Red Rope of Fate is a perfect example. I had a rough idea of the sequence of events I wanted, and I knew some of the cultural differences between elves and humans, but that was it. I didn’t design any of my characters out ahead of time, and I didn’t have any written notes so everything still had to be hashed out as I wrote. Same idea for Princess Ahira.

This model does not work with books that have special/significant magical/social/cultural/economic systems. For instance I plotted for weeks before I wrote Life Reader, and in the end my original work was still so horrid I rewrote the book 3 times. If you’re going for a complex story and you don’t take the time to plan things out ahead of time two things will happen: 1) You’re going to forget all the intricacies you’re writing because you don’t have notes about it so your book will be riddled with errors and things that don’t make sense or 2) You will have to spend so much time editing and rewriting that the little time you saved by not plotting out ahead of time is squandered in the editing process. The one upside to the fly by the seat of your pants model is that if you’re aware you’re going to have to do revisions you won’t be opposed to flipping the book on its head and doing major revisions to the plot and setting.

I’m not saying a person absolutely must plan out a book ahead of time–with a lot of my books I launch into the first 20 pages and then go back and make notes and plot everything out after I get a feel for the characters–but it is also worth noticing that the big time authors all plan/research ahead of time. (Example? J.K. Rowling.)

Enthroned news and sneak peek!

It seems book two of King Arthur and Her Knights is going to be quite easy to write. Already I’m 6,000 words into writing it, and I didn’t even mean to start it yet. Today I was forced to put it aside so I could start editing Enthroned. It’s going well so far, but I do need to kick it into high gear as Enthroned will be released online in a little over a week. Myrrhlynn and I are discussing cover art, which I hope to release on this blog soon!

Finally, I decided it is high time I give you guys a little sample of Enthroned. I hope you enjoy it!

The morning of the tournament Britt sat on a wooden bench, watching the jousts. The many knights and lords Merlin had collected for his monarchy vision over the years were scattered through the field. Britt saw one or two of them every few minutes as they attempted to blend in and act normal. The ringleaders of the movement, though, were holed up in Sir Kay’s tent.

Two knights—one dressed in green the other in red—ran at each other from opposite ends of the field, their horses snorting and prancing. They lowered their lances as they drew closer. Crack! The green knight was knocked from his horse.

The red knight raised his lance in victory and the crowd roared.

Britt sighed, disgusted with the lack of realism in her dream.

A shadow fell over her. “Having second thoughts, Arthur?”

Britt bolted from the rough bench, only to plop back on it when she realized it was Merlin. “No. I just find this idea unrealistic at best. This is clearly a patriarchal society. Women have no rights. I find it excessively hard to believe that your knights would rally behind a woman.”

Merlin collected his robes around him before sitting next to Britt. “You are correct. Women do not rule here. But to be truthful, it’s not like you will be ruling much.”

Britt nodded, picking three of Merlin’s knights out of the crowd. “I thought as much. You have all my officials, advisers, even my top warriors picked out for me. Will I do anything but sit on the throne and give a face to your monarchy?”

“You are judging too harshly. I did not mean to say you will have no power, Arthur. It takes more than a single man to change the course of history. That is why I gathered so many men. We aim to forge a new Britain. A better one. You won’t rule much at first, but as you win over the men I think you’ll be surprised at the power you will find you have,” Merlin said, fixing his eyes on her before kindly smiling.

Britt shivered. “These men follow you. You are the only reason they accept me as their King, woman or not. Why are you willing to give me a kingdom?”

Merlin looked back to the tournament. The red knight was facing off against a knight dressed in crimson. “I was taught magic by the faeries. Some of the most powerful magic users are women, so I do not doubt your capabilities.”

“And?”

“And… perhaps I see more than you think I do, Britt Arthurs,” Merlin said, his smile was so slight it was barely a curl at the corners of his lips. “I forged the Sword in the Stone, and I made the spell that keeps it there. I know what is required to pull it free, and anyone who is able to do that deserves respect,” Merlin said as the crimson knight went crashing off his horse. He abruptly stood. “Come now. It’s almost time. You had best go speak with Sir Ector and Sir Kay before you run off.”

Enthroned Contests

Just as I did for Life Reader I’m running two promotional contests for Enthroned.

First up is my standard review/chapter contest, Talk Shop. To enter Talk Shop just leave a review of Enthroned on Amazon when it’s available, email me with a copy of your review in the body of your email via the contact me form, and I will email you a bonus chapter. Enthroned‘s bonus material is really more of a short story. It’s titled On the Observations of Sir Kay, and it gives you the opportunity to become more intimately acquainted with the internal musing’s of Britt’s men. As usual, everyone who enters wins, and please leave an honest review! The contest deadline will be September 16.

Contest number two is called Sword from the Stone. Sword from the Stone is all about telling people about Enthroned. The rules are pretty simple: Before the contest deadline of August 19, email me a list of all the ways you spread the news/shared information about Enthroned. The top two contestants who most widely spread the news/share win. The prize for this contest has yet to be determined, but I will announce it sometime next week. Here are a few ideas of places you can mention Enthroned at: Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Shelfari, Google+, verbally (Yes, if you TELL a friend I’m counting that!), Amazon, blog about it, Youtube, review it, etc.

Thanks for the support, Champions! I appreciate you so much.

Yes, my bad

Sorry for the crazy updating schedule this week, I will return to my regular Monday, Wednesday, Friday updates next week! Until then I have wonderful/wretched news. It’s wonderful for you readers, but wretched for me because apparently I am a glutton for punishment.

Normally when a writer finishes a book they take a creative break for a few days, or at least a week or two. I planned to do that with Enthroned, book one of King Arthur and Her Knights. I finished it Friday afternoon, played around a little with formatting on Saturday and then promised myself I wouldn’t look at it for at least a week. That goal is going along swimmingly, unfortunately I really got into a role with Britt and her knights so I’ve already started book two.

Hurray.

It is difficult to have the gumption to write book after book without any breaks, which is usually why I take a mini vacation, but Britt and Merlin are just too much fun, and I am very excited about the new characters that will be introduced in book two. I just started it Monday, but by the time Enthroned is released I should have a pretty good idea of how soon I will have book two finished. I suspect there will be an early September release date, but I’m not willing to commit to anything just yet.

I’m hoping to announce the contests I’ll be holding for Enthroned tomorrow, so stay tuned for more King Arthur news. Thank you for reading, Champions!

It is named

I am proud to announce the official title of my upcoming book–King Arthur and Her Knights: Enthroned. It isn’t quite finished yet, but I expect it will be within the next 48 hours.

In the spirit of sharing–and having good fun, because I feel a bit like a dried up zombie and can’t think of anything better to write about right now–I wanted to share with you a library themed comic titled Unshelved. It’s written and illustrated by the team Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes, and features a team of librarians as they attempt to survive the daily slog of library patrons and problems. Anyone who is at all knowledgeably about libraries will love this comic!