K.M. Shea
I don’t really like talking about myself—Holy Cheese Batman does it feel narcissistic—but you’re the one who clicked on the bio link, so let the sharing begin!
(If you need a short, professional bio for school or work purposes, scroll down to find one at the bottom!)
Allow me to introduce myself:
I’m K. M. Shea, but please call me Kitty. I’m an enthusiastic fan of the fantasy genre, so I write everything from urban fantasy to epic fantasy, to fairy tales! I’ve published over 50 books, which is more than I dreamed I’d ever write, so thank you to my readers who have stuck with me!
I’ve got a not-so-secret-identity of A. M. Sohma, which is the penname I use to publish my LitRPG series, Second Age of Retha.
I wrote my first full length novel in seventh grade, but before you get too impressed, please let me assure you it was bad. So bad. Words can’t even describe. Thankfully, at the time I didn’t know it was bad, so I kept on writing all through high school in college. In 2012 I published my first book on amazon, and by the end of 2013 I was able to become a full-time author!
If the details I include in my books about local government has ever given you anxiety, that’s because I worked as a journalist at a local paper for a couple years, covering local government meetings and local events, before I became an author. (I actually went to college for print journalism!)
While I was a journalist, I also worked as a circulation staff member of a library—talk about a dream job! While I love being an author, my love affair with libraries continues—there’s a library in nearly every series I’ve written—so if you ever want to impress me, just show me a picture of your local library!
I’m so grateful for my readers—I call them my Champions—who have supported me throughout my career. We have such a kind and fun community, and it wouldn’t exist if not for the Champions, so thank you to each and every one of you!
I need a lot of help to keep our community going, and to do stuff like produce audio books, run the website, etc, so if you want to meet the team that supports me, check out the “Meet the Team” page!
If you want to know more about the nuts and bolts of publishing books, who I use for my book covers, and other author-business info, be sure to check out my "For Writers" page, where I share all of that info!
Thanks for stopping by—and thank you for supporting me and my books!
Let's condense things a bit. . .
I can't pick, but one of the Chicago Public Libraries has an escalator!
My favorite library:
Beauty and the Beast
My favorite fairytale:
DESSERT! Yes, all of them.
My favorite food:
The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Page Master!
My favorite movies:
Completing puzzles, hiking, and video games.
My favorite hobbies (besides reading):
Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
My favorite video game:
Winter! But autumn is a close second.
My favorite season:
Diana Wynne Jones & Vivian Vande Velde
My favorite authors:
K. M. Shea is a fantasy author who writes urban fantasy, epic fantasy, and everything in between. She lives in Wisconsin with her collection of books that she is paranoid will get sun damage, and aspires to one day have a library with sliding ladders.
I love being an author, but in the biggest cosmic joke ever, I also happen to be dyslexic. This doesn’t affect my storytelling ability, but I spend more time on edits, and I have a fantastic team of editors who comb through my manuscripts before they’re released.
My genre of choice to write it in is fantasy, because there’s something inherently fun and exciting in creating magic systems and worlds, but also because nearly all my favorite authors are fantasy writers.
I particularly love to write sweet fantasy, colorful side characters, and happy endings. (Life is tough, so my goal is to encourage and entertain with all my books!)