2019 Hero Poll Results

The 2019 Hero Poll is finished! Over 1,000 of you Champions voted for the top K. M. Shea/A. M. Sohma hero…and the results are in!

In first place, for the second year in a row, we have Merlin of King Arthur and Her Knights! He won with 609 votes–not bad for a wizard!

A very close second place is award to Emerys of The 12 Dancing Princesses. He had 591 votes. Third was a surprise “dark horse” so to speak: Solus Miles of The Second Age of Retha! He had 579 votes! Lagging in fourth place by just a few votes was Stil of Rumpelstiltskin! (He had 574 votes)

Farrin of Snow Queen came in fifth with 459 votes (a big drop from Stil to Farrin, interestingly) and Benjimir of Royal Magic snagged sixth with 368 votes. Friedrich of Cinderella took seventh with 255 votes and Arion came in a fairly close eighth place with 239 votes. Finishing up the top ten are Severin of Beauty and the Beast (168 votes) and Asher and Aaron Montamous of Life Reader (149).

But this marks the start of the second half of the poll–the 2019 Most Wanted Hero Poll! Here’s how it works for the next week or so (until comments are turned off on this post) I’m accepting suggestions for male archetypes/tropes you would like to see as a “Most Wanted Hero.” (In advanced warning, to keep the poll from being horribly long I group a lot of the suggestions together, so you likely won’t see your exact suggestion when the poll comes.)

Examples of archetypes/tropes are…

1. Alpha male

2. Villain turned good guy

3. Prankster

4. Rival character

5. Batman-esque

And so on! So submit your suggestions by commenting below–until comments are turned off! That’s all for this post, thanks for reading and participating in the poll, Champions!

Update (2/5): The comments are now turned off as the Most Wanted Hero poll is built! It will take a bit to go through all the entries and set everything up so the poll won’t be coming until later in February. Thank you to everyone who left a suggestion!

2019 Hero Poll

Steel yourselves, Champions. It’s time…for the Annual Hero Poll!

For those of you who may be new, every year I hold a poll to crown the top voted heroes from my K. M. Shea and A. M. Sohma books. (There is a heroine version that is usually held in the summer–it was canceled last year, though, when we had the Summer Reading Event running!) Since I first started this poll Stil of Rumpelstilskin has won the contest every year, until last year when there was an upset as Merlin from King Arthur and Her Knights took first!

Who will win this year? YOU DECIDE! Vote for your top five favorite heroes. This poll closes January 24th, so you have until then to deliberate on your selection. And to all my heroes…good luck!

Special note: The poll order changes with every refresh, so look carefully to make sure you haven’t missed any of your favorites!

Take Our Poll

Today’s Lesson: Snow Queen is a Fairy Tale

Hi Champions! This post is your reminder that the 2018 Reader Survey will only be live for a few more days. If you haven’t filled it out I’d love to hear from you as the answers will help me plan what books to write in the future! This is also your last chance to get the sneak peek of Snow White before it is released in December (you’ll get redirected to the sample when you finish the survey).

Now we have to talk about something that quite frankly I find a little scandalous. If you’ve already taken the reader survey you know that one of the questions asks which of my book series you’ve read. There is also a question asking what genres you like to read.

The clear winner so far for the “genres you like to read” question is “fairy tales” which as a fellow fairy tale lover is not a surprise to me. 😉  What IS a surprise is the answers for which of my books series you’ve read. I’m including a screenshot below so you can see the responses so far.

I actually swooned a bit like those delicate Victorian ladies you read about when I saw that The Snow Queen series really far behind the Timeless Fairy Tale series. I feel a bit strange asking this, but is it obvious Snow Queen is a fairy tale? Have I not made it clear that it’s connected to the Timeless Fairy Tales series and they should be read together? If you’ve haven’t read Snow Queen but have read the Timeless Fairy Tales series can you leave a comment below telling me why? (I’m totally flummoxed by this, and it’s pretty important given how closely intertwined Snow Queen is with the Timeless Fairy Tales. I’m starting to sweat a bit about Angelique’s books, ahahaha.)

On the happier end, I’m shocked that Robyn Hood is ranking so high. I’m saying this with all the love of a mother, but it is not well edited and frankly you can tell it was one of the first books I launched, so its popularity is a bit puzzling. (It’s beating out The MBRC and Second Age of Retha series which are much more polished.) If you have chosen to read Robyn Hood but decided to skip stuff like the MBRC and Retha, could please let me know why in the comments below? (I’m trying to figure out if this is purely a genre based decision, or something else, as this will affect what book projects I take on in the future.)

And finally, I have a somewhat sad message for everyone who keeps asking when will I write a sequel to Life Reader. I’m so happy you all love that book and it has a special place in my heart too since it has so much of the magic and humor I love packed into it. But if you look at the graph…It’s in last place right now. 🙁

This is a good example of how the results of the reader survey really do impact what I do in the future. I can’t justify devoting time to writing a sequel for the least popular series right now, particularly when I have some big projects coming on deck. BUT! Don’t panic, I still am planning to write a sequel to Life Reader. It’s just going to be quite a long time (as in, several years) before I can get to it.

Once again, a big thanks to everyone who filled out the survey and is helping me fill in the gaps of my understanding! 😉 I hope you guys have liked the free sample. I’ve been thrilled by the feedback I’ve gotten as I’m taking a slightly…different approach to Snow White than the usual retellings.

I am happy to share that Snow White (the first draft anyway) is tapping out at roughly 92,000 words, which is about 10,000 words longer than 12 Dancing Princesses and Sacrifice, so I’m hoping you guys will enjoy the extra pages. (Lol, and I cannot WAIT for you to meet all the characters. This book has some of my favorite character interactions ever!)

But I digress. Thanks for reading–and commenting, and taking the survey–and have a lovely week!