A Desire for Details

I’m always gobsmacked by how passionate you Champions are about my work. It’s a delight–and a shock–that I don’t think will ever fade! But sometimes your enthusiasm for a book is even greater than my enthusiasm for that project!

Rock-Star-Assistant Meg commonly fields emails asking for really deep details–like exact character heights, what happens to secondary characters after a book’s “The End” or backgrounds/origins for side characters.

I’m so honored Champions love the books that much that they want to know those details! I will never stop feeling awed and loved because Champions want to know more.

The problem is that as of 2020, I’ve written and launched 40 books. That is a lot of characters, world building, and events to keep track of. Combine that with all the novels I’d like to write (which at the moment between spin offs, sequels, and new series, I’m set for the next ten years easily in terms of book ideas) and you’ve got more information that I can reasonably keep track of.

Moreover, as an author friend of mine says, Authors write to get stories out of our brains. While my characters might feel like old friends–Severin, Elle, Britt, Merlin, and all my old characters will forever be in my heart–my focus is always on the projects/books I have planned for the next year or so.

Soooo when you ask me what Donaigh from Sleeping Beauty’s exact height measurements are…I genuinely have no idea.

The truth is that details like that get lost in my brain–particularly in a series like Timeless Fairy Tales where I’m obsessively trying to make sure all the hidden secrets and plot twists I inserted in there for Angelique’s series are all working together so the final “picture” is complete and tied together correctly. It gets even worse when the details are from a past series like King Arthur and Her Knights that I haven’t touched in years. My past books get buried by future books and plotlines that I haven’t written but I’ve already started mentally planning them out so I can figure out how to layer clues for the eventual ending! (ie: the drinking blood subplot in Hall of Blood and Mercy!)

But that doesn’t mean you can’t dream up your own backstories for my secondary characters, or decide on someone’s eye color yourself! 🙂

The delightful thing about books is that 100 people can read it and walk away with 100 different thoughts about it. So I give you permission to use your imagination and think of who you would like that secondary character to end up with! (Because chances are, I probably haven’t thought of it much since I wrote the book!)

That’s all for today’s frequently-asked-questions-blog-thingie! Thanks for reading, Champions! 😉 For a bit of fun, why don’t you share your favorite not cannon (not confirmed in the books) detail, character story, or wish down below?! I’ll share mine! I day-dream that Giannine from Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde makes up with her dad and gets the happy family she wanted! And as for a favorite non-cannon detail from my own books, I’d like to think that Phile and Oskar (ahahah I can’t even remember how to spell his name anymore) ended up together and ruled sly-ly over the Thieves Guild which they used to support Rakel.

Why I Say My Characters’ Names Weirdly

Today’s post isn’t so much a frequently asked question, as much as me addressing a common theme I’ve noticed among Champions. When I speak–whether it’s on Facebook Live, Youtube Live, or on a panel/discussion–I’ve noticed Champions are always disappointed with themselves because they say character/country/place names differently than I do.

Please allow me to assure you, there is a 95% chance I’m slaughtering my own characters’/country/place names, and I’m the one saying it wrong! There are two main reasons for this!

1. Some of my worlds–cough, Timeless Fairy Tales, cough–have countries based on historical countries/empires from the real world. In example: Trieux culture, names, and fashion are all heavily based on historic French culture/fashion/etc. I don’t speak French, so there is no possible way I’m going to be able to pronounce the French-themed names.

2. I have a reading disability which makes it hard for me to tell letters apart.

Oohhh, dropped a bit of a bomb on you with that second one, eh? Yes, I have a really hard time correctly pronouncing a lot of regular words from the English language because I can’t for certain tell which letters are used and–as a result–what sound they’re supposed to make. My Midwest accent covers the worst of it–my words tend to slur together so I don’t say letters crisply, meaning it’s harder to tell if I’m for certain saying something correctly or if it’s just my accent. But the biggest giveaway of my reading disability is that if I’m responding to a question and reading a Champion’s name from the comments, I find it really, really difficult to tell what his/her name really is. (Of course it’s extra stressful because it’s LIVE so I’m trying to figure out as quickly as possible what your name is, so I almost always end up mispronouncing it.)

For the sake of those who are curious, my reading problems boil down to my inability to tell the difference between letters. I know d and b are different letters, but looking at them together I have no idea which letter makes what noise because I can never remember which one faces what direction. I rely heavily on memorization, and use keywords to remind me what letters make what noise. In example, if I’m looking at a word that uses a d or b, I’ll visually recall the word “dog” because I 100% know what that word looks like, and I know it starts with a d. I’ll then mentally compare “dog” to the letter in the word, and figure out if it matches or not.

This problem is also why a few of you have caught it when I randomly change the way a character’s name is spelled. I accidentally shifted the Purple Rider’s name between 12 Dancing Princesses (Neera) and Frog Prince (Nareena). When a reader reported the problem to Meg, she sent me the email to let me know there was an issue. I had to count out the letters in each name before I could finally “see” there was a difference, even though one of them has extra letters.

Professionally, this means my poor editors have a lot more work than they might normally, and it’s also why my books will always squeak through and get published with a few minor errors. I’ve gotten lots of offers from people to proof read, but because of my reading disability, I could have ten people go through the book and it would STILL have errors at the end, and the book would take about five times longer to release. And while it is generous and kind of people to offer to proof read, I’m not looking for anymore proofreaders or beta readers at this time.

I’ve settled into an arrangement where editing only takes up about half of the book launch process, and the books have a livable amount of errors when they do get published. I know the errors make some people upset, but this is the very best I can do and still keep up with my launch schedule. So I understand when people choose not to read my books as a result–I even encourage it! We all have our own things that make a book or author vibe with us. This is something I will never be able to fix about myself, and as a fellow reader I want people to read books that make them personally happy!

I ventured off topic for a little while there, but all of this is to say that the next time you hear me say a character name in a wacky or wild way, fret not! 😉 More than likely, you’re the one that’s saying it correctly!

Thanks for reading, Champions! I hope you have a splendid day!

I Want You To Write

Another suggestion/question Rock Star Assistant Meg and I commonly receive are specific writing requests. Sometimes a reader might have an idea for an entire book that they want me to write, or a specific character or theme they want me to include.

This is a sticky topic for a couple of reasons.

1. Books are copyrighted material–which means if I take someone else’s idea and write it, that’s copyright infringement, and legally things get complicated really fast.

2. Between plans for Angelique, additional Timeless Fairy Tale stories and spin offs, the second Elves of Lessa arc, expanding my urban fantasy world, finishing off Second Age of Retha, and circling back around to old projects like Life Reader, I’ve got over a decade of books stacked up and waiting for me to write. (And I’ve been planning a lot of these projects for years already.)

Of course I always love to hear what kinds of books and stories you’re excited about and what interests you–as a fellow reader I love talking about that, and sometimes it makes me adjust my planned books a bit!

But if you have an idea you really love, or a genre/trope you wish there was more of, I’d like to take this opportunity to really encourage you to write your own story!

Encouraging others to write is a topic I’m really passionate about. And okay, yes, it’s somewhat selfish because I’m just a huge reader so I will always advocate more books in the world–you can never have too many! But I also really want to encourage others who have a specific thing they want to see in books, because that’s how I got started writing.

In junior high/high school, I wanted to see more series with strong female protagonists in fun and vivid worlds! Since ebooks weren’t a thing yet, I could only check out whatever books my local library had, and their young adult section was pretty small, so I ran out of options pretty fast. My parents very wisely put me on a book budget, which meant I had limited abilities to buy everything I wanted to read. Instead…I wrote. As a result, Robyn Hood, Princess Ahira, and Life Reader were born! (And my first book–a terrible sci fi that we only talk about when NaNoWriMo rolls around, so SHHHH!)

Now, the books I wrote then and the books you see offered today are pretty different. They’ve been re-vamped and gone through major edits since I published them on Amazon–admittedly some of them could use another edit again. (Yes, I’m looking at you Robyn Hood) But even today I focus on writing what I really want to see–whether that’s funny urban fantasy novels, or fairy tales in sweeping worlds. And I have a lot of ideas I really want to see–I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I have over a decade of books stacked up and waiting for me, so don’t worry, there won’t be a lack of new KM Shea books anytime soon!

So, please allow me to repeat myself: If you have an idea, theme, story, or character you’d love to see as a book, write it! You can do it–I believe in you! And while it won’t be easy–writing a book is a lot like learning to play an instrument; it will take time and practice–when you finish you’ll have your story, and you will have created something you can be proud of!

This concludes today’s frequently-asked-questions-blog-thingie (I am SO GOOD at naming stuff, I know.) but before I bring it to a full close, I did want to mention that we have lots of writer/author-Champions, and some of them belong to the Champion Discord and/or the Champion Facebook Group. So if you’re interested in writing or talking about writing, you might want to plug in to those communities. (Here’s a link to the page that gives you directions on how to do that!) Thanks for reading, and have a lovely week!