Audio Overview

I’ve been focusing on my audio projects this summer in big and small ways and I want to make sure you know all about it so here’s an overview!

New Audio Short Stories

I’m posting an audio short story to my YouTube channel every Friday in June/July!

Most of them are using an AI audio voice which is why I focused on my standalone short stories and shorts that have a non-human point of view (like Pegasus or House Medius) so it makes sense that they sound more robotic. My team also experimented with switching the voices for each character for some of the shorts! This means, if you don’t like the AI voice used for one of the shorts try a different one as it will probably be a different voice and a different listening experience.

There is an extra special audio short story coming July 19th as part of the SheaCon goodie bag that will be human narrated but you'll just have to wait and see what it is!

Free Fantasy Audiobooks on YouTube

Did you know there are generous authors who have uploaded their full audiobooks to YouTube? Many of them are authors who aren’t in Amazon’s KU program so you might not have heard of them, but this is a great opportunity to try their work for free!

If you go to my YouTube channel I made a list at the bottom of the other fantasy authors I could find that are no-romance or no-spice-romance. A few of them used AI voices like my short stories but most of them are using human narrators for the books they uploaded. Did I miss any authors that you are aware of?

Pinterest Board for More YouTube Audiobooks

To make it easier to find individual audiobooks you might be interested in that are free to listen to on YouTube I created a new Pinterest board that links directly to the free books.

On a side note, if you are ok with listening to historical romances or contemporary romances there are many, many more of those to listen to on YouTube compared to the fantasy options! I added a few of Sally Britton’s Regency romance audiobooks to my Pinterest board as an example (she previously was a guest author at SheaCon and she has a series of Fairy Tale / Regency retellings if that strikes your fancy?).

Giveaways

Every Wednesday until SheaCon (July 19-21) I’m kicking off a giveaway for audiobook promo codes. The codes only work on Audible.com and Audible.co.uk so you must be able to use one of those websites to be eligible. I’m picking a different audiobook each week to highlight and you can comment on the Facebook group post and/or the Instagram post for that week to enter!

The giveaway each week will open on Wednesday when the posts goes live and close on Friday so make sure to comment on each week’s post as soon as you see it!

I will not be offering the giveaway via the blog due to the risk of scammers targeting those who leave comments, sorry!

The giveaway for this week is Magic Forged and if you hurry you can still enter it before it closes on Friday. Visit the Facebook Group or Instagram

Magic on Main Street: Chex Mix

I've been meaning to talk about this recipe ever since The Games of Enemies and Allies came out, but it required a field trip to the grocery store so I kept forgetting about it!

In the United States there is a specific type of breakfast cereal called "x Chex" where x is the type or flavor of Chex cereal. There are quite a few flavors to pick from at most grocery stores (see the photo below) but the classic three that matter for this recipe are Rice Chex, Corn Chex, and Wheat Chex. The poor Wheat Chex type has lost a lot of popularity with the need for gluten free products which I think is probably why in the photo below there are generic cereal versions for only Rice Chex and Corn Chex.

The original recipe that was created using this cereal is called "Chex Party Mix" (because it's using the "Chex" part from the name of the cereal). The Chex cereal box always has the official recipe printed on it - that's how popular it is!

As a side note in my experience I have heard people call this recipe a variety of names so I polled both Instagram and Facebook to ask what they called it, and the resounding answer was the slightly shortened "Chex Mix" although a surprisingly number of people called it "Trash" in their families!

This variety of names for the same recipe is also why I had Jade call it "Party Mix" in the book but her neighbor called it "Chex Mix". There is a completely different packaged snack mix in the United States called "Party Mix" so this can get pretty confusing!

But what is Chex Mix?

If you've never eaten this snack before I realize it can be hard to just look at a photo and imagine what it tastes like. The original recipe is savory in taste and the texture is mostly crunchy - here's the original recipe from the cereal brand's website.

The photo below is from @thewellreadpotato from my Street Team and the version of the recipe is her photo looks pretty close to the classic version, although there appears to be more butter being used than the "official" recipe. By the way, Chex Mix uses Worcestershire sauce which is why everything gets a brown coating on it. In the photo below those dark brown chunks in the middle of the pretzels are from the melted butter + Worcestershire sauce + spices that was poured onto the cereal and pretzels and then dried. Those dark brown chunk parts are the best and I remember fighting to get those pieces when I was a kid.

But the awesome thing about this recipe is there are a lot of options to customize it. It's very common for families to have their own customized version of this recipe that is an ongoing tradition.

For example, some people change the flavor a bit by by adding M and M candies to make it sweet, or adding flavored chips to give it a different savory taste. Other families just tweak the existing ingredients (my family uses a LOT more butter compared to the official recipe which would mean all the cereal and other ingredients get more of a buttery coating on them). There is even a completely different recipe that still uses Chex cereal with powder sugar, chocolate, and peanut butter called Muddy Buddies.

The end result is Chex Mix is a very well know snack in the United States even though most people don't eat it very often, but it also typically generates a nostalgia feeling for most people (and their custom family version) so it was a perfect recipe for Jade to attempt!

Magic on Main Street: Baking Inspiration

I've seen a lot of discussion about Jade's baking mishaps on the blog/discord/Facebook, so I wanted to share more about the inspiration behind it!

Thanks to Joyce/Moon Shadow Press from my Street Team for this awesome image! As we've seen in this series (and in the short story, Family Bonding) Jade is very close to her family - both her nuclear/immediate family and her extended family including her grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. In the Midwest food is a big deal at family get togethers (I realize this happens in other areas too!) and favorite family recipes are a vital part of the holidays and extended get togethers. These recipes are often either a closely guarded secret, handed down with utmost reverence, or given out in broken bits that leaves the family member attempting to reproduce the recipe foam at the mouth and losing their mind. As someone who has experienced hardships while trying to reproduce family recipes and/or while attempting to document favorite family recipes electronically, Jade's situations are pulled from my firsthand experiences!

I specifically wanted to show you the recipe that has infuriated me the most. Behold:

Notice the following highlights:

1. Torn edges and rips

2. Mysterious stains

3. Places where the ink has faded/run

4. The fact that it is obviously written on a random scratch piece of paper of unknown origin

5. The dividing line after the cocoa ingredient that makes no sense

6. And the overall lack of instructionsCan you tell what recipe this is? (Originally this little piece of paper didn't even have the recipe name on it, but I previously rage wrote the name at the top of the paper, which is why it is folded over in the first photo.) For those of you that are amazing bakers who have your own trademark recipes I hope Jade's experience has given you a little empathy for all of us who struggle to follow what you tell us to do. And if you have failed at reproducing a family recipe in the past please know that you are not alone and you are probably in the majority! The answer to what recipe this is: this is my Mom's recipe for tuxedo cupcakes AKA black bottom cupcakes. They are very delicious and were a childhood favorite of mine. However, they are a sore spot of mine because one year for Christmas as a gift to my mom I typed out our family's most famous recipes and uploaded them to the computer. My mom was thrilled, but was surprised I hadn't included the tuxedo cupcakes since they're so beloved. I hadn't included them because this recipe had no title, so when I was pawing through her recipe box I found the scrap piece of paper, was mystified, and continued on. When I said I didn't include them because I couldn't find the tuxedo cupcake recipe, she pulled this ratty thing out and apparently thought I should recognize it based on the ingredients alone?? (She laughed hard when I pointed out the recipe lacked a title, and at the time didn't even have a complete set of instructions.) So, yes, I have a lot of sympathy for Jade. (Don't even get me started on the multiple recipes my mom has given me that require a specific bowl that was made in the 70s to reproduce, because she doesn't know the amount of ingredients that goes in, she just knows what it should look like in the bowl. My family hit up a lot of estate sales to find and purchase multiple copies of that bowl--again, made in the 70s--so we can actually recreate the recipes and just in case the original bowl should ever break.) Have you ever experienced family recipe hardships? Share them in the comments below!