2025 K.M. Shea Book Awards

As a "just for fun" event inspired by the official Academy Awards in early March we opened up voting for various categories across the K.M. Shea community, and here are the voting results!

First up, here's what the newsletter voted for:

Award: The Book with the Best Animal Sidekicks

Winner: Court of Midnight and Deception (Nightmares, Glooms, Shades, and Bagel the donkey) (this one won by a landslide with almost 400 votes!)

Honorable Mention goes to the Fairy Tale Enchantress series (Pegasus) and Second Age of Retha series (Pax, Trash Panda, Sinistre, Chester the pony)

The Facebook group voted for two categories:

Award: Favorite Supernatural/Magical Race

Winner: Elves (from Timeless Fairy Tales + Elves of Lessa series)

Very close second place goes to Vampires!

Award: Favorite KM Shea Physical Combat Heroine

Winner: Jade from Magic on Main Street series

Honorable Mention goes to Angelique and Gwendafyn!

Discord voted for two categories:

Award: Best Book World to Live in

Winner: Magiford

Honorable Mention: Second Age of Retha game world and the Timeless Fairy Tales

The also voted on a Magiford Beverage Brawl where participants pick their favorite beverage that matches a Magiford heroine (Coffee, Tea, Hot Cocoa, and Smoothies) and whichever gets the most votes wins!

Winner: Hot Chocolate

Runner Up: Tea

And finally, as a special bonus, I asked the audio team to pick a category and winner for one of the audiobooks and here is what they decided on!

Award: One Man Audiobook Show

Winner: Nathaniel Priestley (in King Arthur and Her Knights series)

Magiford World: Kwik Trip

In Gate of Myth and Power, I mention the gas station/convenience store "Kwik Trip," which is a Wisconsin franchise with a cult following and I realized with the final audiobook releasing later this month it would be a great chance to talk about this place more. (Note that there is an unrelated brand of stores called QuikTrip that aren't based in Wisconsin.)

Unlike a typical gas station Kwik Trip focuses on offering a wide variety of grocery items, and some of the buildings are so large they are more like small grocery stores that happen to have a gas station. They also have a wide variety of lunch-like deli items you can purchase that are reasonably fresh so many people will stop to just get food and not even bother to gas up their vehicles.

And of course they have cheap coffee (including flavored coffees) that you can purchase in extra large size which is why Leila paid them a visit. And lots of good donuts and treats too!

Here's a photo of an actual Kwik Trip donut display:

Why is Kwik Trip so popular?

Speaking as a Wisconsin resident I know from experience that the Kwik Trip gas stations tend to be cleaner (both outside and inside) than the average gas station. And they always have a free air pump in the parking lot that actually works!

They are also located everywhere in Wisconsin at this point and it's pretty common to find two of them across from each other at busy intersections, which has added to their popularity.

The company also has an over-the-top social media presence, and it's easy to find hilarious videos about them on social media. Beyond that, the cult like following of this chain is something else, and it's not that rare for average customers to do their own Kwik Trip social media posts such as wedding couples showing up for a quick photo shoot (no I'm not kidding!).

What gas stations/convenience stores are unique to your region?

Happy Valentine’s Day 2025

Happy Valentine’s Day, Champions! Valentine’s Day continues to be one of my favorite holidays–an entire day dedicated to sweets and showing everyone I love how thankful I am? Sign me up!

I do have a little gift for you, but before I share it I would like to plug a Valentine-ish short story from the vault, The Love Potion.

This story is from the Fairy Tale Enchantress series but you don't need to have read that series to enjoy this tale as it is a self contained little short story. However, you've read The Princess and the Pea or any of the Timeless Fairy Tale books there will be a few easter eggs/name drops you might notice!

And now for the gift!

Please enjoy this brand new coloring book page featuring Roland/Puss and Gabrielle's ... boots!

This coloring book page was once again drawn by the lovely @olena_shkavron and she used reference photos of the real life inspiration when she was drawing Roland/Puss, so if you need a reminder of what his coloring is you can check this blog post: Puss in Boots - Meet the Inspiration. Or you can color him however you like! I've really loved the parrot colored images I've seen of Emerys in bird form!

Here's the link to Roland and Gabi's story if this coloring page inspired you to start a reread.

I hope you have a wonderful day, Champions, filled with love from all the people you hold dear! (And maybe a few sweets and good books, too!) Thanks for reading!