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: 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!

Short Story: Committee Chaos

The book reviews have been pouring in on Goodreads and Amazon which means it is time for a bonus short story! The Order of Blood and Ruin is now out, which means the Magic on Main Street trilogy is now complete, and there has been a corresponding tidal wave of reviews and ratings! Since this book is quite a bit longer than the previous books in the series I thought it would take longer to reach the 100 threshold on Goodreads + Amazon but once again I'm surprised every time by how quickly the Champions can rally to reach a goal. 🙂 As I am posting this there are already more than 70+ Goodreads reviews! Thank you so much for the crazy number of reviews and ratings you have left and thank you so much for the support you have given this series. I've had the basic plot idea for this series for a long time and it's the most awesome feeling as an author to watch readers enjoy the story that has been living rent free in my head for years! (I have a blog post coming later this month sharing more about the inspiration behind this series.) To express my thanks, here is the bonus short story: Committee Chaos. (It has some spoilers, but nothing major related to the plot of book #3.)