I didn't release any new books in 2025 but my team worked really hard on some new things so we created this blog post as a quick reference of all the fun stuff that happened so you can make sure you didn't miss anything!
I have been on hiatus since May 2024 due to health issues and I haven't been releasing new books during that time. I do have a health update and an update on my hiatus (scroll past all the 2025 news to read it).
2025 New Audiobooks
Last year saw the completion of the Gate of Myth and Power series in audio on Audible. These had been delayed sooo many times and I was very happy (and relieved) to finally release them for readers to enjoy!
New Short Story
Due to my hiatus there was only one new short story for the Magiford universe that I released this year, but it was a very special one! It was a longer than typical short so my team divided it up and throughout the month of July they released pieces of it on my communities, social media, and newsletter as part of a scavenger hunt.
And don't forget that you can always find all my short stories on this page. Plus in 2025 the short stories page on my website was upgraded to include convenient filter options! This means you can easily track down all the short stories related to a book without risking spoilers.
Bringing an Old Book Out of the Vault!
What's better than a new short story? How about bringing an old book back?
My standalone YA Fantasy novel, Life Reader, was taken down by Amazon years ago due to too many error reports submitted by readers. Due to my health issues I have had to face facts and admit that I am never going to edit this book and I won't be writing more books in this world so there was no reason to just sit on it. So for Christmas 2025 I made this book available for free on my website. Click here to read it.
New Fun Stuff
Newsletter: Book with the Best Animal Sidekicks: Court of Midnight and Deception series
FB Group: Favorite Supernatural / Magical Race: Elves
FB Group: Favorite Physical Combat Heroine Jade of Magic on Main Street series
Discord: Best Book World to Live in: Magiford
Discord: Magiford Beverage Brawl: Hot Chocolate
Audio Team: One Man Audiobook Show: Nathaniel Priestley in King Arthur and Her Knights audiobook
In June of 2025 we had our second audiobook promo code giveaway and it was a huge success! Thanks to all the Champions who participated in the games! And a special thank you to the Newsletter Champions who voted and picked the fourth audiobook (King Arthur and Her Knights) included in this giveaway.
On the topic of audiobooks Audible will sometimes run sales on my titles but they don't always give me a lot of notice. I always announce it on social media so make sure to follow me if you love audio deals. And if you own any of my ebooks that have a matching audiobook published you may qualify for a Whispersync deal (click here to learn more!).
I love seeing stories on the communities of how the audiobooks were a fun summer vacation listen or a way for an existing Champion to be able to bond with an audio-only family member. I'm so happy you've enjoyed reading my stories in this format!
The year 2025 also included Pegasus Appreciation Week with some great giveaways, fun games, and I made the Puss in Boots ebook free to celebrate! (Puss in Books was the free book for this event because there is a scene from the book that also appears in The Constellation's Dilemma short story. I highly recommend reading both versions so you get both POVs!)
Fun Blog Posts
In 2025 my team put together a couple of really great blog posts in addition to the typical newsy posts and I wanted to make sure you had a chance to read them.
Drake Hall Arts and Crafts - This showcases some run fan works made by Champions including examples of Josh Drake's scrapbooks pages and a greeting card inspired by the card mentioned in the How to Train with Vampires short story.
Magiford World: Kwik Trip - I name dropped Kwik Trip in the Gate of Myth and Power series, so if you'd like to learn more about this real life gas station chain with a cult like following you can read this blog post!
Books Set in the Midwest - Many Champions have mentioned that they find the Magiford books refreshing since they are based in the United States Midwest and not a major city on one of the coasts. My team asked my social media Champion followers for help identifying other books located in the Midwest and collected them all together in this helpful blog post list!
K. M. Shea Holiday Short Stories - I have a LOT of free short stories on my website and many of them are holiday themed so I made this helpful blog posts to call out the most obvious choices for each major holiday (plus some minor holidays just for fun)!
Fairy Tale/Myth Retelling Blog Post Book Lists
Throughout 2025 in an effort to update my Pinterest boards that list fairy tale retellings my team has been asking the Facebook and Instagram Champions for help identifying no spice book retellings. Then my team updates Pinterest and creates a dedicated blog post for all the great book suggestions! Here are the ones we have published so far (with more to come in 2026):
2025 Community Updates
SheaCon
SheaCon was a past reader planned and run weekend of K.M. Shea themed fun held on a private discord server different from Kitty’s main server. The last SheaCon was in July of 2024 and due to my health (scroll down for more details on this) I will not be participating in future events.
But don't worry, if you missed the past live events there is still a ton of fun stuff available for you to see and do! Most of the panels have audio recordings available, and many of the activities have been published as separate blog posts including some, like a Retha Escape Room, that were only released this past year. You can find the full list of fun things on the SheaCon website page.
Kitty's Hiatus Update
I went on hiatus in May 2024 for a number of reasons but my physical health was the biggest. I have had serious health issues since 2021 but by 2024 my health had deteriorated to the point where I could no longer write so there was no choice but to go on an indefinite hiatus. And unfortunately, I saw no improvement for a very long time.
I now have been diagnosed with a neurological disorder which is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life. Because of that, I have had to make some difficult decisions and scale back my involvement in all the things I used to do as an author.
I will be handing off anything that isn't writing the books to my team. This means I won't be doing things like posting on social media, writing blog posts, answering emails, or hanging out in my awesome reader communities (to clarify, my team will do those things using my accounts but it is not "me"). Even this blog post was drafted by my team and I'm just tweaking it - that is how much I have had to scale back.
I am happy to report that I can finally write again but it's not at my previous pace. I'm hoping this will improve in the future but for now the Second Age of Retha and Fairy Tale Enchantress series will continue to remain on hiatus because the level of craft required to write them is beyond my current physical abilities.
If the community wants to get any new books, this is how it has to be. I'm sad about it, and I wish my physical health didn't impact this, but it does. (I went a very ugly grief process as part of figuring all this out, ahahah.)
And honestly, speaking as a fellow reader, if you are waiting for the Fairy Tale Enchantress series I recommend you seriously try other epic fantasy series during this time. The two remaining Retha books will be easier for me to write and I will definitely finish the Second Age of Retha series before I even consider revisiting Angelique's series. This means that the wait for the Angelique books will an unknown number of years since I don't know when I will feel good enough to write them.
I realize this is sad news for many of my Champions but it is unfortunately my new reality I have had to accept. I thank you for respecting my need to focus on my health.
New 2026 Books?!?
As part of my return to writing I am working on a standalone cozy urban fantasy story set in the same world as Magiford but a different town in Wisconsin.
I'm having to keep everything simple for the sake of my limited writing ability so it will be unrelated to anything going on with the characters in the city of Magiford. This also means you won't get cameos from the Magiford Supernatural City characters.
But it does have the same magic systems, supernatural types, and my typical fantasy versus real world type humor that you know and love.
This new book will be coming at the end of April 2026/beginning of May 2026 and the pre-order will be going live sometime in January.
My team is already planning new blog posts and fun games themed to this new story so you can expect a big lead up before the eventual release!
I don't know yet if I will be able to release anymore Magiford related books in 2026 but I'm excited to be writing again and I hope you'll love this fun little urban fantasy story!
2026 Audiobooks?
The three audiobooks in the Elves of Lessa series are wrapping up production and will be releasing in 2026. The first audiobook, Red Rope of Fate, will release on January 23rd and the next two books will be in February (Royal Magic) and March (The Prince's Bargain). These audiobooks will once again be using the Audible pre-orders option so you will know weeks in advance exactly when each audiobook will be released.
After the Elves of Lessa audiobooks are all released the audio team will evaluate our next project.
I can tell you that the new Magiford standalone book will get an audiobook but I don't know when we will start it. The Timeless Fairy Tales series is also definitely on the list to get audiobooks but they won't start releasing until 2027.
2026 Other Fun Stuff?
My team has more fun stuff planned for 2026 but it's still in the planning phase so I can't spill the beans just yet. :)
I hoped you enjoyed this fun wrap up (did you know about everything from 2025?) and I can't wait to share my new book with everyone!
