Scavenger Hunt: Summer Camp for Slayers

For the rest of July I'm hosting a scavenger hunt and the prize is a brand new never-before-seen story about Jade from the Magic on Main Street series!

I wrote this story way back when I was releasing the Magic on Main Street series. It was supposed to be the bonus for the first book, but it got so long on me that I couldn't finish it in time so I had to abandon it and write something else instead. I finally finished it after the series released but I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I've just been sitting on it... until now!

Here's your "Treasure Map" for the Scavenger Hunt:

As you can see on the map I'm breaking the story up into three pieces and releasing them separately:

• July 3rd: the first 1/3 of the story will go out to my Newsletter Champions (you have to signup for my Newsletter BEFORE July 3rd if you want to make sure you get this first part!)

• July 10th: the second 1/3 of the story will be published on my Instagram and Facebook Page

• July 17th: the final 1/3 of the story will be published in Discord and in the Facebook Group

• July 30th: I will publish the full story on my website and via a blog post*

*If you follow along with the scavenger hunt you will get to read 1/3 of the story each week. Or, if you are willing to wait until July 30th you can read the full story at that time.

As you can probably tell from the fact that I am breaking this story up, this story is much longer than my typical short stories and I'm not really sure if I should call it a short story or a novelette!

I know it's hard to tell in the tiny thumbnail of the cover (because YES! this story has it's own dedicated cover!) but Jade has long hair in this story because it takes place before the start of The Lies of Vampires and Slayers. She actually references the events of this story in the Magic on Main Street series and it's the reason why she knows so much about werewolf abilities.

I hope you enjoy this fun Scavenger Hunt Champions and have a great time!

Audiobook: The King's Queen

The final audiobook in the Gate of Myth and Power series, The King's Queen, released earlier this month in audio and it is now available for you to listen to on Audible!

Click here to buy it now or listen to the sample!

Here are some helpful links if you want to check out the earlier books in the trilogy:

Book 1: The King's Captive

Book 2: The King's Shadow

Words cannot express how happy I am Champions that this series is finally available for you to enjoy! Thank you to everyone who has been waiting so patiently for Noctus and Chloe to make their audio debut! I hope you loved the final product!

If you haven't had a chance to listen to the first two books, here's a few reviews from book 1 (spoiler free!):

"Excellent narration! I think this was one of my favorite narrations of KM Shea’s books. Smooth, emotive without being irritating. Well performed. I’m sure I will listen to it again."

"The narrator for this series is fantastic. She nails every nuance and manages to communicate panic without being overly shrill. This series is one of the funniest of the Magiford world, and she gets that. highly recommend."

"Based on the bland, cheesy cover art, I was expecting a trashy teen romance, but instead I discovered a book that's been incredibly charming, sweet, well written, & even funny. I can't wait to listen to the next book. The 2 narrators were great too. This is a hard book to dislike!"

Other Audiobook news:

Next up the audio team is tackling the three standalone stories in the Elves of Lessa series. It's too early to guess the release dates for these but we are super optimistic at least the first audiobook will release later this year!

Once fact I can share is these books are once again dual narrated so there will be a male narrator for the male POV scenes and a female narrator for everything else. And we are changing the narrators for each book to match the character personalities!

Once all three of the Elves of Lessa books are released (probably in early 2026) we will start to evaluate other potential audio projects!

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?