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Do you like audio books? Then I have an announcement you are sure to love! The Pack of Dawn and Destiny series is now available as audio books on Amazon and Audible. The narrators for this series were Kira Fixx and Adam Verner. Both of them did a great job on all three books but let me just say that the accents Kira used for Tom and Dale in book #3 are SO perfect. I burst out laughing when I heard them because I couldn’t believe how accurate they are for the Northern Wisconsin/UP Michigan/Minnesota. (And if you listen to the book let me assure you that, YES we do talk like that!)

Book 1:

Book 2:

Book 3:

There will be more audio books coming in the future! In fact, to make it easier for you to track what is available in audio I created a new where I will add each book once it is available on Audible. If you want to know what audio book is in production right now, check out the page!

Audio books require a lot of time and money for me to produce so we’re only working on one project at a time, but my awesome audiobook team is continuing to work hard to make audiobooks possible!

Unfortunately, I can’t commit to a release date for the current audiobook project because with so many people working on it and�� schedules involved, it can lead to unexpected delays. Plus, it takes Audible anywhere from a few days to 3 or 4 weeks to publish it once I submit it. And they don’t warn me it’s approved and going live, they just send me an email once it is already live. So if it seems like my audiobook announcements are very much: “Surprise! It’s here!�� it’s because usually is a surprise to me as well!

That’s it for today, Champions! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the new Audiobooks!

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Today we’re going to talk about elves, and specifically their magic since it’s the very heart of this proud and powerful race.

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To begin with, when I started thinking of the various magic systems I would need for the Magiford world, I wanted to make magic feel vastly different between the various species. Holy hills, did I sweat over the elves.

Firstly, I knew I needed my elves to be powerful, but I also knew from the get-go that I wanted them to believe that wizards were magic’s favorite, so I had to shape two distinctly different magics that both had huge possibilities while making it seem like human magic isn’t as flashy/cool as even fae magic.

Additionally, I knew I needed elf magic to have what they would view as a great weakness—which would explain why they coveted human magic so much.

I settled on making elven magic song/sound based instead of sensation based like it is for all our wizard/human heroines, and having their strength be greatly affected by their personal emotions. Sadness would put magic out of their reach, making it impossible to use, while anger would make magic almost uncontrollable and dangerous to the wielder.

This would be plenty to make the arrogant elves upset. First of all, because it meant they weren’t infallible and even the most powerful of elves could fall, and second of all because—as arrogant as they were—they would never like admitting they had feelings.

I also decided that elves would also be the only race that would have different types of magic, specifically the elven royal family specialties, like the Auron family’s tattoos/summoning, and the Mors�� ability to use super-powered artifacts like Destruction.

Believe it or not, the hardest part about the magical weapons was keeping them amazing and cool. I had to work desperately hard to keep any weapon transformations from being something closer to a Japanese anime magic girl transformation—a Japanese trope in which a high school aged girl has an object of some sort that makes her transform from her regular street clothes to a fantastical outfit that is basically her superhero identity. (I don’t know if time freezes or what during these transformations, or why no one recognizes the magic girl when she finishes the transformation even though 90% of the time she looks the same and is just wearing different clothes, that’s just part of the trope.)

We’re going to explore elven magic in future Magiford trilogies, but Noctus is a model example as he’s one of the very few powerful elves who isn’t also a raging ego-maniac, which means he’s an example of the best they can be. (Well…when he’s not wearing the silly magic restraints the Paragon insists he wear, that is.)

Noctus’s story also hints at the vast difference between the modern elves living in Calor Villa, and the historical elves that the rest of the supernatural community declared war against. While elves in history had highly specialized magic and considered themselves the rulers of Earth, Noctus’s elves are much more interested in living peacefully with the humans and avoiding supernaturals as much as possible.

Most of them don’t have the prejudices against Chloe being a shadow that the elves of yore would have, and while they’re inherently awed of their stoic ruler, they do care for him on a very personal basis. (Mostly because they’re very aware that without him to power the barriers of the city they’d be toast, but in general they’re aware of everything Noctus has done for the sake of magic.)

Noctus’s elves—as we will see in the future—are very different from their remaining brethren. But that’s because they rallied around Noctus, who chose to fight his family because he knew their plans were arrogant, greedy, and would cause destruction on a massive scale. Any of the elves who are more ruthless–like the elf who sent a spy to watch Noctus in book 1–didn’t choose to follow Noctus.

Even among the elves of Calor Villa, however, you can still see shadows of what they were–particularly in elves like Oleander, who has adapted to living with humans but is able to snap back to her training as a Mors soldier in an instant.

So far we’ve seen the best of elves, but in future trilogies we’re going to see the tragedy of their hubris and arrogance and how it has affected those who haven’t sided with Noctus. Which, wow, that sounds like a real downer, doesn’t it? But it is me, so I’ll tackle their issues with the same kind of humor and antics I face everything with! Besides, everyone now knows that Shiloh is the elf princess the Paragon is searching for, so we all also know it’s no accident that Noctus lives across the street from her…which might make you wonder how “accidental�� it is that the uncles hang out on their porch and chat with her all the time live there, too��

Thanks for reading, Champions! Until next time, have a delightful day!

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Part of me can’t believe I’m about to write a character profile blog post for a trash griffon that can’t even speak, but here we are! Important: character profile posts do contain spoilers!�� If you haven’t read the Gate of Myth and Power trilogy, I suggest you wait to read all character profiles until you finish!

Okay, it’s time to confess…I created French Fry because I wanted Chloe to at least have��a��friend in Magiford besides Ms. Booker and her unnamed co-workers, but when I was plotting the books out I was already DEEP in the clouds of confusion my severe anemia created, so I didn’t want a talking character I’d have to keep track of since that would further tax my brain. So…French Fry plopped into existence!

I’d already known I wanted to do more with the trash griffins–I hadn’t given them as much time and attention as I wanted to in Leila’s trilogy (Court of Midnight and Deception). So I’d been actively looking for a way to fit trash griffins into another story, and when I further planned out Chloe’s powers and abilities, I realized that a trash griffin would be an ideal companion for her as he’s the only supernatural who could actively keep up with her and be just as inconspicuous when she’s swapping forms.

French Fry is the perfect example of his species as he is able to showcase both their surprising intelligence and their frequent bouts of having zero thoughts floating through their tiny brains. Besides Noctus and Chloe’s family, he’s the only one who can track Chloe through her shifts, and can find her anywhere in Magiford.

He shares a similar ability for honing in on French fries, which he likes to throw at the people he loves most. (Sharing is caring in French Fry’s uncluttered mind.) But despite his seemingly simple mind–or maybe because of it–French Fry is able to lull nearly every supernatural into the thought that he’s just a pesky varmint and should be ignored. Noctus and the others don’t question his presence until he pops in on Calor Villa, even though he’s dive-bombed them multiple times in the streets of Magiford.

French Fry does share his love of fast food/sweets with his fellow trash griffins, and he’s the perfect representative of the other Night Court creatures, as he shows they have a will of their own and will choose to make their homes elsewhere even if they do still pop in on Night Queen and her unusual kingdom from time to time. (French Fry is not the only creature to do this, as the night mare living with the Northern Lakes Pack can attest.)

But I think what I love best about French Fry is how deep he does love. He’s the one who tips the scale and helps Chloe grown a spine in the final battle. He checks Noctus to help him with his emotions. And above all, he wants hugs and to share his secret treats with those he loves. He is chaos incarnate, but he loves hard, and he’s going to follow Chloe for the rest of his crazy little life.

Thanks for reading, Champions! I hope you enjoyed this look at French Fry!

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King’s Queen has been out for a week, now, so I’m going to continue the Magiford fun today with a character profile for Ms. Booker!

Ms. Booker is definitely the most mysterious bookstore owner in all of Magiford, and today I’m going to let you in on all her secrets (ok only a few of them, but I think you’ll still find this interesting). ��Important: character profile posts do contain spoilers!�� If you haven’t read the Gate of Myth and Power trilogy, I suggest you wait to read all character profiles until you finish!

In a rare twist, I came up with the idea for Ms. Booker after I mapped out what I wanted Book Nookery to be/act like. I knew I needed a night job for Chloe for various timeline problems to work out, and there was something so cozy about the idea of a 24 hour book store. (Probably because I know a 24 hour brick and mortar book store wouldn’t be able to survive without the patronage of night clientele like vampires!)

I wasn’t originally planning for the bookstore to have a hidden sort of magic of it’s own, but my inner book lover got the best of me, and I decided I needed to make Book Nookery a place of power. But after realizing that, I knew the owner of the store would also need to have a certain kind of confidence to be able to survive–independently–in a supernatural hot spot like Magiford. Thus, Ms. Booker’s character stepped into being, her every gesture and action covered with elegance and underlining the deep power that comes with owning a place like Book Nookery.

Outwardly, Ms. Booker might appear to be stiff and stern given her firm requirement that Chloe and the other Book Nookery staff members use their best manners. In reality, she’s very generous as most of her staff members are like Chloe and are outsiders in one way or another, making Book Nookery a safe place for them.

I also designed Ms. Booker to be a Hecate-like character as an ode to the original Hades and Persephone myth, making her role a cross of mentor/companion. She’s a great foil for Pat and Joy as she never pushes Chloe into anything. Rather, she helps only when Chloe asks, and while she’s invested in her employees she doesn’t pry into Chloe’s life. (As a character, she believes heavily in self-responsibility. While she will protect Chloe and even endanger herself, she expects Chloe to make decisions for herself.)

As the caretaker of Book Nookery–a mysterious but wonderful place–it’s only fair that Ms. Booker is equally as mysterious and wonderful. We know she has a more extensive knowledge of elves than the average supernatural–including owning several books that are probably among the last of their kind. We also know that she founded Book Nookery, which has some magic even though it isn’t a Wizard House, and that she is a wizard. She also has a good sense of business–as testified by Chloe’s correct assumption that Ms. Booker would make a special elf display to maximize profits when the elves were revealed to humans–and we can see from her interaction with Lord Linus that she’s aware of things like fae trickery and has a better understanding of supernatural politics than the average wizard.

I’m hoping to further explore Ms. Booker’s character, and the magic of Book Nookery in a future Magiford trilogy, so this isn’t the last we’ve seen of her or the 24 hour bookstore!

Until next time, Champions, thanks for reading!

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It’s party time, Champions! I’ve been saving this donut image just for this post because I have a special treat for you!

The King’s Queen is now available which means the whole trilogy for The Gate of Myth and Power series is released! I know you really want to read the short story (the link is down below) but I first want to thank you Champions–for the reviews, yes, but also for your support and for whole heartedly embracing this trilogy. Just being blunt, it’s a weird premise. (I mean, really: elf king forcefully adopts a cat he doesn’t know is actually a human??) I actually assumed this would be my least popular Magiford trilogy, but instead you Champions took the questionable premise in stride, and last night The King’s Queen hit #5��in the entire amazon store! That’s the highest rank any of my books have ever had!! I am still wandering around my house in shock!

So thank you for rallying around this odd little trilogy, thank you for all of your support through probably the worst year in my entire life, and thank you for being a part of our uplifting, bookish community.

I’d keep going, except, THE SHORT STORY! To celebrate this amazing launch–and, yes, as my thank you for The King’s Queen getting over 100 reviews across the various Amazon stores and ŷ������–I’m releasing the free short story: The Elven Ambassador. ( for the PDF!) This short story is best read after King’s Queen as it does have some mild spoilers, but–as you can probably guess from the title–it also has a lot of cameos! I hope it makes you laugh!

In conclusion��.Champions, thank you so much for your kindness and patience with all of through all of this. This year didn’t start the way I wanted it to, but I’m so thankful for your support and patience since there was a bigger gap between King’s Shadow and King’s Queen than I normally have for the Magiford books.

Also, many thanks to everyone who sent me ideas for salty treats since my tooth surgery means I can’t eat chips right now. It’s given me plenty of ideas for me and future Magiford books! And it warms the cockles of my heart that so many of you have been craving donuts after reading Chloe’s books. I was actually intending to go out and get donuts and maybe a milk steamer this morning to celebrate Chloe’s trilogy, but we’re getting slammed by a snow storm right now, so I’ll just drink some tea and close my eyes and pretend�� my bagel is a donut.

Thanks again, Champions! Happy reading!

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Greetings, Champions! The King’s Queen, the final book in the Gate of Myth and Power series is finally out! How fast did you finish it? Have you started a second read through?

It’s time for another Spoiler Post for the end of this series! I want to give you blog-reading Champions a place to voice your reading thoughts during this initial book launch so please talk away.

Warning: If you haven’t finished this series yet��then I’d suggest waiting before you check out the rest of the post or read the comments, or you’ll spoil the story for yourself!

Read King’s Captive now: |��

As usual, once King’s Queen passes the 100 reviews threshold, I have a short story to share in celebration of the book launch, so thank you in advance to everyone who takes the time to leave an honest review! (And that’s 100 reviews across ŷ������, and all Amazon stores!) I’m so grateful you’re willing to take the time to leave a review–it helps me a lot, but it’s also a huge help for future readers who are trying to figure out if Chloe and the Mystery Gang are their cup of tea. (Or, since we’re talking about Chloe, their glass of milk!)

But now, let’s talk spoilers! So, Champions, what was your favorite part? For me personally I really loved writing Noctus�� friend group �� they are so fun together, they never hold back their zingers, and I enjoyed showing off the different sides of their personalities.

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What was your favorite scene? There were parts of this book that I have picturing in my mind and waiting almost a YEAR to write into a book so I’m interested what scene you liked the best!

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It’s only a few days left before the launch of The King’s Queen, the final book in the Gate of Myth and Power series! If you pre-order it now Amazon will deliver it to your Kindle the moment it launches in your timezone (usually, although they haven’t always been the most reliable).

I will be once again be writing a short story as my “thank you�� for all the honest reviews you Champions leave! (Honest reviews being the keyword, please! And I look at ŷ������ and across all the Amazon stores!) Honest reviews can help readers decide if a book is their thing or not, and I’m so thankful that you’re willing to spend your time leaving a review–it a big deal for authors!

My plan is I will release the short story when we reach 100 reviews but�� uh�� I’m going to be honest that I will probably be a day or two late. This book was so long it kind of killed me to get it ready on time �� I’m one exhausted Kitty right now, and I keep getting migraines since I drank too many caffeinated drinks to keep me going during the writing process and now I’m suffering from withdrawal apparently.�� All of this to say…the short still has to get completed/edited. Ahahahah. But I promise I will get it to you as soon as I can!

In the meantime, here is the description for King’s Queen!

Pre-Order: |

When the elven king of death released me even though my existence is a threat to his kingdom, I took the chance to run. There is just one problem�� I also fell in love with him.

Nothing like a little doomed love to add a dash of intrigue to life, right? Unfortunately, that’s not even the worst of it.

I’m a worrier on my best days, but with a psycho tracking my every move because he’s obsessed with killing me, I’ve graduated to the level of paranoid lunatic.

Even if I could forget about the tracker—not happening since he’s figured out the fastest way to get to me is to attack my adopted family—my regular life is also anxiety-inducing as the city of Magiford is brewing with trouble.

Someone is setting off increasingly powerful magical spells downtown, upsetting all the humans. The supernatural community is desperate to find the perpetrator, and the top leaders are convinced the psychotic tracker chasing me is in on it. Their solution? Use me to capture the tracker for questioning.

What none of us counted on was Noctus—the elven king of death—interfering. Turns out I might not be the only one to regret our parting. But is there any way he could help me, and still keep his kingdom a safe secret?

At least one thing is for sure: I’m in way over my head with this, and my gut is warning me that I’m about to test if cats really do have nine lives.

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It’s been no secret that writing Gate of Myth and Power has been kind of rocky, and not because of the story itself but because of the plethora of surgeries and procedures I’ve had since late 2021. Because of surgeries/procedures, I’ve been on a variety of medications that have made for some interesting story telling choices I made while writing that my editor and/or I were given the joy of rediscovering during the editing process.

Now, typically you’ll find some funny stuff while editing books, and since I have a reading disability, my stories tend to have more errors than average–so bless my poor editor’s heart for tackling my books with me, hahah. But apparently��Kitty-on-heavy-meds-while-writing is a totally new level of editing hilarity. So let’s go over some of the top five finds!

Embroidered Garden Cloth: So what I was attempting to describe was one of those fancy embroidered arm chairs that has a floral pattern, similar to the one pictured below, which happens to be Aristide’s favorite chair. What I wrote was “A chair covered in embroidered garden cloth.����Welp. So much for elegance.

Self Given Head Message: No, I don’t mean head massage, I mean��message. I have no idea what I meant here–neither did my editor–and the context of the story didn’t help. Did I mean Chloe’s thoughts? Did I mean Chloe was rubbing her head? No idea. I had to change the paragraph entirely because there was no way I could make any sense of it.

Salad Wof eyes: It was supposed to read “Ker looked at Chloe with sad wolfish eyes�� what I wrote was “Ker looked at Chloe with salad wof eyes,�� and then I proceeded to write “salad wof eyes�� three different times on THREE DIFFERENT DAYS.

An Entire Scene of Grimly: For one entire scene, literally every character said said things “grimly,�� including things that were not at all grim, like a reference to donuts and several jokes. I have no idea why I did this, it was near the end of the book so it might have been that I was personally feeling grim about meeting the deadline and it was slipping out in my writing��

Cuckoo Clocktower: For an��entire scene, I apparently lost all sense of setting, and I wrote in King’s Queen that the clocktower, seen multiple times in King’s Shadow, was a cuckoo clock. As in, I had some clockwork figures pop out to ring bells–it was a thing.

Honorable Mention: This mess-up is actually from Fated–Pack of Dawn and Destiny’s last book, but I wrote that in 2022 and tied it up right as my health started to take a serious nosedive, so we’re going to count it. For the entire book–and I mean the entire book–I forgot the word pride/prideful existed. Whenever I was in a situation that should have used those terms, I wrote–I kid you not�� ��Full of Proudness.�� Yep. Characters all over were getting ��Full of Proudness.�� And this was after I’d written it AND edited it! It was only after my editor emailed me to remind me that the word “pride�� was a thing that it got fixed.

So yeah, it’s been an amusing experience–and that would also be why I’m so tight to the deadline with this one! (Well, editing and the actual writing since King’s Queen was just so loooong.) Speaking of which, King’s Queen is next week! Are you ready for it?!

Thanks for reading, Champion, and have a lovely day!

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We are a little less than two weeks away from the launch of��King’s Queen, the last book in the��Gate of Myth and Power trilogy, and I am so excited! I suspect it might still be a little early for the Champions who prefer to read all three books of the trilogy in a row to begin their reading journey, so that means all of us are just…waiting for now. But, hey, I updated the quiz!

Are you a fae, a vampire, a wizard, or a werewolf? Take the quiz and find out! I love quizzes and I love that I get an excuse to expand the with every new series I write in this universe! This year’s update is probably not so surprising considering who the trilogy is about, but I hope you all enjoy it anyway!

This brings our total of possible endings up to seven, so I’m interested to know if your final ending has changed since the first time you took it! When I first released this quiz I got the Fae answer but if I took it now and there was an answer for “a slumbering Vampire Elder�� (which there isn’t but maybe I should change that) I would make sure I got that answer because I could nap for a decade now that I FINALLY finished King’s Queen. (Well…mostly finished. It’s still going through some typo hunts!)

Many thanks to Champion RayJay for drawing all the beautiful artwork for this quiz. When I first published the quiz I was using cheesy stock photos and having RayJay’s custom illustrations instead is so awesome.

If you are in the mood for more quizzes check out my . If you had fun meeting Queen Leila in the Gate of Myth and Power series I recommend you and see if you’d be a match with her Night Court.

That’s all for today! Thanks for reading, and remember: less than two weeks left, Champions!

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Hello Champions! Thank you so much for your patience while you continue to wait for the final book in the Gate of Myth and Power series. When I picked the release date for book 3 I thought I was being generous, but I’m still working furiously on everything and it’s going to be down to the absolute wire to get it ready for you!

While you wait I thought this was a great time to give you a gift! Technically this is a re-gift because I gave this short story away as a thank you to each Champion who filled out my Reader Survey in 2022, but I decided now is a good time to re-share it with everyone!

This short story utilizes the “letters�� format which I’ve done this before with a few others like and . Those were a little different since they were actual “letters�� and this short story is “emails��. Another big difference is this Magiford short story has more participants so it is much more chaotic then any of the other short stories I’ve written in this style.

What was your favorite part of this short story? Have you ever had an email exchange similar to this chaotic mess with your friends or co-workers?

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