Kathryn McConaughy's Feast of Adventures

As the summer winds down and I'm getting ready to resume teaching, I'm also trying to squeeze in a bit more writing and revising! Sir Kai's novella is continuing to expand. Every single plot beat is taking twice as many chapters to get through as I expected. At the moment, Kai is lurking in a hole, ready to ambush any powerful Faeries who emerge through a particular Faerie gate... because Reasons. He is also continuing to ignore the advice of his murderous sidekick, which--while very reasonable from his perspective--is going to cause him some Problems. I'm having way too much fun with this story! Sir Guyon's book, which I first wrote and then revised lo these many years ago, is shaping up nicely in final revisions. Guyon has always been one of my favorite characters, and one of the easiest for me to write; so I'm not having to do much with his character arc other than make sure it's clear to the reader. Most revisions involve making sure that I've rememb...

I've researched heraldry off and on for quite a few years as background for my Faerie Queen series. Of course, depending on when you are setting your King Arthur stories, the modern heraldry system might not yet have existed... but Edmund Spenser certainly did envision his knights and recreants as having distinctive arms. Of course, Spenser's descriptions of his knights' arms are tightly connected with what they symbolize in his allegory. For example, Sir Artegall, the hero of Spenser's story about justice, has a shield bearing a pair of scales. In order to give background characters heraldic arms, I like to figure out options that would be appropriate for them, even if the actual description of the arms doesn't make it into the book. (I can't imagine that many people would want to read about a shield "chevronny embowed of four and per pale Azure and Argent.") Some fun resources to look at for this include Scotland's Lyon King of Arms website, whic...

There are certain authors whose books I read over and over. Stephen Bly is one of those authors. He wrote a tremendous number of books, mostly historical and contemporary Western fiction, and even won a 2002 Christy Award. He grew up hearing stories of the Wild West days from his grandpa, worked on his grandpa's ranch when he was young, and later went on to be a pastor and then mayor of a tiny town next to a reservation. He wrote books for both MG and adult audiences. In The Dog Who Would Not Smile , the first book of the Nathan T. Riggins series, twelve-year-old Nathan goes on a quest through the late 1800s West. With the help of a dog who just won't stop following him around, he searches Nevada for his parents. The setup for the story seems like it could be scary, with a kid traveling alone through danger. But Nathan's straightforward personality, the helpful people he meets along the way, and God's clear protection keep this from being an anxious book. Instead, it...

The stories of King Arthur were written and retold over many centuries, rather than being set in any specific historical time. So, when you read them, you may encounter a real mix of historical arms and armors, as well as place names and cultural details. Still, research is one of my favorite things, so of course I have to at least try to place my stories in history. One of the big problems I struggle with is geography. What places and roads existed at any given time? Of the medieval maps of England that I've found, this one in Latin by monk Matthew Paris (circa 1250 AD) is definitely the most useful. You can find an interactive and translated version of it here:  Matthew Paris Annotated Map - Historia Cartarum While it's difficult to tell how different places are geographically related to each other on this map, it gives a lot of insight into what Paris thought was important. So we get some major geographic features, lots of bishoprics, towns, and occasional notes that just m...

First, the writing update. I've been trying to restrain myself from jumping into the final revisions of the next full-length book in my Faerie Queen series ( Guyon and the Quest for the Golden Mean ) because I'm trying to finish writing some nonfiction for my day job. Of course, that means my creativity has to come out somewhere else...  I've been working on a short (?) story about Arthur's older brother, Sir Kai, which I plan to serialize in my newsletter as soon as I get set up with a newsletter service. But the story just keeps GROWING. Kai has already acquired a raft of personal baggage based on the old Welsh legends about him, plus several Faerie curses and a sidekick who may be trying to kill him. (Kai wouldn't be all surprised about the trying-to-kill-him part. It would be the fact that this individual thinks of themself as his sidekick that he would find puzzling.) I'm guessing the story will be novella-length at least. So Kai the Coldheart , coming soon...

King Arthur was a huge part of my childhood, along with Robin Hood, and Andrew Lang's Fairy books. So I was surprised to find, when I asked my middle school students about their King Arthur knowledge, that most of them didn't know these stories at all! There are some great modern collections of King Arthur stories for younger readers, mostly based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur . (That does mean that other Arthur stories tend to get left out... There are huge numbers of medieval and Renaissance-era Arthur stories, in over a dozen languages, from over a dozen countries in Europe. I'll talk about them here on the blog in future.) You can find many of these collections in your local library, in the children's or YA sections of your local used bookstore, or (of course) on Amazon. The most famous collections in English are probably Roger Lancelyn Green 's King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table,  or Howard Pyle 's numerous books of King Arthu...

Now that you've read The Princess Who Knew the Truth as an ebook (or are waiting for your paperback copy to arrive), what can you read next? One of my favorite authors is Rachel Neumeier. Neumeier originally worked with a traditional publisher, but in recent years she's been successful publishing indie SF and fantasy. She writes both YA and adult novels. A LOT of YA and adult novels. Seriously, how does she write so much and so well, so quickly? One of my favorites of her YA novels is The Keeper of the Mist . Keri is a teenage baker in a tiny kingdom that's hidden from its enemies by magical mists around its border. But when the king dies after sabotaging the mists, his counsellors pass over his three peculiar sons and give the kingdom (with its growing enemy-empire problems) to his illegitimate daughter. That is, they give it to Keri. Keri doesn't want to be queen, but even less does she want her home to be destroyed. With the help of her resourceful best friend and a...

Una's story isn't one I planned to write. Edmund Spenser didn't give her a backstory in the original Faerie Queene , so when I was first writing George's book (lo, those many years ago) I didn't know who she was as a person. My writing group, the Inkhearts, pushed me to find out.  Once I started writing this novella I realized just how amazing Una is. She may not be a warrior like some of the other heroines in the Faerie Queen series (yes, Britomart, I see you), but that makes it all the more impressive that she takes up a quest like this, armed only with her sharp wits, her clear knowledge of truth and lies, and her unstoppable determination.  Part Arthurian adventure and part fairy tale, Una's story releases August 1, 2026 in paperback and ebook format. Ages 10 and up. Find it here:  The Princess Who Knew the Truth And now, for your enjoyment, the first chapter! ***** The queen rubbed her stomach through the thick brocade of her dress and peered around the doo...

George's book has been out for a month, so it's time for the bonus novella ! The Princess Who Knew the Truth is a prequel novella featuring Una, our very own veiled lady. Why did a dragon attack her kingdom? And how did Una make her polite but unstoppably determined way through all the dangers of England and Faerieland, looking for a way to get rid of it? I originally planned to include this story at the back of George, the Shield, and the Veiled Lady , but when I formatted the file for paperback I realized how long George's story was... and how long this story was... So in the interest of not giving anyone arm fatigue from balancing a massive volume, I decided that Una's story needed its own release. It will be available on August 1 ! You can find Una's story on Amazon as an ebook and paperback at this link: The Princess Who Knew the Truth As usual, you can preorder the ebook, but the paperback won't appear until release day (August 1, 2026). Despite the fact ...

As part of my day job, I once got to teach a course on the Archaeology of Warfare in the ancient Middle East. I really enjoyed it, since we got to talk about nerdy things that I don't usually have an excuse to discuss, and to even re-enact a battle! One article that we read for class was Gabriel and Metz's chapter on "Weapons and Lethality" in From Sumer to Rome . They describe the development of different types of armor in the ancient world, then do the math to show you which weapons of the time could actually get through that armor. Short version? If your enemy is wearing bronze armor and you've got a penetrating axe, you'll probably cut through. With any other weapon, you're out of luck (although you can still cause impact damage, of course; or simply aim for an unarmored area of the body or an unarmored person--most corvee soldiers can't afford armor on their own and aren't supplied with much by their kings). Medieval plate armor, as worn by th...

When I was a kid I always did the library's summer reading program. For every book we read, we got a ticket to put in for a prize drawing, and if we did really well, we got an invitation to a pizza party. It was great! I never won a prize, but the possibility was very exciting. One of my favorite sets of books that I read was Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, a middle grade comedy adventure series. The series includes four books which can be read in whatever order. The second book, Searching for Dragons , is my favorite!  Mendenbar has just become king of the zany fairy tale kingdom of the Enchanted Forest when he starts finding big, burned areas in his woods. Unacceptable! Since it seems like dragons are involved, he takes his highly overpowered magic sword and goes to confront the King of Dragons about it; but when he reaches the dragon mountains, the King of Dragons isn't there. Mendenbar ends up on a quest to find the Dragon King--a quest where absolutely e...

George, the Shield, and the Veiled Lady released today in ebook and paperback! I hope everyone will enjoy it! I've always liked hanging out with George--he's straightforward and curious and of course he would keep a promise to a goat, why wouldn't he? You can find George's story on Amazon at this link: George, the Shield, and the Veiled Lady In honor of the book's release, I thought we'd invite the three main characters, George, Una, and Arthur, to answer some questions! ________________ The interviewer, a tall man wearing a close helm, sits in a tall wooden chair, and waves our three heroes toward a bench in front of him. The three of them--a yellow-haired young man, looking rather singed; a small, graceful lady with sharp gray eyes; and a tall young man in half armor with a brown beard--all try to sit down, then realize there isn't enough room. Before Arthur can point this out to the interviewer, yellow-haired George plops down on the floor. He grins at ...

One of my favorite things about working on the Faerie Queen series is that I can explore arms and armor and call it work! For example, I found images of a really cool exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, focused on shields. You can see it here: Defensive Display Images at the Met . We've got a lot of round metal shields here, but we've also got some funny ones like the German tournament targe or the very narrow Italian targones.  I especially like the German shield, because it's largely made of wood (which a LOT of shields originally would have been, it's just that they haven't survived until today to be put in museums) and has a notch on one side to stick your lance through! The art on the front shows a lady holding a golden shield showing a rampant goat, another rampant goat leaping around above her, and a banner behind her and to the left that has the owner's motto on it: "Take me as I am..."  According to the Met listing, over the yea...

Since George's book is coming out July 1st, I wanted to share the first chapter! How do you think George is going to do against the dragon? Find the book here:  Amazon.com: George, the Shield, and the Veiled Lady (Faerie Queen Book 1) eBook : McConaughy, Kathryn: Kindle Store ***** George was humming a little tune to himself as he cleaned out the goat pen. That’s been sixteen buckets, he thought. Another nine buckets and I’ll be done. Some people might have complained about the smell of goat, but George kind of liked it. Or, at least, he liked the goats, and it would have been rude to like the goats but then to complain about their smell. Friends don’t complain about how friends smell. The oldest goat butted him gently on the hip. “Easy, Nanny!” He reached down to rub the funny little swirl of hair on her neck. Mother called that kind of mark a Faerie kiss, but George wasn’t sure that a Faerie would kiss a goat. The Fae in sister Ivy’s stories sounded much too high-and-mighty. Even...