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...