Kathryn McConaughy's Feast of Adventures

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...