The Shadowed Blade Part 2 by JA Andrews [Epic fantasy]

Karyne (00:00:07) - Hi fantasy readers. This is Karyne Norton, your fellow book binger, and you are listening to the Finding Fantasy Reads podcast where you can test out a new fantasy story every single week to find your next favorite author.

If you haven't listened to last week's episode, you'll want to do that before continuing with today's, because we're finishing off the second half of J.A. Andrews' epic fantasy short story featuring Chesavia, who's a keeper going up against some very dark magic. It's written by J.A. Andrews, who lives deep in the Rocky Mountains of Montana with her husband and three children. She is eternally grateful to C.S. Lewis for showing her the luminous world of Narnia, and she wishes Jane Austen had lived 200 years later, so they could be pen pals. She's also furious at J.K. Rowling for introducing her to house elves without providing her a way to actually employ one. And she is constantly jealous of her future self, who she is sure has everything figured out.

Be sure to stick around to the end or check out today's show notes to see where you can find more from Janice, as well as how to enter our summer giveaway with fantastic audiobooks and an Audible subscription. 

For now, please enjoy The Shadowed Blade Part 2 by J.A. Andrews.

Karyne (00:01:29) -  The Shadowed Blade is read by Karyne Norton. Due to copyright, the full transcript of the story cannot be included here. 

Karyne (00:52:20) - I hope you enjoyed listening to The Shadowed Blade Part 2 by J.A. Andrews, narrated by Karyne Norton. If you want to read more by Janice, go to jaandrews.com to find more of her books. I highly recommend starting with The Keeper Chronicles, which is narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, and the other books in her trilogies are narrated by Kate Reading. Both of those narrators are extremely popular and have their own following, which I didn't even realize was a thing. So I know you're going to love them.

Some of you may have noticed I've added something new in the show notes this year. As much as I love having this podcast and being able to connect authors and readers, I'm trying to be realistic about what I can accomplish as well as where I spend my time and money. I spend three to five hours a week on the podcast without any financial return, and while that's not what I'm looking for out of this endeavor, that is three to five hours I could be spending with my family or writing. There are also hosting and advertising fees that eat into my author budget. I absolutely want to keep making more episodes, so this next phase of podcasting isn't a question of whether or not I'll keep doing it. It's a question of how can I keep doing it.

It's possible I'll do something like Patreon down the road. It has a lot of similarities to Kickstarter's that appeal to me, but there's also a lot of additional work that goes into something like that, and I'm just not ready for it. In the meantime, I've come up with two things to experiment with this year. I'll talk more about the second next week, but the first is adding a donation link to the show notes. This is 100% optional and is simply a way for those of you who can afford it to say, "Yes, we want you to keep making more episodes." I would love for this to eventually cover hosting and advertising fees, as well as possibly editing fees, which would save me both time and money that I can then put back into my writing.

From here on out, the link, which is findingfantasyreads.com/donate, will be available in the show notes of every episode, and I will occasionally remind you of it in case one month is better than another for a donation. Please don't ever feel pressured to donate, but if you're enjoying the podcast and want to support it financially, there's now a way for you to do so.

Before I sign off, don't forget to enter the giveaway. If you want a chance to win audiobooks and an audible subscription, head on over to findingfantasyreads.com/giveaway to enter. As always, I will have links for all those sites in the show notes.

Thank you all for listening, and happy reading!