🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where outlawed witches, hidden identities, and forbidden love make going to war significantly more complicated.

This week, host Bethany Amanda sits down with debut fantasy author Bethan Croome to discuss Reign, a dark, British folklore-inspired romantic fantasy filled with secret magic, medieval politics, dangerous creatures, slow-burn romance, and a heroine who disguises herself as a man only to accidentally get conscripted into a war.

Before diving into Reign, Bethan shares the unconventional road to her debut, from studying English literature and creative writing and earning a master's degree in writing to walking away from an early agent opportunity that didn't feel right.

Then we enter a kingdom where magic is outlawed and being a witch could cost you everything. Inspired by British history, folklore, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and the darker corners of Britain's past, Reign blends medieval and Tudor atmosphere with court politics, magical creatures, hidden identities, and enemies-to-lovers.

🗡️ What happens when a secret witch disguises herself as a man and accidentally gets sent to war?
✨ How do you fight for a kingdom that has outlawed what you are?
🖤 And what happens when forbidden love becomes even more dangerous because no one knows who you really are?

If you love secret witches, women disguised as men, British folklore, medieval and Tudor-inspired fantasy, forbidden magic, and deliciously slow-burn romance, this episode is for you.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Bethan's journey from studying creative writing and working in theatre to pursuing her dream of becoming a novelist.
✨ Why she walked away from an early opportunity with an agent even though she feared another opportunity might never come. And why she now considers it one of the best decisions she made.
✨ Finding her eventual literary agent through Instagram and writing Reign in roughly four months.
✨ Why Bethan chose Cosmo Reads and Sourcebooks for her debut, and the surreal experience of publishing through an imprint connected to a magazine she grew up reading.
✨ Creating Reign's showstopping deluxe edition, from the mood boards and visual references Bethan provided to the pink sprayed edges destined for fantasy readers' bookshelves.
✨ The impossible choice at the heart of Reign: fight for the kingdom that outlawed her magic or turn against it and help set magic free.
✨ Why Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, rather than Mulan, originally inspired Reign.
✨ Building a fantasy world from British history, folklore, mythology, medieval and Tudor influences, and the castles, libraries, manuscripts, and historical places Bethan loves exploring.
✨ Why British folklore's gruesome, macabre stories helped shape the darker and more melancholic atmosphere of Reign.
✨ Bethan's biggest advice for aspiring authors: stop jumping to the next shiny idea, finish the book, and be brave enough to put your work into the world.
✨ Plus: learning how to polish swords for research, the ideal amount of spice in romantasy, why Bethan would choose time travel as her magical power, and a mutual appreciation for the greatest song in Mulan.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Bethan Croome – @BethFiit

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where books become works of art, printers develop personalities, and missing out on one special edition can inspire an entire business.

This week, host Sara Santillan sits down with Sheree, the artist and owner behind Perfectly Edged, to discuss sprayed edges, collector editions, and building one of the most recognizable businesses in the bookish community.

Sheree shares how her search for a Fourth Wing special edition led her to experiment with spraying her own books, and how encouragement from a lifelong friend convinced her to begin selling them. She opens up about moving from hand-sprayed edges to professional printing, teaching herself digital design, growing through social media, and reaching the point where her husband left his job to join the business full time.

We also dive into the work behind every Perfectly Edged design, from creating artwork and running test prints to wrapping, clamping, printing, and preparing books for customers. Sheree discusses commissions, preorder planning, discounted seconds, artist collaborations, rep applications, and the challenges of choosing titles that will support the time and expense required. She also shares her dreams of creating a full publisher special edition and perhaps opening her own bookshop one day.

🎨 How does a single edge design move from an idea to a finished collector’s book?
📚 What does it take for an artist-led business to thrive in an increasingly crowded special-edition market?
✨ And how did one missed copy of Fourth Wing help launch Perfectly Edged?

This is a must-listen for special-edition collectors, Bookstagrammers, indie authors, aspiring bookish entrepreneurs, and anyone fascinated by the art and business behind beautiful books.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ How missing out on a Fourth Wing special edition inspired Perfectly Edged.
✨ Learning to hand-spray books and turning a hobby into a business.
✨ Moving from manual spraying to professional edge printing.
✨ The artwork, testing, wrapping, clamping, and printing behind each design.
✨ Why creating a single custom book can take several hours.
✨ What happens to books with misprints, scratches, or imperfect edges.
✨ How authors can commission artwork or printed edges for their books.
✨ Using preorders and batch printing to manage inventory and turnaround times.
✨ Choosing which popular, traditional, and indie titles to feature.
✨ Janet, the enormous printer responsible for the company’s edges and headaches.
✨ Collaborating with artists, including the Hurricane Wars project with Bluelyboo.
✨ What Sheree considers when selecting Perfectly Edged representatives.
✨ Social media growth, changing algorithms, and building customer loyalty.
✨ The cost and risk involved in producing a complete special edition.
✨ Sheree’s dreams of working directly with a publisher and opening a bookshop.
✨ Balancing art, business ownership, motherhood, marathon training, and writing.
✨ Throne of Glass ambitions, favorite designs, licensing challenges, and rapid-fire questions.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Perfectly Edged – @PerfectlyEdged

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where cursed kingdoms, deadly enemies, and enough sexual tension to make murder complicated collide.

This week, host Bethany Amanda sits down with fantasy author Stacey Marie Brown to discuss her newest fantasy, White Raven, a dark, Viking-inspired adventure packed with lost magic, forced proximity, found family, deadly secrets, and two enemies who genuinely might kill each other before they ever admit they want each other.

Stacey takes us behind her fourteen-year writing career, from leaving her retail job after being told to choose between work and her first author event to building a career that now spans urban fantasy, paranormal romance, contemporary romance, and high fantasy. We talk about following creative obsession instead of staying neatly in one genre, why success is an ever-moving target, and the advice she gives writers who are still trying to figure out exactly how they're “supposed” to write.

Then we enter the world of White Raven, where a centuries-old curse has stripped the land of its magic and fractured the realm into eternal day, night, and dusk. As a deadly Shadow Rift slowly consumes what's left, Wrennlyn, the White Raven, is believed to possess the blood capable of restoring the magic everyone desperately wants to control.

Unfortunately for her, the Night King wants that power too.

🖤 What if your blood was the only thing capable of restoring magic to a dying world?
⚔️ What happens when you're kidnapped by the enemy you've been taught to fear your entire life?
🔥 And how do you fall for someone when you're still seriously considering killing them?

If you love true enemies-to-lovers, Viking-inspired fantasy, forced proximity, found family, cursed kingdoms, morally complicated characters, deadly journeys, vicious banter, and cliffhangers designed to make you suffer, this episode is for you.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ How Stacey chooses what genre to write next, and why creative obsession will always win over staying safely in one publishing lane.
✨ Using contemporary romance as a creative “refresh button” when the magic, worldbuilding, and action of fantasy start leading toward burnout.
✨ Stacey's fourteen-year career and the author event that forced her to choose between her retail job and writing.
✨ Why success remains an ever-moving target, even after building a long-term writing career, and why authors don't need massive platforms or viral fame for their work to matter.
✨ Building a Viking-inspired world fractured by a 199-year-old curse into realms of eternal day, night, and dusk, and the Shadow Rift slowly draining the life from the land.
✨ Writing true enemies-to-lovers where the characters don't simply exchange insults before giving in to attraction.
✨ Exploring prejudice, inherited hatred, and what happens when Wrennlyn discovers the people she was taught to fear have families, children, struggles, and humanity just like her own.
✨ Stacey's signature balance of darkness and humor, including Munch, a tiny root creature with an unfortunate habit of eating clothing, and Fluffy, the decidedly unfriendly undead horse.
✨ Why Stacey embraces being a “cliffhanger queen,” what readers lose when they wait for an entire series to release before starting it, and the joy of theorizing together while waiting for the next book.
✨ Pantsing, following the muse, letting characters derail your plans, and why trying to force herself into someone else's writing process only leads to writer's block.
✨ Plus: fictional men who would be terrible real-life boyfriends, the characters Stacey would never invite to holiday dinner, and possibly the most unexpected author Google search we've ever heard on The Mythic Mic.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Stacey Marie Brown – @StaceyMarieBrown

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.