new blog post: My Dog's Experience with Radiation My Dog’s Experience with Radiation
Personal Life

My Dog’s Experience with Radiation

Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

I know this isn’t my usual fare as a queer author, but when we decided that Katie would need radiation therapy to treat the remaining cancer on her nose, it was so hard to find firsthand experiences of what it was like. It’s hard to make an educated decision on how best to treat your pet when most of the posts are other people asking for experiences and randos fearmongering or spreading misinformation. This post is my attempt to help other pet owners decide whether radiation therapy is best for their pet by reading about the experience of another dog going through the same thing.

Some Background

Katie is a ten year old dachshund mix who has had no major health issues in all the years we have had her. Last year, we noticed a bump growing on the side of her nose. At first, we thought it was from allergies or a cyst, but when we finally went to the vet and had a fine needle aspiration done, it was determined that it was soft tissue sarcoma, which is a type of cancer that arises from connective tissue. Our vet recommended we go to Garden State Veterinary Specialists (we went to their offices in Woodbridge and Eatontown- both were awesome). A surgeon checked Katie out, ran blood work, and did an x-ray to confirm she was a good candidate for surgery. The surgeon was able to remove 98% of the tumor by her estimate (due to the location on her nose, she couldn’t get clear margins), and she sent it off to get biopsied. The biopsy showed that it was a low grade myxosarcoma (arising from fibroblasts if you’re into histology), which is good because low grade means that it divides slow and has a lower chance of spreading throughout the body. Katie recovered very well from the surgery and ended up with a scar across her nose as the only proof that it happened. We immediately got in contact with the oncologist at GSVS, and after reviewing Katie’s records, she said that we could either take a wait and see approach (and it had a decent chance of coming back since it wasn’t all removed) or we could do radiation treatments in order to kill whatever cancer cells remained. We decided to treat her tumor with radiation.

Radiation- the Costs

The biggest problem with radiation treatments is the cost. It was about $13,000 all together, with it being about $2,500 for the CT scan before treatment and about $10,000 for the radiation treatments themselves. My mom and I split the cost of her treatments, and I made a GoFundMe to help pay for it since it took a very large chunk out of my savings and because I don’t make a whole lot. The cost above did not include the surgery either, which was about $2,500 as well. We paid for about 75% of it up front and the last 25% (which included the costs of medications she needed along the way) on the day of her final treatment. The radiation cost covers daily vet checks, anesthesia and monitoring, and the radiation itself for 18 days. Many vets will also let you pay for treatments weekly or daily if that is easier for you than paying in big chunks.

The CT Scan

The CT scan was done about a week or two after Katie’s surgery. They knock the dogs out for this in order to get good imaging of the place where they plan to do the radiation. The doctor then runs that scan through a program that maps out the radiation treatments for the next 18 days. They also figure out how they will position your dog during the treatments and make any casts or molds from that. The CT scan took about an hour, and we just waited in the parking lot for her to be done. They have to fast beforehand, but the vet did it pretty early in the morning, so Katie didn’t have to wait too long. She came out like nothing had happened and happily went home to eat. About three days after the CT scan, the oncologist called us to talk about scheduling radiation for the next week.

What does Radiation do? What is the Process?

Radiation therapy is a treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill or stunt cancer cells. Basically, the machine beams radiation into a portion of the tumor or radiation field to kill the cells that might be remaining. The radiation cooks the cells to the point that it kills or damages them. The problem is that it also hits noncancerous cells, which is when you get radiation burns or inflammation. Normal cells repair or replace themselves quickly, so they recover well from being hit with radiation and return to normal in a few weeks (especially skin and mucus membranes). Cancer cells, while able to replicate quickly, are not good at repairing themselves. They’re unstable, so when they’re hit with radiation, they either die or cannot repair themselves. This is how radiation kills or curbs cancer cells from spreading. Definitive radiation is usually 18 treatments, Monday to Friday with weekends off, at high doses. Palliative radiation is meant to ease suffering or lessen a condition with the hopes of shrinking a tumor. Those treatments tend to be far fewer sessions spaces out and vary greatly based on the pet, tumor, outcome objective, etc.

The process for your pet will look something like this: they arrive at the clinic, they’re brought to the back by a vet tech, they check their vitals and temperature to make sure they’re healthy, they are given a light sedation to keep them still for the treatment, the radiation treatment is given (this takes about 3-5 minutes), and then, they are brought into a recovery area where a staff member keeps an eye on them until they are awake enough to go home. The whole process takes about an hour.

Radiation Week 1-2

a black dog with a white chest being held. She has her mouth open in a smile and has a scar running across her nose.
Katie at the end of week 1 of radiation

Katie’s slot for radiation ended up being at 7:45 AM. On one hand, yay, let’s get it done and over with without having to fast her for too long every day. Boo for having to scramble out of the house by 7:05 AM. Katie wasn’t accustomed to going in the car for that long by herself (she was in a car seat instead of my partner’s lap), and the vet end up prescribing Trazadone to keep her calm in the car. She said they only put the dogs under light sedation when they do radiation, so they don’t want to have to give them more if they’re being antsy. We gave it to her twice a day (once in the evening and my mom gave her a dose about 90 minutes before I took her to the vet). Katie tolerated treatment really well. She came out of the vet a little groggy and slept it off in the car, but by the time we got home 30 minutes later, she was wide awake and ready to eat her breakfast. It was obvious that the vet staff at GSVS loved her and took good care of her. Katie always seemed eager to go with them or get in the car when she realized where we were going. Each treatment took about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes to complete. As mentioned above, the actual radiation treatment only lasts a few minutes, but there’s prep before and the wake up time after. I just sat in my car and read a book because the waiting room was really loud. The vet techs would text me when she was ready for pick-up, and I would go inside, tell the people at the desk, they’d call back to radiation, and a few minutes later, they’d bring Katie out. Most of the time it was a vet tech, and occasionally, like once a week, the vet would come out to update me on new meds or what to expect. Then, I’d pop her in the car seat, drive home, and remove the bandage left from removing her IV when I got home, which was bloodless and easy.

Week 2 was basically a repeat of week 1. She had no side effects, and we were just trucking along.

Radiation Week 3

At the beginning of week 3 or the very end of week 2 (not 100% sure), the hair started to fall out around Katie’s stitches from the surgery, and the vet prescribed her carprofen (an anti-inflammatory) and pregabalin (a pain medication) because she expected that Katie would soon start to experience side effects. By the end of that week, she started to get a congested nose and would sneeze more than she did before the treatment. The tumor had been on the outside of her nose (not the inside like a nasal tumor would be), so the radiation field penetrated her sinuses and irritated them. She also started to get irritation inside her mouth. To help with that, we started wetting her kibble to make it softer. We noticed Katie start to chew slower due to discomfort. By the end of week 3, her lip started to get sore, so the vet put her in the cone of shame to keep her from bothering the irritated skin on her lip and later her nose. We put her in an inflatable doughnut cone since that was easier for her to navigate with such short legs. Katie is also not one to rub her face on random objects, so the cone was enough to keep her from rubbing her face with her feet. By the end of week 3, she was uncomfortable but well medicated, so it really didn’t bother her in terms of energy and sass.

Side note: we ended up with a 4 days, 4 days, 5 days, 5 days schedule to make the 18 days of treatments because one day the machine went down. We just tacked the last day onto the end.

Radiation Week 4

Week 4 was a lot like week 3. The radiation burns started to appear on her nose at this point, but it wasn’t horrible. One the day she finished her treatment, she really only bald and sore spots on her lip and around her surgical incision, which had healed up). The vet prescribed another pain medication (Amantadine) to help keep her comfortable as the radiation field was about to get sore. On her final day of treatment, we finished paying, and Katie got a certificate of completion and got to the ring the bell to signify that she finished her cancer treatment. My eyes welled up. The vets and vet techs were absolutely wonderful, and it was obvious that they were fond of Katie and treated her like their own dog. What works in Katie’s favor is that she is pretty calm, enjoys people and attention, and is remarkably cooperative at the vet (unlike her brother). We scheduled a follow-up with the vet for a complimentary recheck about 10 days after her treatment ended.

The Weeks After

a black dog with a white chest chilling on a red blanket. Her nose is bald on one side.
Katie 2-3 weeks after treatment.

The week after was when her face looked the worst as radiation continues to do its thing for about a week after the treatment ends. The skin on her snout turned into an open wound along the surgical incision, and the hair fell out around the radiation field. It looks like really bad sunburn or wet eczema. The best thing to do is to keep it dry and leave it alone. I kept an eye on her wounds and subsequent scabs, checking for infection or goop every day. We only cleaned her wound as needed. If it looked goopy, we washed it very gently with cool water and patted it with an alcohol wipe. We didn’t pick any scabs or mess with her wounds. We were just looking to prevent infection or anything that could slow healing. By the end of the week, the peak of the radiation passed, and her wounds healed up within a few days. She was still completely medicated with all three medications during this time. Her skin is now bald in that area and paler than it was (it was previously black).

At the follow-up appointment, the vet determined that Katie was healing well and took her off the amantadine. She continued on the pregabalin for about an extra week, and she will finish her carprofen today. This week we’ll be about a month out from her finishing her radiation treatments, and she is 100% back to her normal self. Her energy levels are high, her face is healing, and she’s back to eating dry food. Overall, she tolerated the treatment REALLY well, and it was 100% worth it to keep the remaining cancer cells at bay or to neutralize them completely, hopefully. Nothing is guaranteed, but it was the best way for us to definitively treat her myxosarcoma. She will go back to the vet in September/6 months after her surgery to get an x-ray and a check to make sure her cancer is still inactive. She will probably get that for the rest of her life.

Things to Consider

  • There is A LOT of misinformation online about animals and their healthcare, like a ton. I have seen people try to use black salve and other quack medical cures on their pets. Please, go to a vet and talk to them. They are not money hungry. They want to do what it’s best for your pet, and they wish it was cheaper too.
  • Katie’s tumor location was on the surface of her skin, which makes it easier to treat. The nose is a tricky spot because you can’t get good margins surgically, but for radiation, the inflammation ends up being mostly external, which makes healing easier.
    • If your pet has a nasal tumor, brain tumor, or something located closer to important things, they’re more likely to have worse side effects than Katie did.
  • Katie loves people, which made going to the vet every day like going to the spa. We joked that I dropped her off to get high for an hour with her besties. For a dog who is very anxious or hates people, this would be a far more stressful process
  • I was able to wait in the parking lot for 18/19 days because my job was in the afternoon, which made this far easier than it might have been for someone with a full-time 9-5 job or a less flexible schedule.
  • Dogs and cats tolerate radiation and chemotherapy a lot better than people, so don’t assume your dog is going to look like a cancer patient. Katie really wasn’t affected by her treatments. Throughout she was happy, hungry, and mostly her normal self. The two weeks of discomfort passed quickly.

new blog post: may 2026 wrap-up post May 2026 Wrap-Up Post
Monthly Review

May 2026 Wrap-Up Post

Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

May is finally over. This month feels like a transition into [hopefully] significantly less chaos. We finished Katie’s radiation treatments, she’s healing up, and Edgar is being his peppy self again, so everything is on the up and up. Can you tell I am so hesitant to say this for fear of jinxing it? Here are the goals I had for May:

  • Write more of “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Brainstorm more changes for Flowers and Flourishing before I rewrite it
  • Finish grading/turn in grades
  • Finish Katie’s radiation treatments
  • Figure out next steps for that
  • Take partner to get glasses
  • Plant pumpkins and peppers
  • Continue to avoid burnout
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Monthly newsletter

Books

My goal was to read 8 books, and I read exactly 8.

  1. Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher- 4 stars, a poison expert is called to the palace to help cure the king’s daughter of a mysterious malady only to discover a mirror world with some horrifying secrets. There’s also a hunky, himbo guard that I loved very much.
  2. Dearest Beast (#3) by Felicia Grossman- 4 stars, a riff on Beauty and the Beast that features an upper class Jewish man who is forced to temporarily house a working class Jewish midwife after his daughter accidentally wrecks her shop. It’s a disdain with passion to love relationship. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about this pairing, but it grew on me the longer they were together.
  3. The Culinarians by David S. Shields- 4 stars, a nonfiction book on important and famous chefs from the 1800s. It was incredibly interesting to read about the lives of chefs during this time period, especially the Black and female chefs/caterers. I think this pairs really nicely with Turning the Tables as a way to round out the information. The author also has a ton of good recs at the beginning of the book for more specific aspects or groups related to 19th century culinary history.
  4. A Long and Speaking Silence (#7) by Nghi Vo- 5 stars, a jump back to Cleric Chih’s early days with Singing Hills where they get stuck in a village that is dealing with the growing tensions between the local population and immigrants fleeing a natural disaster. Chih tries to help a young woman and ends up learning more about her own history as well.
  5. Platform Decay (#8) by Martha Wells- 4 stars, MurderBot is sent to rescue several of Mensa’s family members that are stuck behind enemy lines only to be forced to rescue a past enemy’s family as well. This leads to danger, road trips, and plenty of ridiculousness.
  6. The Titan’s Bride (#8) by ITKZ- 4 stars, as always, I love the way the MCs have grown together and become even better than they were separately. It’s lovely to see the human MC get involved in Titan culture and try to help his partner gather support in his kingdom and make things better for everyone.
  7. Yield Under Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland- 5 stars, a grumpy, bitter man who runs a tea shop finds out that he and his frienemy lover have both been blessed by the harvest/fertility goddess. At first, he’s quite pissed as he feels they have both done him dirty, but he soon realizes he is holding himself back. It was really nice to watch a character try to become a new/better person and while doing so, still struggle. Very cozy in a get your ass kicked by the harvest goddess and reality sort of way.
  8. We Could Be Anyone by Anna-Marie McLemore- 4 stars, con artist siblings pose as a ghost and spiritualist medium in order to swindle rich people only to realize the ghosts haunting the resort may be real. I like other McLemore books more as I felt the characterization at the beginning was rushed compared to other works by them. At the same time, I enjoyed these two and the queerness infused throughout the book along with references to mythology.

Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

  • Katie finished her radiation treatments and got to ring the end of cancer treatment bell (I got weepy- the vets and techs were so good to her, and she is healing up really well)
  • Katie went back for a follow-up and got a clean bill of health (x-rays and a recheck in September)
  • Edgar had a Lyme disease flare, got antibiotics, and is better now
  • Finished grading my classes’ work and turned in grades
  • Had to get my car towed/fixed because it died in the driveway, which was, thankfully, a semi cheap and easy fix as a battery cable needed to be replaced, but holy stress Batman, why does it have to be when I need to take my dog to get radiation.
  • I managed my stress on and off. Please see the aforementioned bullet point for why I called my mom panic-crying from the driveway on a Monday morning.
  • Reread and replotted “An Unexpected Christmas” (TRM #4.5)
  • Started working on “An Unexpected Christmas” (TRM #4.5) again
  • Read Flowers and Flourishing and took some more notes about how I will expand it in the near future
  • Set up all of my spreadsheets and writing stuff for June
  • Got back into working out again (my arms hurt, lol)
  • Got a pepper plant (but forgot to plant my pumpkin seeds)
  • Played Coral Island to decompress my brain

Blogs

Writing

At the end of April, I decided to take a writing hiatus because I was frying myself with work and taking Katie to her radiation appointments. This turned out to definitely be the correct choice. Before when I tried to write, it was like trying to do so when I had a migraine but without the pain. Prolonged stress had sapped my short-term memory, executive function, and word recall. Word recall tends to be the thing that short-circuits first if I have a migraine aura, and I’m not going to lie, it freaked me out to lose words that I definitely knew. After some Googling, I confirmed that this is very common when someone is stressed out for a prolonged period (like from February to May), and taking a few weeks to let my brain decompress as I finished taking Katie to and from her treatments as the semester wrapped up was needed. I like to pretend that I’m super human and able to handle anything life throws at me, but when it comes to my dogs, I lose my ability to cope.

Toward the halfway point of May, I finally picked up “An Unexpected Christmas” again. I reread it and didn’t like the tone and pacing of it, so I scrapped the draft and started over. I could feel my own stress permeating all of it to the point that it contaminated the narrative. Even Oliver felt more wound up than he ought to be given the situation. Restarting it has made the process easier, and I think it will be far better than the previous draft now that everyone has room to breathe. It will also probably be longer than anticipated, so at least you all are getting more value for waiting a little extra time. Once again, thank you all for your patience and kind words during this rough time. I appreciate you all so much.

Hopes for June

  • Write the majority (if not all) of “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Edit “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Continue working on the notes for the Flowers and Flourishing rewrite
  • Proof the chapters of the audiobook for The Reanimator’s Fate
  • Maintain my mental health
  • Do something fun with my partner for our anniversary
  • Take my partner to her doctor’s appointments (there are several)
  • Plant my pumpkin seeds
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out my newsletter
new blog post: On Writing Medical Conditions in Historicals On Writing Medical Conditions in Historicals
Writing

On Writing Medical Conditions in Historicals

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

A week or two ago, I put out some feelers about what my readers would like me to write about, and someone suggested writing about medical conditions in a historical context. This is something I’ve dealt with my entire writing career since my first book features an amputee main character and my latest series follows an autistic main character, and after eleven books, I have a bit of a process for researching medical conditions in a historical context. Before we get going, I will say that medical history is one of my special interests, so I tend to go down the rabbit hole because I enjoy learning about this kind of thing. Also, this research tactic is predicated on the idea that you already know what the condition you plan to use is and know at least a bit about it. If you don’t have that, start there first. If you know the condition you plan to use, onward to step one!

Step One: To Wikipedia!

Yes, yes, I know Wikipedia is not a source we can immediately trust, BUT it is AI-free, updated regularly, and linked to sources. What I like about Wikipedia for writing about diseases in a historical context is that Wikipedia often has a history section where articles from the Mayo Clinic do not. The point of researching is to find out when this condition was discovered, when it got its name, were there older treatments, etc. Step one is a cursory word and basic fact-finding mission. I would take notes about discovery, any antiquated names for it (ex. stroke being called apoplexy back in the day), antiquated cures (ex. drinking executed criminal blood for epilepsy), any past beliefs about how this condition occurred (anything regarding humors or pre-germ theory ideas). If you’re just using this for a side character or a passing sentence, you could just double check the info against the sources at the bottom of the Wikipedia article and move on.

Here is a link to a website with a bunch of antiquated names for diseases. Keep in mind that the time period the name was used is not listed, so make sure to research that. ALWAYS double check your sources/information. NEVER use AI. AI is wrecking the planet and is far less accurate than just using a basic search engine. Put in the effort to read and synthesize the information yourself.

Step Two: Research the Antiquated Name

Once we have the antiquated name for the condition, you will have an easier time finding how it was treated back in the day. My suggestion would be to try to find antiquated medical textbooks as a primary source. The National Library of Medicine has a database of old medical texts, and the Internet Archive as well as Project Guttenberg have a ton of scanned books you can look through. Once you go past the 1700s, things get a bit dicey in terms of medical knowledge as they tend to stray into alchemy and Ancient Greek beliefs in European texts on the body. Often, when researching a specific illness, you’ll find a handful of scientists or a single doctor who knew a lot about the specific condition, I suggest researching them as well because you will be able to trace back their sources and potentially find more information on how it was treated pre-modern medicine.

Aside: What if the Condition Wasn’t Known Back Then?

If there isn’t an antiquated name or mentions of the condition in a medical textbook, I’m going to assume the disease was unknown at the time your story takes place. In that case, I would suggest focusing on the symptoms and how to portray them in your story in such a way that a modern audience would recognize them. Keep in mind that even if the audience doesn’t know 100% what the condition is, they should recognize it as a medical condition and how that effects your character’s life.

While writing The Reanimator’s Heart, I debated using the word autism, even though it would anachronistic. I ultimately decided not to because Oliver wouldn’t know why he was different from neurotypical people and that would be part of his characterization. Autism wasn’t a recognized condition until the 1930s, and what we would recognize as severe or high support needs autism would have been classified as schizophrenia in the 1800s. Oliver wouldn’t have met that criteria, so it made more sense to just have him exist as someone with traits that a modern audience would recognize as autism.

In our modern world, we are quick to label things to make life easier and to clue the audience in faster, but it isn’t necessary. The vast majority of medical conditions we have now were lumped into “delicate constitutions,” “old age,” “queerness,” etc.

Step Three: Research Treatments

Now, that we know what we’re dealing with, we can now look up treatments. Those old medical books will come in handy again, and you should also look up antiquated folk medicine. If you’re writing in a time period like Ancient Greece or Rome, you have medical texts from those folks, but much like the Middle Ages or Enlightenment, there will be a lot of nonsense and magic wrapped up in the cures presented. Even with more modern eras, there will be a lot of cures that can also kill. Some will be quack medicine, others are just not great in terms of efficacy. Something I would like to stress to modern writers is that disability and death were the norm back before WWII and the invention of antibiotics. It was very common for people to get sick and never return to full health or to suffer with conditions for their whole life without much relief. More than likely, these characters will be coping as best they can, but they won’t be living at a modern “standard” of health. For my disabled readers of this post, many of you know that chronic illnesses mean always feeling off and never being at full health. When you are writing about sickness, injuries, or chronic conditions, you need to keep in mind the limits of medicine at the time you are writing within it.

Example: In Kinship and Kindness, Theo has epilepsy. When discussing his epilepsy in the story, the social/cultural context of epilepsy is brought up (saints, being possessed or divine punishment, being seen as lesser, etc.), and Theo also mentions going to a doctor in New Orleans who prescribed him bromide. Bromide was the standard treatment for epilepsy at the time and is still used today, but the dosage and purity wasn’t as well regulated, which means patients often had more negative side effects than they would today. Theo mentions how the bromide made him feel catatonic and awful to the point that he stopped taking it and tried to manage his stress (seizure trigger) instead.

Aside: Can We Finagle a Treatment?

Often, there isn’t a good treatment for a condition during the period in which the story is set, but we might be able to look at modern treatments and see if there is anything that might help that existed back then. For example, I have eczema, which means in the past I would have been a cracked and inflamed mess, but in the late 1890s, doctors realized coal tar helps treat eczema. The character might have had some interaction with the substance and then tried to mix it with animal fat or lotion to create a cream. Vaseline also came on the scene in the late 1800s, and that would also be used to help calm the itching and soreness. The character might also notice that when they interact with things that make their nose run, their eczema worsens (allergies weren’t a diagnosis until later). I would be cautious with creating treatments because you want to keep in mind that, like modern supplements, they can help lessen symptoms, but they aren’t curative or able to fully treat a condition.

Aside: What About Magic?

Magic and congenital conditions or neurodivergence is where things get dicey. It’s easy to veer into ableist territory when we magically cure things that are innate parts of the person. I think the best way to think about it is, would removing this thing change who the person is fundamentally? With autism and other flavors of neurodivergence, the community generally states they would rather be accepted than cured. This also goes for many parts of the disabled community. Treating symptoms that make life hard and creating a more inclusive world through world-building is better than eliminating disabled characters entirely. Do your due diligence in regards to ableism and disabled or neurodivergent representation (sensitivity readers can help).

Step Four: Time to Write

Now that you have done as much research as you can, it’s time to write this character. My main suggestion with this is to remember that the character is a person first. They are a person with a condition or disability, not a walking pile of symptoms. You should research what it’s like to live with the condition you’re writing about and keep the community’s experience at the forefront. People with disabilities and chronic conditions (or injuries) are still going about their lives, sometimes having jobs, loving their partners and/or families, and they have hopes, dreams, goals, feelings, etc. We certainly have times where our conditions are at the front of our minds more than other times, but we aren’t 24/7 hyperfocused on our symptoms because we live with it all the time. Your ableist leanings will show through if you haven’t worked through them yet, and while it is fine to explore a character’s internalized ableism or how they deal with ableism, we want it to be purposeful rather than something that snuck in because you have some ableist feelings about disabled or neurodivergent people. As always, do your homework and be respectful.

I hope this article helped you figure out how to research diseases and conditions while writing in the past. If there is anything you would like me to write about in the future, feel free to leave it in the comments.

new blog post: kara has gender feelings Kara has Gender Feelings
Personal Life

Kara has Gender Feelings

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

Recently, I have been having big gender feelings again. As you may or may not know, I’m nonbinary, and I use they/them pronouns. I’m fairly out about being nonbinary, but it comes with the annoying side effect of being absolutely invisible to non-trans people (and to some trans people as well).

Binary trans people, especially trans POC, are often more visible than nonbinary people. They are clocked easier by cis people if they don’t 100% pass, which can mean more danger for them. Nonbinary people often have sort of the opposite problem where they are invisible and no matter how queer they look, they will still be seen as man-lite or woman-lite by other people. While this means less chance of violence, it also means being constantly misgendered and having your identity invalidated by the people around you. At some point, you start to get a complex where you want to scream, “I’m trans too!” at everyone who doesn’t immediately clock you.

For me, being trans is an intrinsic part of my identity, just like my autism or queerness. From a young age, I have struggled with dysphoria. I didn’t have a word for it back when I was a kid hitting puberty at ten years old, but from that point on, I stopped feeling comfortable in my body. Suddenly, against my will, my body was different. I had boobs, which ended up being fairly large quickly, so I was forced to wear a bra and feel that all of my clothes hit all the wrong places. Growing up in the early 2000s, everything for girls was tight and close-fitting. Between sensory issues and dysphoria, I was ready to claw out of my skin every time my clothes clung to me. My mom didn’t fight me 90% of the time about not being feminine, and I settled into oversized t-shirts and cargo shorts.

I remember reading Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice as a teenager and fantasizing about being a castrati or a eunuch. The body I wanted most was flat chested, slightly taller than I am, and sex-less. Delicate-featured like a woman but flat and tall like a man. Daily, I am reminded that even with modern hormones and surgeries, the gender presentation I want isn’t possible. Well, technically, I could forgo any hormones and suppress my estrogen, but my bones would turn to dust and my organs would get out of whack. I desperately wish someone could create a sex hormone cocktail would allow for man shape without the facial hair or drastic voice drop. Microdosing is possible, but I don’t want most of the side effects of masculinization. I just want to not be a woman.

Being perceived as a woman makes me feel dysphoric.

I used to feel so guilty in college when my professors would expound upon how proud of us they were for being such smart women, and my brain would whisper, “But I’m not.” I’m not ashamed to be a woman as some people assume when you say you aren’t cis but AFAB. Woman always chafed like shoes that didn’t fit. There are a thousand ways to be a woman, but I never felt like I was any of those things. The label made no sense when held against me. Yes, I came genetically preprogrammed to grow boobs, have periods, and only be 5’6″, but that doesn’t mean I’m a woman. The image of me in my head isn’t a woman and never has been.

What’s really funny is how not feminine I feel and am next to my trans woman partner. She revels in being a woman and is so much more herself than she was before. It has been so heartening to see her grow into herself through transitioning. It also has made the contrast between us so much starker. My gender discomfort feels so much louder as I see her become more comfortable, and the worst part is that I’m not sure how to quiet it. I would love to get a mastectomy, but I can’t afford it and my job is only on a contractual basis, which means I don’t get paid time off to recover. There’s also the fear of not being able to drive in an emergency and the potential for giant autoimmune flares due to my chronic issues that could come with having major surgery.

When your brain and your body don’t align, it really messes with your head. It hinders me from dressing how I want or being comfortable in my skin. In turn, I’m not perceived by others gender-wise the way I’d like, and that messes with my head too. The worst part is my autism also fights against good change. It’s really hard for me to change my hair or clothing style because my brain rebels at the wrong-ness even if it’s good wrong. That anxiety hinders me from changing my hair too drastically or going for the more formal clothing I’d like to try. Those things might make me feel better gender-wise, but I have to white-knuckle through the initial discomfort of change. I hear a lot of trans people talk about gender euphoria, and I fear I will never have that because my brain’s first instinct is to scream no at change. Never in my life have I ever felt beautiful or handsome or attractive. I’ve only felt cute or passable at best. I’m not fishing for compliments; I’m just telling you the reality inside my head.

One day I hope I get to have the same gender euphoria that my partner feels, but I don’t know if that’s possible. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try; it just means it will be harder for me due to autism and chronic illness. Still, I worry that being androgynous or the vision of gender I have in my head is impossible, and while HRT has come a long way, it still has a ways to go for nonbinary people.

new blog post: introducing myself Introducing Myself
Personal Life

Introducing Myself

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

If you already follow me and have for a while, you already know who I am, but semi recently, I’ve gained quite a few new followers online and a bunch of new readers. It just feels like a good time to reintroduce myself.

Hi, dear readers. My name is Kara Jorgensen, my pronouns are they/them, and I am a queer indie author who writes queer historical-paranormal romance books set [mostly] in the 1890s. In terms of queerness, I am a nonbinary or agender person who is a little masc leaning. I’m also asexual, omniromantic (or biromantic, both apply). My partner is a trans woman who I have been with for over twenty years, and we have two dogs that we love dearly. Online, I tend to talk a lot about queer books, queerness, and how that intersects with being chronically ill or neurodivergent. Being autistic is central to my identity since it influences every aspect of my life. It’s has lead to some of my favorite personality traits, but it also has gifted me with debilitating anxiety and OCD at times. And if you follow me long enough, you will hear me complain about my autoimmune conditions as well (sorry, not sorry for complaining about my allergies and gut problems). I am a complex creature who often feels like a bunch of comorbidities in a trench coat.

The good thing is that I love learning about medical stuff. Medical history and diseases are some of my special interests and have been since I was in high school. Growing up, I wanted to be a doctor, but in college when my autoimmune problems were at their worst, I realized I probably couldn’t handle the 24/7 schedule of a medical residency (but still finished a BA in biology as well as literature). Instead, I became a writer and writing professor. I earned an MFA in Creative and Professional Writing and have published eleven novels thus far. Currently, I teach at universities as an adjunct English professor, mostly teaching College Writing (freshman writing), creative writing classes, and running the university’s literary magazine. While I wish that I taught full-time, it leaves me time for writing and can be worked around my chronic issues and neurodivergence.

Writing has been the one thing in my life that has been a constant since I was ten years old. My first “real” stories were self-insert Sherlock Holmes stories that were very dramatic. Sherlock Holmes was always getting shot and needing to be nursed back to health. After that, I went through a brief Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicle fanfic stage before moving into my own works. All of which were very dramatic and involved a lot of characters being sad, broody, and injured. Oh, and queer. The stories slowly got queerer and queerer with time. My first published book, The Earl of Brass, started out as my senior final project in college, which was then expanded when I was in graduate school. Looking back on it, I think it’s a highly flawed hot mess, but I tell myself keeping it available is a way to see how much I have grown since 2014. It’s also nice to see the things that set my books apart from others even in those early books.

Since then, I have published eleven full-length novels and several short stories. The books that are most well-known and most read are my Reanimator Mysteries books, starting with The Reanimator’s Heart, which are about an autistic necromancer who accidentally reanimates the man he loves after he’s murdered. From there, they team up to solve his murder. It ends happily, and there are four books in the series about these characters. My books tend to be on the Gothic side, but Gothic ala Guillermo del Toro or The Addams Family. Ones where you romance the darkness rather than being scared of it. Anne Rice, Tim Burton, The Brontes, Guillermo del Toro, KJ Charles, Cat Sebastian, and Edward Gorey have been major influences on my work, but at heart, I am a romantic and it shows. If you read my books, you can expect some sex scenes. No matter what though, the focus will always be on the emotional intimacy between the characters and how their neuroses mingle and can be soothed by the other person.

Some other random things about me, the lightning round:

  1. I am a foodie. I absolutely love trying new food and making new recipes. One day, I would love to get my hands on Vincent Price’s cookbook. I love sushi, Japanese food in general, cheese of all kinds, and food from the Maghrab (grape leaves are soooo good)
  2. I collect plushies- mostly Squishables. I have always been a plushie person (a very autistic trait, iykyk). My favs are the moths, coffees, and bees. My partner loves dolls and has quite a few Blythe and Monster High dolls.
  3. I love stationery. I am a sticker and marker person. I do quite a bit of bullet journaling, so I mostly use my supplies to do that. My partner also steals them to do art.
  4. My favorite step of the writing process is research. I could sit and research random things in my books forever. I often have to stop myself and make myself actually write because I could continually put things off to learn more. It’s the academic in me. I just always want to learn more.
  5. If possible, I want to be the avatar of crafts, aka I want to learn them all. I do plastic canvas, cross stitch, crochet, and plenty more, but I would love to make rugs or stained glass and take more pottery classes in the future.
  6. Favorite authors in no order: KJ Charles, Jordan L. Hawk, Cat Sebastian, Nghi Vo, P. Djeli Clark, Rebecca Roanhorse, Anne Rice, Anna-Marie McLemore, T. Kingfisher
  7. My dream jobs if I didn’t have to worry about paying for additional schooling or the job market: beekeeper, working in a museum, archaeologist/paleontologist, owning a cafe or store where local artists could sell their stuff, being a writing professor full-time.
  8. My dogs are my babies. I love them vastly more than most people. They’re my constant companions, my dog children, the greatest source of anxiety (because they can’t tell me what’s wrong), and a source of love and fulfillment which I hope they feel is reciprocated from me.
  9. At heart, I am a little Goth. I love everything spooky and dark, but I am also a marshmallow who loves bright colors and comfy clothes. As much as I would love to be a sexy vampire, I am more like a rainbow plague doctor plushie.
  10. In my family, I’m the annoying political killjoy. I am nowhere near perfect, so I try to make sure I am always learning, growing, and listening to other marginalized people. Masking is also a priority to me as I am covid conscious and do not want to add more conditions to my collection of disorders. I’d also feel really guilty if I was sick and gave it to other people.

new blog post: April 2026 wrap-up post April 2026 Wrap-Up Post
Monthly Review

April 2026 Wrap-Up Post

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

April has turned out to be the month I realize I need to slow down and let myself recover from all the chaos that has been going on. This month’s accomplishments will probably be scant, but you know what? That’s what needs to happen sometimes. Here was what I thought I’d get done in April:

  • Write the rest of “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Edit “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Rewrite some of Flowers and Flourishing
  • Take Katie for her CT scan
  • Take Katie for her radiation treatments
  • Maintain my mental health as best as I can
  • Finish grading for my classes
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out monthly newsletter (with AUC)

Books

My goal was to read 8 books, and I read 10 in April.

  1. The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko- 4 stars, technically this is part of the Raybearer series, but you don’t need to read those books to understand this one. A young disabled woman with vitiligo works as a maid and realizes she’s more than she thought she was. Of course, this means becoming entangled with a crocodile deity who is rather attractive and wants to help her. It’s also a story about revolution and making society better for everyone.
  2. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe- 5 stars, a queer graphic novel classic, but I just read it. Kobabe goes into how xe figured out xeir gender, pronouns, and xeir journey to finding where xe fit in. It was highly relatable as a nonbinary person.
  3. All the Murmuring Bones by A. G. Slatter- 4 stars, a dark fairytale about a woman trying to fight against a generational curse and live her own life. It’s a bit of a slow burn in terms of the story, but I really enjoyed the audiobook.
  4. Liberated: the Radical Art and Life of Claude Cahun by Kaz Rowe- 4 stars, Rowe’s graphic novel is about a queer artist from the first half of the 1900s who created avant garde art and managed to survive the war despite being targeted by the Nazi’s for resisting. It’s short and well worth it as an intro to Claude Cahun’s life.
  5. The Titan’s Bride (#6) by ITKZ- 4 stars, (CW: lots of on page sexual content) I love the two MCs and how they are trying so hard to both be good for each other and for the kingdom they represent. The human MC is so earnest and trying so hard to do right by everyone, and it’s refreshing.
  6. The Titan’s Bride (#7) by ITKZ- 4 stars, see above
  7. Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher- 5 stars, T. Kingfisher is a fav of mine, and if you want a bug horror book that feels like something Guillermo del Toro might create, this one is for you. It’s more gross than scary, and the MC is a naturalist painter with anxiety, which felt highly relatable, lol.
  8. Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar– 5 stars, I adored this anthology of stories and poetry. El-Mohtar writes fantastic sapphic stories and stories that focus on women’s lives. Her stories are rich with texture and speak to the longing for places you can no longer inhabit or have never been before.
  9. River of Bones and Other Stories by Rebecca Roanhorse- 4 stars, if you enjoy Rebecca Roanhorse’s work or want to read more work by Afro-Indigenous authors, I highly recommend this short story collection. It collects a lot of Roanhorse’s shorter works in one place and highlights her horror and scifi stories especially.
  10. Painter of the Night (#3) by Byeonduck- 4 stars, (CW: this is a dark romance with dub-con) what I really enjoy about this series is the scenery and set design involved as well as the way the artist MC is losing his innocence in regards to the world as he goes deeper into his relationship with the lord he works for.

Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

  • Wrote some of “An Unexpected Christmas” (TRM #4.5)
  • Brainstormed some changes for the Flowers and Flourishing rewrite
  • Graded a ton of stories, projects, papers, etc. for my students
  • Took Katie for her pre-radiation CT scan
  • Took Katie to 3 weeks of daily radiation treatments (1 more to go)
  • Printed, collected, and celebrated my students’ literary magazine and its launch
  • Paid Q1 2026 taxes
  • Participated in the Narratess Sale
  • Sent out newsletter
  • Blogged weekly
  • Had to put a new battery in my car .-.
  • Realized I was burning out and tried to mitigate the damage by slowing down

Blogs

Writing

There isn’t much to say here. I posted about this more on Instagram, but I ended up realizing I was burnt out due to the emotional stress from February onward. I hadn’t dealt with the grief and other feelings I was having, and that combined with work stuff and the chaos of the US government caused me to inch closer and closer to burn out the more I tried to force myself to write. Halfway through April I decided to put all my creative stuff on hold until I could decompress a little, which means when the semester ends and Katie’s treatments are over. They have been slowly stressing me out more and more. I plan to start writing again in May, but I’m giving myself the space to just exist for a bit and refill the well.

Hopes for May

  • Write more of “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Brainstorm more changes for Flowers and Flourishing before I rewrite it
  • Finish grading/turn in grades
  • Finish Katie’s radiation treatments
  • Figure out next steps for that
  • Take partner to get glasses
  • Plant pumpkins and peppers
  • Continue to avoid burnout
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Monthly newsletter

new blog post: 10 Books to Add to Your TBR 2026 Edition Part 1 10 Books to Add to Your TBR 2026 Edition Part 1
Book Reviews

10 Books to Add to Your TBR 2026 Edition Part 1

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

Every year I make a running list of books I really enjoyed throughout the year that I would recommend to my friends and readers. These aren’t necessarily books within the genres I write, just ones I enjoy. I have tried to give you some info about why I enjoyed them, so use your best judgement and make sure to check for CWs online if you have things that bother you. The links below are affiliate links, so I get a small kickback if you buy something.

  1. Nobody’s Baby (#2) by Olivia Waite- You do need to read the first novella in the series to get some context for the characters and the world, but I absolutely loved this mystery. If you want a break from murders, check out “random babies oopsed into a space journey full of supposedly sterile reincarnated people.” It was an interesting concept and a fun story, even for someone who isn’t a fan of babies (aka me).
  2. Me and My Beast Boss by Shiroinu- This is an ongoing manga series about a human woman in a world full of half-beast people where humans are seen as lesser. She is desperately trying to carve a path at work only to be abused and overlooked until a full-beast man (a lion who happens to be the boss of the company) takes an interest in her. The story is a bit of an office procedural (think Phoenix Wright but office politics instead of law) with a dash of slowburn romance thrown in.
  3. Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti- Technically, this is the third book in a series, but I think it can be read on its own without losing much. It’s a sapphic romance featuring two Gothic novelists who have accidentally written very similar books only to find out, during the confrontation over literary theft, that they knew each other years ago. The two women’s lives were up-ended by the one’s horrid father, but together, they visit a spooky manor and eventually come to realize their lives can be so much fuller together.
  4. The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore- this is McLemore’s first adult novel and thriller, and I loved it. It’s a slowburn where we get the intricacies of a mommy-blogger’s family before we get into the who and how of the story. It’s as much about the mystery of who killed Mother May I’s fitness bro second husband as it is about the destructive nature of family vlogging. I absolutely loved the way the characters were fleshed out and how the shapes of their lives are juxtaposed against their mother’s expectations and control. If you’re expecting a more shallow, plot-centric thriller, this isn’t for you. If you want family dynamics and a commentary on online spaces from a queer Latinx author, snap it up.
  5. Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian- I saw way too much of myself in Simon: picky, prickly, chronically ill, and horribly anxious. I love the way Simon and Charlie navigate their relationship as two anxious people who have plenty of mental baggage. Costars turned lovers after a road trip to make sure Charlie’s step-dad isn’t dead was a storyline I didn’t know I needed. These two are just such messes, and I love them immensely. Cat Sebastian is so good at building emotional intimacy.
  6. The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko- a fairytale-esque story about a disabled made with vitiligo who catches the eye of a man who is slowly turning into a crocodile. It’s equal parts Beauty and the Beast and a tale of making the world into a better place, from the lowest people in society to the highest. I think it’s more enjoyable if you’ve read Ifueko’s Raybearer series, but without having read it recently, I understood what was going on.
  7. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe- I am very late to the party, but if you are queer or questioning your gender, I highly recommend this graphic novel. It definitely had me feeling some things because Kobabe’s experience was very relatable as an agender, lightly masc person. The comic is a quick read packed with a lot of gender and sexuality feelings.
  8. Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher- I make no secret about my love of T. Kingfisher’s work, and this was one of those horror(ish), Gothic stories that just hits. I loved Mexican Gothic for its atmosphere, and Wolf Worm has that same vibe but with insects. There’s an unsettling history surrounding the house and town, animals acting uncanny, parasites, and a man with plenty of secrets. I’m not a huge scary horror fan, so if you’re a chicken who prefers the unsettling, this is for you, especially if you like your horror historical.
  9. Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar- this is an anthology of El-Mohtar’s shorter works, and I was absolutely blown away by it. It is a fantastic mix of fairytales, myths, sapphic pining, poetry, and yearning for places you can never know. I don’t think there was even one work in this anthology that I didn’t think was fantastic. El-Mohtar is quickly becoming a favorite for me as her work always leaves me a little devastated and wanting more.
  10. River of Bones and Other Stories by Rebecca Roanhorse- I promise the next list will not be exclusively anthologies, but I really enjoyed this one as well. I am a big Rebecca Roanhorse fan, and I snapped up the anthology of her short stories as soon as I heard about it. Roanhorse is a Black and Indigenous author who writes primarily horror and SFF (with a bit of a horror edge). The collection is a great mix of her smaller works, some of which I read in anthologies or as an Amazon short. If you liked her Sixth World books, there’s a Sixth World novella from the male MCs point of view.

Stay tuned for more great books to add to your TBR pile!

new blog post: on autism and disability On Autism and Disability
Personal Life

On Autism and Disability

Kara Jorgensen2 Comments

April is Autism Acceptance Month, and right now, I’m reminded of how autism is a part of who I am but also very much a disability. If you want to know what it feels like to be autistic and seemingly low support needs in our society, it’s like being told you’re supposed to juggle constantly, but you aren’t very good at juggling and people keep adding balls. When you’re in front of people (if you’re good at masking your autism or have a job), you can manage to juggle decently for an audience for a while. Sometimes, they even think you’re good at it, but the second you’re alone, you start dropping balls and getting mad at yourself for doing so. No matter how much you practice, you really aren’t good at it, but if the conditions are perfect and you’re feeling good mentally, you can manage more balls than usual. The problem is that other people see that, assume you can do that all the time like they can, and get mad at you when you can’t consistently perform. Is the metaphor a little tortured? Probably, but it serves its purpose.

Right now, I’m juggling a lot of balls, my arms are tired, and I think some of the balls might be on fire. That’s the problem with being a seemingly low support needs autistic person with a master’s degree; people assume you are consistently fine and expect you to perform as such. When I was younger, I used to be able to hold it together to the end of the semester, and once it ended, I would crash and be completely unable to function for like a week. As a 30+ year old adult, I no longer am able to do that without a very large cost physically, emotionally, and mentally, and I refuse to do so. Unfortunately, I can’t call out sick with autism or autistic burnout.

If you’ve been following the dog saga this year, you know all of the trauma and chaos that has unfolded in my life since February. If you haven’t, the Reader’s Digest version is that my oldest dog died, my middle dog scared the shit out of me by bleeding heavily and spitting out a benign tumor (he’s fine now), and my youngest dog had a soft tissue sarcoma on her nose and is currently going through daily radiation treatments. To say 2026 has been a stressful year is an understatement. One of the emotional components of autism is that you don’t process emotions like a neurotypical person, which means I’m great in an emergency and an emotional wreck on a random Tuesday when I’m suddenly whacked over the head with whatever emotion I should have felt in the moment. When a lot of high emotion things have been going on, I don’t always know what I’m feeling or what I’m upset about beyond overwhelmed. As you can imagine, not knowing what you’re feeling or why makes dealing with those emotions difficult.

In order to deal with that stress, my body has decided that the best course of action is to stay in fight or flight mode 24/7. After weeks of hypervigilance, I am emotionally and physically exhausted. Being in that state makes it hard to get anything done beyond what I force myself to do (like grading papers) and even that is slower than I would like. It also causes my chronic health issues to kick up. Most autistic people have several comorbidities that are tied to connective tissue disorders. For me, this is autoimmune problems and hypermobility that is likely some form of Ehlers Danlos. The autistic burnout feeds into the autoimmune issue which in turn worsens the burnout by sucking up your energy reserves and making you feel crappy. It becomes a vicious cycle until your ability to function is well and truly in the shitter.

More than anything, I would like to lay on the floor with my dogs and watch Kitchen Nightmares or Ghost Hunters for a week straight without a single thing brought to my attention that could stress me out. With our current administration, I doubt that would be possible, but I’m trying to cling onto what functionality I have until the last few weeks of the semester are over. I was lamenting on Bluesky about how I wish Biden was president again solely because I know I would be handling all of this better without the background noise of political chaos. I had major autistic burnout during Trump’s first administration in 2018 to the point that I tanked what momentum I had built with my writing career. I really don’t want to do that again, and the only good thing about experiencing it once is that it’s easier to recognize (hopefully) the next time.

The point of this post wasn’t to listen to me gripe about how my life has been sucky for the past few months but to illustrate that autistic adults who have partners, jobs, driver’s licenses, etc. are still disabled. I appreciate having autism for the strong sense of justice/fairness, the different way I think and view the world, etc., yet I’m still disabled. Our society isn’t set up for people to say, “I need a week long time out because my nerves are fried.” Most jobs will tell you to either take vacation you might not have or to find a new job, and ultimately, this is one of the many reasons autistic adults end up under- or unemployed. If I wasn’t in academia where I work only a few days a week and have summers off, I would be fried constantly. The trade off is that I make abysmally low pay and am underemployed. Most of us would love to find a situation where we could do something we’re good at under conditions that don’t make us pray for death or feel unappreciated. When we tell you that we can’t do something or that we truly don’t want to, please believe that we aren’t just being difficult. It takes a toll on us that is far greater than what neurotypical people experience, and what’s an inconvenience for you is something that causes us to be less than functional for several days. We save up our energy or functionality and carefully plan how to allocate it, so when plans change or something unexpected happens, we end up paying the price for it.

new blog post: Indie April Sales and a Whole Series Sale Indie April Sales and a Whole Series Sale
Writing

Indie April Sales and a Whole Series Sale

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment
the narratess indie book sale banner indiebook.sale fantasy, scifi, and horror, April 11-13th

I know this isn’t my usual posting time, but I wanted to make sure you all know that some of my books are on sale!

Every year during Indie April, I am a part of the Narratess Sale, where you can grab hundreds of books by indie authors for less than $1.99. You can check them out through this link.

There are also plenty of book bundles on Itchio for different genres or series, which you can find on the website. My book is in one of the fantasy bundles.

On top of all of that, The Reanimator’s Heart (TRM #1) is currently $0.99 at all major retailers and in most regions. You can also grab all of the books in the series for $1.99 or $2.99 for a limited time. Grab them through the links below.

The Reanimator’s Heart (TRM #1) for $0.99

The Reanimator’s Soul (TRM #2) for $1.99

The Reanimator’s Remains (TRM #3) for $1.99

The Reanimator’s Fate (TRM #4) for $2.99

new blog post: march 2026 wrap-up post March 2026 Wrap-Up Post
Monthly Review

March 2026 Wrap-Up Post

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

I had high hopes that March would be calmer than February, but spoiler alert, it was not. It also somehow felt like the longest month where I did not get nearly enough done because my brain was in chaos 24/7. But, anywho, let’s see what I foolishly thought I would accomplish:

  • Write the entirety of “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Edit “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Send “An Unexpected Christmas” out to newsletter subscribers
  • Manage my mental health as best I can
  • Juggle a bunch of doctors’ appointments
  • Keep on top of work stuff
  • Send out newsletter
  • Blog weekly
  • Read 8 books

Books

My goal was to read 8 books, and I read 9 this month.

  1. Ladies in Hating (#3) by Alexandra Vasti- 4 stars, this can be read out of order despite being the third book in the series. Two Gothic novelists get into a spat over potential plagiarism only to realize they know each other. A visit to a spooky old house cements their second chance romance as they work together to find a missing teenager.
  2. The Titan’s Bride (#2) by ITKZ- 4 stars, I was dubious about this series at first because it’s definitely a little… size fetish-y (not really my thing), but the two MCs are super sweet together and the storyline is interesting. It’s nice to see them figure out how to help the kingdom and become a better couple.
  3. The Titan’s Bride (#3) by ITKZ- 4 stars, see above
  4. The Titan’s Bride (#4) by ITKZ- 4 stars, see above
  5. The Titan’s Bride (#5) by ITKZ- 4 stars, see above
  6. Me and My Beast Boss (#4) by Shiroinu- 4 stars, a workplace procedural featuring a full-beast man (very scary in world) and his human secretary (very weak in world) as they navigate taking on the systems that work against humans. This is a slowburn romance, and I am loving it.
  7. I Know What I Like by Vincent Price- 4 stars, a memoir told by Price about his journey into the world of art. In our current climate of anti-arts/humanities, it’s really nice to read a work told by someone who is so obviously passionate about art. Dated in places but still good.
  8. Nobody’s Baby (#2) by Olivia Waite- 4 stars, definitely need to read book 1 for context, but in this story, the problem isn’t a death but a life. New humans aren’t supposed to be born, yet one appears on the ship parentless. Our ship detective must find the parents and figure out how and why a new human has appeared all while her nephew falls more in love with the baby.
  9. Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian- 5 stars, two stars on a long-running TV show who seemingly dislike each other take a road trip to find the one star’s missing step-father only to realize they have far more in common and far more chemistry off-screen than either anticipated. I love a prickly, anxious MC falling for a more affable yet complicated MC, and this hit the spot.

Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

Cw: pet illness/medical stuff

  • Waited for Edgar’s biopsy results- not cancer, yay!
  • Took Katie to the vet to get a lump on her face looked at
    • It was cancer- boo, but it’s one less likely to spread
  • Arranged Katie’s surgery to have the lump removed
  • Arranged for her to get a CT scan/radiation in April
  • Set up a GFM because the treatments are draining my savings
  • Spend most of the month vibrating with anxiety
  • Finished putting together the university’s literary magazine with my class
  • Sent it off to the printer
  • Joined the Narratess Indie April sale
  • Kept up with my grading
  • Did my taxes and actually got some money back, yay
  • Took my partner to her one year HRT appointment
  • Took myself to my specialist (yes, it really has been a month of doctoring)

Blogs

Writing

I’m not going to lie, I did not get much writing done this month. As you can see from the admin section, I spent the vast majority of my time running around to different doctor or vet appointments or stressing about dog biopsy results. It has been a rough two months, and I know April will be semi rough too due to the schedule of Katie’s radiation treatments. I’m not sure when they’re going to start, but they will run Monday to Friday for three and a half weeks. That means, I will be running around most of the month. The good thing is that I can use the time I’m waiting for her treatments to be done to get work done since I’ll be waiting in the parking lot to pick her up (they only take an hour or so). I’m hoping that April will be when I can get back into a routine and knock out “An Unexpected Christmas.” I think this story will be really cute, and while stressful for poor Oliver, it ends well.

Hopes for April

  • Write the rest of “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Edit “An Unexpected Christmas”
  • Rewrite some of Flowers and Flourishing
  • Take Katie for her CT scan
  • Take Katie for her radiation treatments
  • Maintain my mental health as best as I can
  • Finish grading for my classes
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out monthly newsletter (with AUC)