Monthly Review

July 2023 Wrap-Up Post

Kara Jorgensen

July has gone oddly well until the end when I started to get a little fried. I had a really good writing and reading month, and I didn’t get picked for jury duty, which is the most important thing of all. Let’s take a look at what my goals were for July:

  • Write 25,000 words
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog Weekly
  • Monthly Newsletter
  • Jury duty (UGH) and my birthday (meh)
  • Post the cover reveal for The Reanimator’s Soul
  • Prepare for the summer class I’m [probably] teaching

Books

My goal for July was to read 8 books, and I read 12.

  1. Sailor’s Delight by Rose Lerner- 4 stars, a lovely, low heat novella about a Jewish merchant and a gentile naval officer in the 1800s.
  2. Falling Bodies by Rebecca Roanhorse- 4 stars, a short story/novella set in space that speaks to the issues surrounding trans-racial adoptions
  3. The Ancient Magus’s Bride (#18) by Kore Yamazaki- 4 stars, an action-packed volume with some good reveals.
  4. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang- 5 stars, a fantastic look at how white authors behave horribly. If you’ve been on book Twitter for a long time, so much of this makes sense. If you love a delusional narrator, this one is perfect.
  5. On or Off (#1) by A1- 4 stars, a graphic novel series about a high-powered CEO and the new employee/CEO of a much smaller company as they navigate the power struggles and their own issues. There is a misunderstanding at the beginning, so check the trigger warnings for volume 1
  6. On or Off (#2) by A1- 4 stars, see above
  7. On or Off (#3) by A1- 4 stars, see above
  8. On or Off (#4) by A1- 4 stars, see above
  9. Payback’s a Witch (#1) by Lana Harper- 4 stars, a witchy romcom about a woman returning to her hometown to officiate a magical celebration/games and uses it to get back at her awful ex and finds herself falling for one of his jilted girlfriends.
  10. A Thief & a Gentleman (#6) by Arden Powell- 5 stars, a saucy thief reunites with his childhood friend who is now an uptight man of leisure, but can they meet each other where they are and thrive?
  11. Sappho: A New Translation by Diane J. Rayor-4 stars, an interesting glimpse into how little we have of Sappho’s works
  12. The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamina- 4 stars, a shorter book packed with medical magic, a queer-normative world, and the complications of being conquered and conqueror

Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

  • Survived jury duty and didn’t get picked- did you know jury duty selection can trigger checking OCD? Me neither, but it can.
  • Prepared for my summer class- fixed the syllabus and set up the Blackboard module
  • The Reanimator’s Heart made it through to round 2 of the Book Blogger’s Novel of the Year Awards (I will update you all on the next round when I know!)
  • Did the cover reveal for The Reanimator’s Soul
  • Made a page on my website for The Reanimator’s Soul
  • Made more index cards/planned the rest of this book
  • Celebrated my birthday and enjoyed myself
  • Continued to post daily Tiktoks
  • Announced the audiobook release for The Reanimator’s Heart
  • The Reanimator’s Heart is now available everywhere in audiobook, including libraries
  • Fried myself a bit, but I have managed to avoid burnout by listening to my body
  • Made a to-be-read jar (aka a mug with slips of paper with book titles)

Blogs Posted

Writing

Writing actually went pretty well this month. I wrote 20,000 words, which makes me very happy. I’ve had some mental health lows this month, so at some point, I got worried about how productive I would actually be. Luckily, I’m heading toward the end of the book, and that second half is often easier for me to write than the first half. The good thing is that the words I have put down are solid, so I don’t think I’m going to need to do any major rewrites, just tinkering with foreshadowing and hitting home the major themes and threads. I’ve been doing sprints with my partner, which seems to be helping me stay on task. They do coding stuff while I write, so we both benefit from the body doubling and accountability. Something I’d like to do as time goes on is increase my daily word count, and I think by doing sprints, I can accomplish that.

Hopes for August

I’m keeping August’s goals light since I’ll be doing a lot of stuff for my classes.

  • FINISH THIS BOOK
  • Get through my summer class
  • Prep for my fall classes
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly + monthly newsletter
  • Not lose my marbles along the way
  • Get ahead on blog posts again
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Published by Kara Jorgensen

Kara Jorgensen (they/them) is a queer, nonbinary oddball with a penchant for all things antiquated, morbid, or just plain strange. While in college, they realized they no longer wanted to be Victor Frankenstein but instead wanted to write like Mary Shelley and thus abandoned their future career in science for writing. They meld their passions through their books and received an MFA in Creative and Professional Writing in 2016. When not writing, they can be found hanging out with their dogs watching period dramas or trying to convince their students to cite their sources. To find out more about her books go to https://karajorgensen.com Sign-up for her newsletter and get a free short story: eepurl.com/bfJTW9

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