October 2023 Wrap-Up

October was release month for The Reanimator’s Soul, which was equal parts wonderful and chaotic. It’s been a month, let me tell you, but to refresh your memory (and mine), here are the goals I set for October:

• Post/market consistently before The Reanimator’s Soul releases October 24th
• Do all the paperback setup for The Reanimator’s Soul once I have the final cover
• Have a great launch for The Reanimator’s Soul
• Write side/follow-up story for my newsletter subscribers (TRM #2.5)
• Get ball rolling on the audiobook of The Reanimator’s Soul
• Read 8 books
• Send out my October newsletter
• Finish putting together my Halloween plastic canvas village sets (I have one building left and need to hot glue others together)
• Decide if I want to do anything NaNoWriMo related in November, despite it being a month from hell for me usually (aka is Kara feeling masochistic)

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Books

My goal was to read 8 books in October, and I read 9 books total.

1. The Good Kings by Kara Cooney- 4 stars, a nonfiction book that parallels the famous kings of Ancient Egypt with modern politicians and how what often looks like strength actually signifies a weak ruler.
2. Unknown (#3) by Jordan L. Hawk- 4 stars, Ves and Sebastian are back to look for the third missing magical book when men who frequent Sebastian’s favorite bathhouse start being murdered.
3. Lore Olympus (#5) by Rachel Smythe- 4 stars, we get to see Hades and Persephone get closer and secrets finally come to light.
4. Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue by Cat Sebastian- 5 stars, two baseball players come together after one is injured and realize they are more than teammates with a little help from fate and the one guy’s mom.
5. Twisted Tome (#2) by Vanora Lawless- 5 stars, an mm paranormal historical romance set during WWI with a dream-walker and an illusion-creator who team up to find a dangerous book and get far more than they bargained for.
6. In the Pit of Your Stomach by Arden Powell- 4 stars, a choose-your-own adventure story that involves a giant hole, creatures, and maybe even a touch of romance (with a human, sorry monster lovers).
7. She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat (#3) by Sakaomi Yuzaki- 5 stars, a wonderful installment in this series where we get a new friend and a new neighbor who join the foodie family.
8. The Case Study of Vanitas (#10) by Jun Mochizuki- 4 stars, a bridge volume that wraps up some of Vanitas’s backstory and sets us down a new path in the story. I’m still mildly annoyed by the forced heterosexuality of this story when the two leads have the best homoromantic chemistry.
9. The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 4 stars, a fairytale-esque story involving a huntsmen, a poor woman, her wealthy sister, a wolf, and a mysterious stranger. It’s very short, but I am a sucker for Moreno-Garcia’s work, so I will always read it, no matter how long or short.

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Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

• Finished my Halloween Village craft projects (finally, after months of working on them- take a look here)
• Posted consistently about The Reanimator’s Soul (TRM #2) leading up to release day
• Uploaded the final files for The Reanimator’s Soul onto all major distributors
• Setup the paperback copy of The Reanimator’s Soul
• Ordered a proof copy, checked it, and approved it
• Ordered a good copy of The Reanimator’s Soul
• Had a lovely release day for The Reanimator’s Soul
• Reminded ARC readers to post reviews
• Created the cover for the Reanimator Mysteries #2.5 short story
• Came up with the title for the Reanimator Mysteries #2.5 short story
• Wrote newsletter
• Blogged weekly
• Fought with the insurance company over my meds (again)
• Graded a shit ton of papers
• Had my car breakdown (repeatedly *laugh sob*)
• Decided there was no way in hell I was doing NaNoWriMo

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Blogs Posted

• Why Oliver is Important Rep to Me
• A Preview of The Reanimator’s Soul (TRM #2)
• One Day Until The Reanimator’s Soul
• On Not Being the NaNo Grinch
• October newsletter

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Writing

Not much writing happened this month, but frankly, I’m okay with that. This month was mostly spent preparing for the release of The Reanimator’s Soul, so I knew going into it that my word count was not going to be astronomical. In the end, I only wrote 1,000 words of the Reanimator Mysteries #2.5 short story. Do I wish I could have written more? Yes. Am I okay with only having written a 1,000 words? Also, yes. October has been ridiculously stressful, especially once my car broke down. That happened through the majority of the month where the check engine light came on repeatedly (over two weeks), but my local mechanic (twice) couldn’t figure out why. Eventually, it refused to start in their parking lot, and I had to tow it to the car dealer to get fixed by mechanics who know my brand of car specifically. You know once you bring in the specialty mechanics that it’s going to be big bucks to fix, and it was. As of writing this post on November 1st, I’m still waiting to get my car back from the mechanic due to how long it took for a part to come in. The on-going car repair saga completely stressed me out, making it nearly impossible for me to read or write. I’m hoping that November won’t be a No-Words-November and that I’ll be able to get the majority, if not all, of the short story/novella done.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much seeing the genocide of the Palestinian people live online is affecting me. I have made my stance on Palestinian liberation very clear on social media for years, and to see nearly every politician in the US abandon Palestinian civilians to be wiped out by Israeli forces is more than criminal. If you have the energy, please call your reps and demand a ceasefire now. More needs to be done, but a ceasefire is long overdue. If you would like to learn more about the history of Palestine and how British/American imperialism has lead us to this moment, Verso books has several free books available right now.

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Hopes for November

• Less chaos overall (not quite within my control, but one can hope)
• Write most, if not all, of The Reanimator Mysteries #2.5 short story
• Start brainstorming more of The Reanimator Mysteries #3
• Maintain my mental health during November to avoid No-Words-November
• Grade all the papers I receive in a timely manner (I have been bad about this lately)
• Read 8 books
• Blog weekly
• Send out my November newsletter