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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- April 2026 Wrap-Up Post
- Introducing Myself
- Kara has Gender Feelings
- On Writing Medical Conditions in Historicals
- May 2026 Wrap-Up Post (you are here)
- Monthly newsletter
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
Kara Jorgensen 