Author: 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
new blog post: my 2025 goals My 2025 Goals
Writing

My 2025 Goals

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

I’m not always a fan of yearly goals. Truthfully, I prefer to do 90 day/quarterly goals, but since it’s the beginning of the new year, I thought it would be good to post my overall goals for the year. I have divided the goals into writing, publishing, personal, and other goals. In a perfect world, I will be able to write two full books this year, but these goals will probably be aspirational, and that’s okay. Something I’ve been trying to be better about is not beating myself up when I don’t accomplish everything I set out to do. As long as I do my best at the time, it’s fine, and it will eventually get done. Without further ado, let’s take a look at my goals for 2025.

Writing Goals

  • Write, edit, and publish “An Unexpected Evening” (about 10k, started it at the end of 2024)
  • Write, edit, and publish The Reanimator Mysteries #4 (100k+ words)
  • At least start writing Ansley and Joe’s story (80k? words)
  • Write, edit, and publish an epilogue short story for book 4
  • Write consistently throughout the year
  • Try writing two books at once (maybe)
  • Have 10 2k writing days
  • Have 3 5k writing days

Publishing Goals

  • Publish the audiobook of The Reanimator’s Remains (TRM #3) with Jack R. R. Evans as the narrator
  • Publish/send out “An Unexpected Evening” (TRM #3.5) to newsletter subscribers
  • Publish 1-2 books
    • Definitely publish TRM #4
    • Potentially publish Joe and Ansley’s book, though that may be next year
  • Make more money than I did in 2024
  • Potentially get a new cover for Kinship and Kindness (this may get pushed back to next year if Joe and Ansley’s book ends up being worked on late in the year)

Personal Goals

  • Work on my office since I stalled out on this
    • Get rid of the old furniture
    • Paint the walls
    • Set up the new furniture
  • Get healthier
    • Make more veggie-heavy dishes
    • Continue to lift weights consistently
    • Work up to 10 lb weights when I’m ready
  • Maintain my mental health
    • Be social with my friends online and in-person
    • Play games and/or refill the well
    • Be cognizant of when I’m burning out and take steps to stop it

Other Goals

  • Read 100 books
  • Play/finish 3 video games (I will consider prolonged playing of an open-world game like Stardew as “finishing”)
  • Learn a new craft
  • Learn new cooking techniques/recipes
  • Blog weekly
  • Send my newsletter out monthly

More than anything, I hope 2025 is boring. I know we’re heading into turbulent times in the US and around the world, but I want everyone to reach out to those around them and find people to support them. Change starts with us, so I hope you all turn to the trans, disabled, and marginalized people in your lives and make decisions with their best interests in mind.

new blog post: december 2024 wrap-up post December 2024 Wrap-Up Post
Monthly Review

December 2024 Wrap-Up Post

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

December is a weird liminal space month, especially as a professor. It begins with finals chaos and ends with the strange nothing week between Christmas and New Year. I purposely tried to take it easy this month, despite the goals listed below, and it was just what I needed to reinvigorate my creativity and brain. Here are the goals I made in November:

  • Finish grading finals ASAP
  • Finish Christmas shopping
  • Wrap everything without hurting my back
  • Write all of “An Unexpected Evening”
  • Start brainstorming my next writing project
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out my newsletter
  • Play more video games to unwind/refill the well
  • Get my yearly goals for 2025 and my Q1 goals in order

Books

My goal was to read 8 books, and I read 12 books. The links to the books below are affiliate links, so I get a small kickback if you grab one.

  1. Crabs by Peter J. F. Davie- 4 stars, a nonfiction book about crab species. It’s very interesting and has a ton of pictures. If you like sea creatures, I highly recommend it.
  2. One Night in Boukos by A. J. Demas- 4 stars, this is a mystery, romance mash-up with a soldier and a secretary losing their wayward boss in Boukos. This story cracked me up, and I love the people the characters match up with and that we get to see them in later books.
  3. A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher- 4 stars, if you watched Shrek 2, did you love Big Mongo and Gingy? If so, grab this book. We get a girl trying to save a kingdom one giant gingerbread man at a time.
  4. Black Water Sister by Zen Cho- 4 stars, a story of generational trauma, breaking the cycle, the ghosts of the past (literal and figurative), and figuring out how to not repeat those mistakes.
  5. Something Human by A. J. Demas- 5 stars, this is probably my favorite A. J. Demas book. We get two soldiers on opposite sides of the war who save each other’s lives, fall for each other, and realize that they must work together to save their people. It was just so tender and lovely.
  6. Honey and Pepper by A. J. Demas- 4 stars, a lawyer(?) and a man who works in a snack stall team up to take down a mob boss and save their city from his power trip and evil ways.
  7. Flawless Girls by Anna-Marie McLemore- 4 stars, two girls go to a finishing school, one runs off and the other comes home not herself only to disappear. The story is rich in texture and explores the way we crush girls beneath expectations.
  8. Illuminations by T. Kingfisher- 4 stars, a girl and her friend accidentally unleash a creature akin to the evil creature from Super Mario Sunshine that wants to destroy magical images and steal the magic for itself.
  9. Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher- 4 stars, a young boy is sent off alone to bring rain to the town despite not being more than a child and only knowing a few spells. It’s an incredibly clever story that makes you hate all the adults.
  10. The Moon on a Rainy Night (#6) by Kuzushiro- 4 stars, another fantastic addition to the series, and I love that we get to see the other MC start to realize she may have feelings too.
  11. Venom and Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore- 4 stars, two warring kingdoms realize they have been set up to fight each other when all along they are under the same spell.
  12. The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher- 4 stars, a queer retelling the Ice Queen that has some adorable otters and some gore.

Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

  • Finished my grading and survived to tell the tale
  • Wrote several letters of recommendations for my students
  • Continued weight-lifting and upgraded to 7lb weights (woo! progress!)
  • Outlined “An Unexpected Evening”
  • Wrote part of “An Unexpected Evening” (which I later rewrote… oops)
  • Finished all of my Christmas shopping
  • Wrapped all the presents
  • Set up my bullet journal for 2025
  • Finished playing the game I had started (Botany Manor– highly recommend, it was a lot of fun)
  • The Reanimator’s Remains made it into the Indie Ink Awards (more on that soon)
  • Set up my goals for Q1 of 2025
  • Appeared on the Right Here, Write Queer podcast talking about queer, historical romance

Blogs

Writing

Truthfully, I didn’t write much this month because I needed to rest my brain a bit. It was worth it. Instead, I devoted myself to planning the story, getting my stuff together in regards to my writing plan for the year, and figuring out where I want to go with book 4 of The Reanimator Mysteries series. I planned out most of “An Unexpected Evening” this month, and now, that I’m writing it, I think you all will enjoy it. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a masquerade party that goes wrong? Unlike other parties that I’ve written, there is no murder *gasp* for once. I was struggling very hard with what to write next after “An Unexpected Evening,” and I’m displeased to announce that actually sitting down and writing out what you have to do worked to sort it out in like… five minutes. It’s very annoying how your brain will do donuts for days, but when you put it on paper, it takes minutes to sort out.

Hopes for January

  • Finish writing “AUE”
  • Edit and format “AUE”
  • Pay Q4 2024 taxes (bleck)
  • Set up my syllabi and Blackboards for my courses
  • Send out my newsletter (with “An Unexpected Evening”)
  • Start planning out TRM #4
  • Blog weekly
  • Read 8 books
new blog post: my end of 2024 reflection My End of 2024 Reflection
Personal Life · Writing

My End of 2024 Reflection

Kara Jorgensen3 Comments

Let me tell you, this year was SO MUCH better than last year. 2023 was horrendous, and while 2024 has not been great on a national scale, on a personal level it has been a breath of fresh air.

The word I had chosen for my word of the year for 2024 was “navigate” because I felt like I had been tossed into turbulent waters due to the fact that I was being harassed and besmirched by Freydis Moon/Taylor Barton, and I couldn’t tell anyone. They were a dark cloud looming over anything good that happened to me, and I was constantly afraid that any time I got attention, they would pounce on me. This meant every book release or awards announcement was riddled with anxiety since they did this to other authors they didn’t like in the past. In late April when they were finally exposed by Elle Porter, it felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The thing that had been too afraid to discuss publicly was finally out in the open, and FM/TB could no longer hurt me. I spent the rest of April and half of May vibrating with equal parts relief and anxiety, waiting for the other shoe to drop. My writing slowed to a crawl at the fear of retaliation and while processing all that had happened, but it was worth it. The only good thing to come out of FM’s assholery is that I have picked up a few new friends who experienced the same thing, and I’ve grown closer to another author I have a lot in common because of it.

On the writing front, it was actually a rather good year. Even with the wasted month, I wrote, edited, and published, “An Unexpected Question” (TRM #2.5), The Reanimator’s Remains (TRM #3), and started writing “An Unexpected Evening” (TRM #3.5). There’s always part of me that wished I wrote more, especially since that month off set me back and gave me a lot of stress in October when it was close to release day, but overall, I’m very happy with everything I published this year. The Reanimator’s Heart (TRM #1) and The Reanimator’s Soul (TRM #2) were both in the 2023 Indie Ink Awards, and TRS won for mental health representation, and book 3 is nominated in a bunch of categories for the 2024 Indie Ink Awards.

This year, I was invited to be on a few queer podcasts, I blurbed a friend’s book, and I got to work with some great people, like Jack R. R. Evans, who narrates my audiobooks, and Crowglass Design, who creates the covers for my books. I can’t thank enough my author friends for all the support they provided during all of this (and before and after). I also can’t forget my readers, who made the launch of The Reanimator’s Remains so wonderful. Without you all, there would be no books, or at least no audience for my books, and your support means so much to me. Seriously though, the reviews, shout outs about my book on social media, and the little things daily mean the world to me.

In my personal life, things have been going very well. My partner and I have both been on our own gender journeys, where we’ve been trying to figure out what brings us gender euphoria. During this process, we’ve become even closer. We both still struggle with our mental health and neurodivergence at time (are really ND if you don’t get in your own way regularly? lol), but I do feel like I’ve finally found a path toward better physical health. I have started lifting weights, and it’s been interesting to see how getting stronger has intertwined with my own version of nonbinary-ness.

I’m going to write more about my goals for 2025 in a future post, but with the way this year ended, I’m going into 2025 with far more hope than I did going into 2024. More than anything, I hope you all have a fantastic new year filled with good health, fulfilling projects, safe shores, and supportive people who love you.

new blog post: 2025 Releases to Add to Your TBR 2025 Releases to Add to Your TBR
Book Reviews

2025 Releases to Add to Your TBR

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

Before we get into the post, I want to mention that The Reanimator’s Remains has been nominated in the Indie Ink Awards for best friendship, best setting, LGBT+ rep, mental health rep, disability rep, and neurodivergent rep. If you’d be willing to vote for TRR in at least the mental health, disability, and/or ND rep categories, I would be eternally grateful. You can vote here.

We are getting closer and closer to 2025, and of course, I’ve already started to make a list of books I want to preorder. Since I was compiling that list, I thought I would share it with you all and tell you why I’m excited for each book (books are listed by release date, not excitement level).

A few disclaimers, most, if not all, of the books listed below are trad pub. This is because most indies don’t list their releases until a month or two before they come out. Therefore, I don’t have titles or listings for most of the indie books I’m excited for in 2025. I will post more about them later in the year. Also, the links used below are affiliate links, meaning I get a tiny kickback if you order anything.

  1. Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire- 1/7/25 The Wayward Children series is an auto-buy for me. In this installment, we have Nadya’s story where she falls into a watery world where she is accepted by the river and its people. I can already feel the brackish water of the river and the cold world of a drowned girl.
  2. Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite- 3/18/25 An intergalactic murder mystery aboard a library ship filled with souls and borrowed bodies with an older female detective with queer leanings? Yes, please. I loved Waite’s sapphic historical romances, and I think she will do a fantastic job writing a scifi, cozy mystery.
  3. Don’t Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo- 4/8/25 This is sort of a loose sequel to The Chosen and the Beautiful where Nick Calloway (yes, from The Great Gatsby) realizes Gatsby is still following him. Whether he or Gatsby are human is up for debate. This version of the Roaring Twenties is filled with magic, fae, and monsters, and with all of Vo’s books, it’s very queer.
  4. The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore- 4/15/25 A critique of influencer culture, mommy bloggers, and the ramifications of commodifying your children’s lives overlaid with a murder mystery, The Influencers sounds amazing. Knowing McLemore, the book will also go into race, gender/sexuality, and the ethics of all of the above.
  5. When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley- 4/29/25 This book is illustrated by an absolute fantastic artist I’ve been falling for a while, and I am DYING to get my hands on this book. With a merman, Coney Island, queer romance, a Latinx MC, and an 1910s setting, what more could you want?
  6. Time Loops and Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau- 5/6/25 Ground Hog Day meets 50 First Dates in a time looping romance featuring magic dumplings, a workaholic spinning her wheels, and the man who appears throughout her repeated day that might be the key to getting un-stuck. He forgets her every day, but is there a chance he might remember her?
  7. A Letter from the Lonesome Shore by Sylvie Cathrall- 5/6/25 The final/second book in the Sunken Archive duology follows Sophie and Vyerin as they venture to an underwater city to see if they can find their siblings. The first book was so good, and I’m very curious as to whether or not this book will be told in letters again or if we will get to see E. and Henry again. There’s also the ominous threat of something even more terrifying than missing siblings.
  8. These Vengeful Gods by Gabe Cole Novoa- 5/27/25 A trans MC descended from the god of death must fight to the death in order to receive a favor from the gods and rescue their family. Death, magic, gladiator-style fighting, and queer and trans characters? This is always up my alley.
  9. Vesuvius by Cass Biehn- 6/3/25, I have been following the progress of this book/author on Twitter for like 2 or 3 years. The story takes place in the days leading up to the eruption of Vesuvius where two boys have their fates intertwined and apocalyptic visions become reality. It’s marketed as sort of a YA Song of Achilles, and I am ready to have my heart ripped out and stomped on.
  10. The Memory of the Ogisi by Moses Ose Utomi- 7/15/25 This is the final book in the Forever Desert series. What I love about this series is how we see history that we watched the characters live through get twisted and turned into something completely different by future generations. Each book is a novella, but there is so much world-building and history crammed into a small package.
  11. Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher- 8/19/25 I love T. Kingfisher’s books so much, and the fact that this is a Snow White and Rose Red retelling involving a poison-maker just sold it even harder. To top it off, we get a mirror world that will be *chef kiss* for texture.
  12. Cemetery Boys: Espíritu by Aiden Thomas- 9/16/25 I have been waiting SO LONG for this sequel. Cemetery Boys is a queer YA featuring a trans MC and his brought back from the dead boyfriend (sound familiar?). In the sequel, we have more magical mayhem and monster lurking in the shadows.
new blog post: The Reanimator's Remains is in the Indie Ink Awards! The Reanimator’s Remains is in the Indie Ink Awards!
The Reanimator's Remains

The Reanimator’s Remains is in the Indie Ink Awards!

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment
Voting for the indie ink awards is open! The Reanimator's Remains is nominated in: best friendship, best setting, disability rep, LGBT+ rep, mental health rep, ND rep Vote at indiestorygeek.com/a/indie-ink-awards-2024

I am very excited to announce that The Reanimator’s Remains was nominated for quite a few categories in the Indie Ink Awards, and I still can’t believe it. Seriously, thank you to all the people who nominated it.

Last year, books 1 and 2 won in different categories, and it would be amazing if book 3 could do the same.

The voting is currently open, and I would be eternally grateful if you would vote for The Reanimator’s Remains, especially in the mental health, disability rep, and/or neurodivergent rep categories. The top 10 of each category go onto the judged finals.

Voting is open until the end of the year, and you can vote here. Just make sure to hit save at the bottom of the page after voting (all books in their categories are listed in alphabetical order by title)

new blog post: gender on my terms Gender on my Terms
Personal Life

Gender on my Terms

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know I’m nonbinary. Gender makes little sense to me as a social construct because, to me, people are people, but the moment I’m perceived as a woman (along with all the assumptions that come with that), I understand how heavily others rely on gender and how much I don’t like it. I would feel like I was in drag against my will when I was forced to dress femininely growing up. Dysphoria hits me hard the moment I have to wear a dress or skirt or put my hair a certain way.

The problem is that my gender is like Goldilocks. Feminine things set off my dysphoria hard, but if I go too far into masculinity, my brain rebels as well. I don’t want facial or body hair beyond what I already have or a deeper masculine voice. I tend to just say I’m agender because I would like to put gender as a social construct in the trash like moldy leftovers. Still, I find myself on the masc side but lightly. Can fop be a gender? I want to wear saturated colors, wear my hair long but pulled back, and occasionally indulge in frothy lace. Wearing a frock coat and breeches like Anne Hathaway in Twelfth Night is gender goals, even now.

As someone who struggles with changes, I have sort of eased into being a little more masc. This has mostly been because gender is complicated, and as I mentioned earlier, I get dysphoria in either direction. I also don’t want to take hormones or have surgery at this point. Instead, I’ve been stepping back and started thinking, what do you already have or do that’s a little masc that you want to make more obvious?

I have always thought my very square, straight shoulders look masculine, so I decided that I would work out my arms and shoulders to make them a little more sturdy. I do not want to be swole as the kids say, but I would like to be stronger and have more defined arms. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working out my arms, back, and shoulders nearly every day, and I’ve been enjoying it. In the past, I’ve struggled to exercise due to my asthma reacting very poorly to cardio despite being on stronger meds, but weight lifting doesn’t bother my asthma or inflammatory issues at all. I’m already seeing a little progress, which has been gratifying. The workouts should also help to strengthen my muscles and help control the hypermobility in my shoulders. In the past, I’ve shied away from other exercise because it’s mostly about weight loss or looking more feminine, which I’m not interested in.

For a while, I had been toying with buying a compression bra or binder to squash down my chest a bit. I put it off because a “real” binder might compress my ribs too much, and sometimes, due to hypermobility, they slide out of place, which is very painful. I ended up buying a compression bra from a trans-affirming company, and it has been really nice. I’ve never really liked my chest because it’s oversized, and when people register its presence, they see it as feminine, which I don’t really want. Squashing them down but not completely removing them has been enough to make me happy. It also makes working out my arms, back, and shoulders much easier. While these changes might seem small, they have made me very happy.

When I think of what my gender means to me or what it feels like, it’s masculine softness. I tend to think of characters like Stede Bonnet from Our Flag Means Death or Lestat from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles or even Zorro’s brother from Zorro the Gay Blade. I often joke that my gender is “weird little guy” like Gomez Addams or basically any character Nathan Lane has ever played, which amounts to queer and slightly silly. My gender is tender and loving with an edge of morbidity and strangeness (and probably a few startled yelp-screams as they are the cry of the weird little guy).

My partner is also embarking on a gender journey that will probably look different from mine, and I’m very grateful to be along for the ride to support them along the way. As we get closer to the new administration taking over, I want everyone to remember that bodily autonomy extended to gender expression. We should all be allowed to be the people we want to be or feel we are without government interference, and that includes children. I had dysphoria as a tween, even if I didn’t have the words for it, and if I had been able, I would have loved to have gotten hormone blockers to avoid the dysphoria that came with early puberty. I guess I’ll just end this by saying trans rights are human rights, and children deserve the same right to live as themselves as I and my partner do. Please bug your reps and senators to not throw trans people under the bus.

new blog post: november 2024 wrap-up post November 2024 Wrap-Up Post
Monthly Review

November 2024 Wrap-Up Post

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

This month has FLOWN by. Seriously, where did it go? For me, October dragged, but November managed to gallop past when I wasn’t looking. This has been sort of a decompression month for me after the release of The Reanimator’s Remains, which was very needed. Before we get going, let’s see what my goals were for November.

  • Start working on a new writing project
  • Finish Botany Manor and Love, Ghostie
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out my monthly newsletter
  • Finish the majority of my Christmas shopping
  • Finish the majority of my grading (yay)

Books

My goal for this month was to read 8 books, and I read X books (the links below are affiliate links).

  1. A History of Ancient Egypt Volume 3 by John Romer- 4 stars, a comprehensive overview of the last dynasties of Ancient Egypt. Part of me wished this went further into history when Egypt was colonized, but I understand why it is cut off where it is.
  2. Sinner (#3.5) by Maggie Stiefvater- 3 stars, this one is a mixed bag. The reality show part I loved, but I thought Cole’s dad was sort of out of character compared to how he previously spoke about him. It felt like slightly out of character fanfic rather than something made by the author.
  3. Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween by Lisa Morton- 4 stars, an overview of the history of Halloween up into the modern day. Very interesting, especially in how it dispels myths that were perpetuated by past historians. This is research for TRM #3.5
  4. Glitterland (#1) by Alexis Hall- 4 stars, a novelist grappling with his mental health falls for an earnest and sweet model. The MCs are mismatched, which is what makes it perfect. It was very heartfelt and lovely.
  5. Floriography by Jessica Roux- 4 stars, a primer on the language of flowers. I read the ebook, but the physical edition would probably make a lovely coffee table book. Useful for my Victorian research purposes.
  6. Waiting for the Flood (#2) by Alexis Hall- 4 stars, a conservator falls for a civil engineer who is helping with the flooding around his home. The MC is still recovering from a break up with his long-time partner several years earlier, and we get to see that partner find someone as well since the edition I had contained that story as well. Having them together and seeing their lives separate but intertwined was oddly lovely.
  7. Ennead (#4) by Mojito- 3 stars, I’m still not sure how I feel about this series. There’s a major content warning for rape with this series, and I know mythology is very much like that, but I have a hard time with this one. The Ancient Egyptian gods are compelling and messy, yet I find myself put-off by this series. I’ll probably buy one more volume, and if I don’t love it, I won’t continue.
  8. Black on Both Sides by C. Riley Snorton- 4 stars, a very interesting nonfiction text about the intersection of face and gender identity. It is about trans people, but it also discusses Blackness and gender on a whole, especially in relation to the Mammy figure and other historical stereotypes and such.
  9. The City in Glass by Nghi Vo- 5 stars, one of my top reads for this year. This book is as much about an angel and a demon falling in love over time as it is about a demon’s unwavering love for humanity and hope for the future. It was so, so damn good.
  10. Three Reasons to Run (#2) by Jackie Lau- 4 stars, on her wedding day the bride realizes she cannot marry her future husband and manages to run straight into an unexpected getaway car, his cousin who has had a crush on her for years. He (and his parents) help her get her life in order, but things are turned on their head when she asks him for a one night stand that rapidly turns into more.
  11. Lion’s Tail (#2) by Jordan L. Hawk- 4 stars, a witch and his shapeshifting boyfriend get entangled in a murder when a man from a rival speakeasy dies in the establishment they work in. While one deals with a potential turf war, the other blossoms at a job that may not be the golden ticket it seems.
  12. Monstress (#9) by Majorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda- 4 stars, Monstress is one of those series that keeps unfolding and getting better with each volume. Marika is up to her eyeballs in trouble as her father leads a war and has new, untold powers, but there are far worse things lurking in Marika’s mind and body than she thought.

Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

  • figured out a title for the TRM #3.5 story (“An Unexpected Evening”, which will be out in January probably)
  • made the cover for “An Unexpected Evening”
  • outlined “An Unexpected Evening”
  • graded all the papers I had laying around and didn’t dillydally too much
  • beta read a friend’s book and gave them feedback
  • renewed by healthcare for next year (if you get your insurance through the ACA/Obamacare, now is the time to renew/reapply)
  • freaked out over the election, screamed, cried, threw up, got angry
  • started doing some weight lifting, which has helped my mental health and body
  • finished my lesson plans for my novel class for the rest of the semester
  • started setting up my bullet journal for 2025
  • Contacted my narrator and set up the dates/contract for TRR (it’ll be out in late spring/early summer 2025)
  • bought most of the gifts I need to get for my family, which I’m pretty happy with

Blogs

Writing

For most of November, I took a break from writing. Finishing The Reanimator’s Remains drained my creative battery, and I was worried I would burn myself out if I immediately jumped into a new book or story. I did do a lot of brainstorming for the TRM #3.5 story and started working on it a little along with brainstorming more ideas for the Joe and Ansley story. For TRM #3.5, I’m thinking that I will send it out to my newsletter in January, and it will be released to the general public a month or two after. Next month will be a writing-focused month since I have most of my Christmas shopping and job stuff out of the way, and I’m very excited to get going.

Hopes for December

  • Finish grading finals ASAP
  • Finish Christmas shopping
  • Wrap everything without hurting my back
  • Write all of “An Unexpected Evening”
  • Start brainstorming my next writing project
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out my newsletter
  • Play more video games to unwind/refill the well
  • Get my yearly goals for 2025 and my Q1 goals in order
new blog post: What I Learned from Writing TRR What I Learned from Writing TRR
Writing

What I Learned from Writing TRR

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

Every book is a learning experience. This is something I have been trying to drill into my college students’ heads while teaching my novel writing class this semester. No two projects are the same, and every book teaches you new things. Some more than others. The Reanimator’s Remains (TRM #3) is one of those books where I felt like I stretched myself and came out the other side a better writer. This isn’t a blog patting myself on the back. It’s more so a postmortem on what I think I did right this time.

The Reanimator’s Remains is the third book in the Reanimator Mysteries series, so I was working with characters I had already worked with twice before. This is important because I think being able to grow as a writer can be dependent upon being comfortable in other areas of the book. Knowing who Oliver, Gwen, and Felipe are and being very confident in portraying them made it much easier to step out of my comfort zone when it came to plot level intricacies. I had never really written a plot (or subplot) that relied upon flashbacks. As a creative writing teacher, I know these things can go badly fast. I was worried about how to sprinkle Felipe’s memories into the story in a way that a) feels natural b) doesn’t break up the action too much c) is useful to the story/his characterization. Felipe is a character who holds his cards close to his chest, so the chance of him spilling all of his traumatic backstory to Oliver was slim to none. Ultimately, I decided the best way to deal with this was through dreams (which can be risky in their own way), but the dreams end up tied into the overarching plot of the story, not due to Felipe’s memories per se but something else. Each dream ended with Felipe waking up in a way that scared and/or disoriented him, which helped to keep the tension from dipping after. I think the big thing about feeling like you leveled up your writing is that you’re just more aware of all the moving parts and how they link together. Instead of dropping them, I have been focused on how can one feed another.

The other thing with this book that I think made it a little better than my previous stories is that I leaned into the things my writers like or have told me I’m good at, which comes down to rich descriptions and crying men. I don’t like drama for the sake of drama in books, which is why I hate third act break-ups in romance novels. With this book, we have two established main characters who love each other very much. They are each other’s main vulnerability, and at this point we know their fears. Half of writing The Reanimator’s Remains was playing on Oliver and Felipe’s fears, especially the ones readers are already privy to. This sort of thing upped the ante when it came to the tension between the characters, and even if readers know things will end up all right, they are still feeding off the other character’s fear. My favorite thing to write is the third act mental breakdown (as opposed to a break-up) where one of the characters has to be exceedingly vulnerable and the other has to meet them where they are and accept them for the hot mess they are. It’s a level of emotional intimacy that just makes the romance so much deeper. This book also has a sex scene that isn’t a sex scene, but I won’t go too deep into that because I don’t want to go too much into spoiler land. All I will say is that sex scenes are about being naked and vulnerable, and the sex scene that isn’t a sex scene is all about letting someone else care for you when you struggle to let down your guard.

Something I feel awkward about sometimes is how I write descriptions. I love a lot of detail. My writing influences are very Victorian, which means I enjoy a useful, well-placed description rich in detail. Part of me worries my descriptions are boring or that modern audiences don’t like them, but I have to remind myself that my audience likes a beefy, evocative description. I actually had a reader tell me how much she loved the creepy cathedral in The Reanimator’s Heart, so in book 3, I was like f it, I’m writing a creepy forest, and you all are going to like it. So I went ass-deep into research about bogs, forests, etc. and let the freak fly when it came to my descriptions. I am a romantic goremonger by nature, so I leaned into it in this book with the Dysterwood, the dead people, and the [redacted] mentioned in the story.

As you become more comfortable with your style as a writer, you need to lean into the things that drew people to your work in the first place. Sometimes, you can go overboard, but for the most part, appealing to your readers by playing to your strengths is rarely a bad thing. Do what you do but better. Keep an eye on all of the spinning plates and figure out how to make your narrative work by having the pieces feed off each other rather than act as discrete, separate parts of the plot/construction. Most of all, never stop trying to get better at your craft and learning.

new blog post: 10 Books to Add to Your TBR 2024 Edition Part 2 10 Books to Add to Your TBR 2024 Edition Part 2
Book Reviews

10 Books to Add to Your TBR 2024 Edition Part 2

Kara Jorgensen4 Comments

Most years I put out a list of books I greatly enjoyed from the first half of the year some time in June. This year, I decided to do it early because, besides needing a blog for this week, I have read a lot of good books lately, so I’m thinking of making this something I do more than twice a year (and often forget to do in December). The books listed below are not in any order of favoritism, but I will provide reasons for why you should pick up my ten favorite reads of 2024 thus far.

(All of the links below are affiliate links, so if you purchase something, I get a little money back, just as an FYI)

Here is part 2 of this endeavor! Check out part 1 here.

  1. You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian- Cat Sebastian’s books are always like a warm hug, but I particularly enjoyed Eddie and Mark’s dynamic. Eddie is a young baseball player who got traded and immediately fell into a batting slump (and had a tantrum on tv, oops). Mark is asked to write articles about him in the paper to help restore his image, but Eddie quickly realizes Mark is going through a rough time of his own. It’s a book about grief, loss, new beginnings, and of course, baseball. There’s also a cute, wayward dog and a grouchy old man as side characters- two of my favorite things.
  2. The House of the Red Balconies by AJ Demas- In a fictionalized ancient world, we have Hylas, an engineer, who has just arrived in Tykanos to work on the local aqueduct only to realize there is far too much politic-ing going on than he can deal with. While the governor drags him around from tea house to tea house every night, he finds respite in his new neighbor, Zo. Zo is a dancer at the tea house who is dealing with chronic illness while trying to find a steady patron to give him some semblance of stability. Hylas and Zo compliment each other so well, and the way Hylas cares for Zo is lovely.
  3. A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall- This book is very different from anything I’ve read, and I loved it. It’s an epistolary novel written in letters between the siblings of two people who have gone missing along with those people’s diary entries. The story takes place in an undersea world with a historical/steampunk-ish flare. This story is an introduction to a lush, fantasy world, and I cannot wait to see what Cathrall comes up with in book 2.
  4. When Among Crows by Veronica Roth- This story is under 200 pages, but it is packed with story. We have a magical Chicago, complete with all sorts of creatures (banshees/llorona, zmora, strzygi, Baba Jaga, human warriors, and more). I was pleasantly surprised to realize the MC was queer, and if you like Felipe from my books, the MC in this one will appeal to you. At its heart, it’s a story about atonement, forgiveness, and new beginnings. You know a novella is good when you wish it was longer.
  5. The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark- This book is also barely above 200 pages, but as with all of PDC’s books, it is phenomenal. We have an undead assassin sent to kill someone only to find out the target is seemingly a younger version of herself. Of course, she dips but not before grabbing the young woman. They go on a night long quest to figure out who set her up, what magic yoinked her younger self to the present, and why someone was trying to make her kill herself. The whole story is set against a festival, which just heightens the world-building intricacies and decorates the world in the best way. It’s also funny as hell.
  6. Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher- This is my first T. Kingfisher book, and let me tell you, I get it now. This book was equal parts funny, sweet, and intriguing. We have a stoic knight whose god is dead and thinks of himself a bomb that could blow at any time falling for an anxious perfume maker with a weasel cat. There’s political intrigue, a murderer who decapitates people, gruff paladins, and so much interesting world-building. I am officially hooked.
  7. The Heroine’s Journey by Gail Carriger- We have our first nonfiction book for this round of books. If you are a writer or do literary analysis, I highly recommend taking a look at this one. I had never really heard of the Heroine’s Journey during literature classes, only the Hero’s Journey, so this provided A LOT of much needed insight. Carriger is a writer but also an academic, so she provides a ton of insight, examples, and breakdowns that are not only great for new or experienced writers but academics too.
  8. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston- This is a VERY queer second chance romance between two people who were friends to lovers to not on speaking terms to friends to lovers again. It’s a romance between two people others might deem pretentious but I, as a low key pretentious person, loved. Really, they’re two people very passionate about art and food who don’t make others feel bad while still steeping in their passions. I adored the way McQuiston played on the 1800s European tour debauchery in a very modern setting.
  9. Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall- WftF has recently been rereleased, and I listened to it as an audiobook, which means it came with Chasing the Light as well. The two stories together are a wonderful juxtaposition. WftF is about Edwin, who is still grappling with his partner dumping him after ten years together, having his world shaken up by a flood that leads him to Adam. CtL is the story of his ex, Marius, finding love, and along the way, we get more about why he broke it off with Edwin. The stories (and the side short stories) intertwine beautifully, and I loved seeing them grow while still loving each other after all that time. It is book 2 in the Spires series, but it can be read on its own.
  10. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton- This is a nonfiction book that discusses the intersectionality of race and gender in regards to transgender identity. The book is horrific in its content, but it is a must read if you are trans or like to read academic texts on gender. As someone who is into medical history as well, the first chapter is eye-opening and reframes a lot of what I already sort of knew about medical history in the US. I highly, highly recommend this one.
i won't go quietly I Won’t Go Quietly
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I Won’t Go Quietly

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

For the past week, I’ve been debating if I wanted to write anything about *gestures to the world*, but after giving my creative writing students a pep talk on Thursday, I thought I might do the same thing here.

First and foremost, I’m not going anywhere. If 2016 taught me anything, it was that I am proud of who I am. I am a queer, nonbinary author of queer books, and absolutely no one can stop me from making queer art. I’ve watched so many of my friends be devastated by the news, and all I can be is angry. I’m pissed that we let it get this far. I’m pissed that we spent four years resting on the laurels of the status quo instead of improving people’s lives. I’m pissed that we ripped away the safety net created at the beginning of the pandemic that helped so many. I’m pissed that democratic leadership set the country up for failure by pandering to the middle of the road, which is where approximately no one sits when a basic focus group could have cleared up that misconception. I’m pissed that all of my friends need to live in a constant state of anxiety for four years. I’m pissed that this will further ruin the health of so many people, people who are already at a heightened risk for health problems just because they are part of marginalized groups. Most of all, I’m pissed that I have to justify my existence and the existence of my partner and friends to people who idolize conformity and control.

You can do many things, but you cannot take away my queerness. It will always be there. Our community has survived centuries of criminalization. We have flown under the radar and kept to our corners, but no more. No one is stuffing us back into the closet. We have seen a better world is possible, and we are not letting the country go back. We are not subjecting children to the same rough childhoods we had. We are not letting them hate themselves or become stereotypes to be mocked on TV. Queer is not a dirty word.

Fascism is.

For the next four years, my goal is to make fascists as uncomfortable as possible. I’m privileged enough to live in a state where my rights are fairly well protected, and as a white queer, I plan on using that to be as obnoxious in the face of fascism as possible. I will be writing queer shit, being queer, supporting other queer artists, and supporting my queer students. I will not cower. I will not obey in advance. I will wear a mask and call my representatives to hammer home how important it is to maintain my rights and the rights of my marginalized friends. If they want to make the world a hostile place for people like us, then I vow to be equally kind and soft because in the face of fascism, love and caring for your fellow person is dangerous. No matter what, I will see the humanity in others and protect their rights in any way I can. I hope you will do it with me.