Author interview: Christina Ochs
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Author interview: Christina Ochs

Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

Next up on the tour, Christina Ochs!

Kate Evans's avatarKate Evans Author

Christina2As we continue with our indie book blog tour (co-hosted with Kate M Colby, http://katemcolby.com) today I am very pleased to welcome historical-fantasy writer, Christina Ochs. She writes epic historical fantasy from the passenger seat of a semi truck. At any given time, she, her driver husband and their two cats – Phoenix and Nashville – can be found anywhere in the lower 48. With a bachelor’s degree in History and an MBA, Christina uses her writing to indulge her passion for reading and research. Publishing as an indie author provides an outlet for her entrepreneurial side and she is an avid supporter of fellow authors, both independent and traditionally published.

Rise of the Storm is the first book in the Desolate Empire series, a historical fantasy retelling of the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War. It follows four main characters through the religious and political upheavals triggering…

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Author interview: Zach Chopchinski
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Author interview: Zach Chopchinski

Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

Check out Zach Chopchinski’s interview on Kate Evans’ blog!

Kate Evans's avatarKate Evans Author

On the second day of our 2K international indie book blog tour 2016 (hosted by Kate M Colby http://katemcolby.com http://katemcolby.com & me, Kate Evans). I am delighted to welcome our first indie author for interview, Zach Chopchinski.

LLP_5958Zachary is 27 and lives in Florida with his lovely wife, Layla. The two of them share a home with their four fur-children. Zachary has degrees in Criminal Justice and Criminology. He had two short stories and a poem published by Ohio State University. Zachary has always had two passions in his life, criminal justice and writing. After spending nearly 5 years working in security, Zachary decided it was time to give his other passion a chance. Zachary is very much a family man and when he is not deep in writing, he can be found spending time with his family, playing video games or contemplating his next story idea.

He introduces his…

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Author interview: Kara Jorgensen
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Author interview: Kara Jorgensen

Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

An interview I did with Kate Evans and Kate Colby about my latest book!

Kate Evans's avatarKate Evans Author

It is time to kick off our 2K international indie book blog tour 2016 (hosted by Kate M Colby http://katemcolby.com http://katemcolby.com & me, Kate Evans). I am delighted to welcome our first indie author for interview, Kara Jorgensen.

KaraK picKara Jorgensen is an author of fiction and professional student from New Jersey who will probably die slumped over a Victorian novel. An anachronistic oddball from birth, she has always had an obsession with the Victorian era, especially the 1890s. Midway through a dissection in a college anatomy class, Kara realized her true passion was writing and decided to marry her love of literature and science through science fiction or, more specifically, steampunk. When she is not writing, she is watching period dramas, going to museums, or babying her beloved dogs.

Here she introduces her book,  The Earl and the Artificer (Ingenious Mechanical Devices #3), a historical fantasy novel.

What mysteries…

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Review: The Earl of Brass by Kara Jorgensen

Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

A new review of The Earl of Brass from the lovely Mariella Hunt.

Mariella Hunt's avatarMariella Hunt

untitledIn The Earl of Brass we enter a well-imagined, satisfyingly dark Steampunk London where airships and corsets exist simultaneously. We follow two complex characters as their eyes are opened to the possibility of a different world.

Eilian Sorrell doesn’t want to be an Earl. He wants to be an archaeologist, uncovering stories of cultures long gone. His family’s disapproval makes this difficult; when the airship he’s on crashes and he loses an arm, it seems his dream’s gone up in flames.

Now he must struggle to live life with one hand, relearning basic things such as eating or riding a bicycle. I enjoyed watching his spirits lift as he made progress, accepting the challenges and beating them.

When he gets a prosthetic arm, everything takes a more adventurous turn.

Hadley has watched her elder brother craft the arm in his final hours, wrestling with his sickness. Their family business makes…

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Monthly Review

January in Review

Kara Jorgensen4 Comments

Last year, I decided that I would post my accomplishments for the month and what goals I hope to achieve in the following month.

So January was actually a pretty good month for me.

What I accomplished in January:

  1. Released The Earl and the Artificer (IMD #3)
  2. Ran a promotion on The Earl of Brass (IMD #1) and the rest of the series and moved over 1,300 copies
  3. Read 3 books and a novella, along with school work (Hoarfrost and Maelstrom by Jordan L. Hawk and A Seditious Affair and A Queer Trade by K. J. Charles)
  4. Began my last semester of grad school
  5. Started brainstorming my next project

What I hope to achieve in February:

  1. Write at least 10,000 words of my new project
  2. Read 3 books
  3. Write blogs more consistently
  4. Keep marketing my books
  5. Try not to lapse into the anxiety loop

January Book Haul

Well, I fell off the New Year’s revolution wagon. Big surprise. One of my resolutions was to buy less books and read the ones I have. Well, I’ve been reading the ones I have, but I may have added another foot to the to-be-read pile. Behold, the January book haul! I am really looking forward to reading these books. Many of them have been on my list for months and now I can finally start reading them.

In January, most of my energy was focused on finishing up and launching The Earl and the Artificer. Now that my third novel has been unleashed into the world, I can finally sit down and start working on my next project, which may or may not be in the series. I haven’t decided yet. There wasn’t a lot of writing done in January due to editing and prepping, but I think February will be much better for my writing now that all of my projects are out of the way.

Well, onward to February!

 

Writing

Release Day and Sale

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IMD Sale

To celebrate the release of The Earl and the Artificer (IMD #3), the entire Ingenious Mechanical Devices series is on sale this weekend! On Saturday, January 30th and Sunday, January 31st, you will be able to get the entire series for under a cup of Starbucks.

You can find the books here:

The Earl of Brass (IMD#1): FREE

The Winter Garden (IMD#20): $0.99

“An Oxford Holiday” (short story): FREE

The Earl and the Artificer (IMD#3):$0.99

 

**The prices above are only guaranteed for Amazon US. I’m not 100% sure if the sales will appear on all markets, so please check before you click buy**

Writing

Bookish Favorites

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

We all know what we hate to see in book, but what makes us giddy with anticipation? As a follow-up to my Bookish Bitching post, I will now list 20 things I love to see in books.

  1. Leather-bound, embossed, gilded books
  2. Artistic book covers
  3. A series that matches yet each cover is unique
  4. Vibrantly colored book covers
  5. Old book smell
  6. Box sets for series, especially with pretty/illustrated sleeves
  7. Complex characters
  8. Maps at the front or back
  9. Characters who are romantically involved yet their relationship isn’t based solely on sexual attraction
  10. Books with diverse casts, especially main characters
  11. Antagonists who are morally ambiguous
  12. Atmospheric settings and genres
  13. Male and female characters who are just friends
  14. Authors who write a finite series in a timely manner
  15. Books that cross genres in a unique and surprising way
  16. Books with illustrations to match the text
  17. Characters who are human (have strengths, flaws, dreams, moments of weakness)
  18. Authors who enjoy interacting with their readers
  19. Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes and Noble recommendations that lead to new favorites
  20. Books that hit the spot and make it so you can barely put them down

What are some bookish things you love?

Writing

Bookish Bitching

Kara Jorgensen9 Comments

As readers, we all have things we see in a book that make us roll our eyes or want to immediately put it down. This week, I was inspired by Nate Philbrick’s 20 Bookish Pet Peeves to write my own list. It’s Monday, so why not bitch about it?

  1. Covers that change mid-series
  2. When paperbacks are released six months after the hard cover
  3. Ebooks that cost as much (or more) than a paperback
  4. Highly sexual book covers
  5. Poorly done photo-manipulated covers
  6. Publishers who give authors super short print-runs
  7. Love triangles
  8. Characters will oddly apt names, like a werewolf named Luna Woolf
  9. When side characters are more interesting than the main characters yet get very little screen time
  10. The “tragic queer” trope
  11. Invisible people of color (when characters are only revealed to be PoC by the author AFTER the book has been published and widely read, yet there’s no textual evidence in the book)
  12. Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus
  13. Complex female characters being called Mary-Sues because they can think and act like a capable human being
  14. Books that flat-line in the middle in terms of pacing
  15. Unlikable characters only being “bad guys”
  16. Lack of diversity in many genres (in terms of race, sexuality, gender-identity)
  17. Books with no back blurb, just “reviews” by big name papers or authors.
  18. Authors who put out one really great book and never write again
  19. Certain genres being seen as lesser or more important than others
  20. When the dust jacket won’t stay on your hard cover

What bookish things do you bitch about?

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The Earl and The Artificer, An Ingenious Mechanical Devices novel

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The first review of The Earl and the Artificer is in!

wordsthatecho's avatarwordsthatecho

The Earl and The Artificer by Kara Jorgensen

Where to begin? The Earl and The Artificer is Kara Jorgensen’s third Ingenious Mechanical Devices novel and she successfully brings it once again. Jorgensen weaves together a tale of science fiction, history and mystery, and brings to life characters that are painfully real. Reading these books is a wonderful experience because Jorgensen doesn’t conform to literary conventions. She simply wants to tell a really good story. And with the Ingenious Mechanical Devices series, she’s managing to do just that.

The Earl and The Artificer finds Eilian and Hadley married and on their honeymoon. The scene is set in a time and place that brings to mind BBC’s Downton Abbey, but with more adventure and intrigue (at least in my opinion). Eilian and Hadley are trying to navigate their new stations in society without bothering the other with their troubles. And…

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