The Steampunk World’s Fair

May 18, 2015 Kara Jorgensen2 Comments

On Friday, I attended the Steampunk World’s Fair for the first time and gave my first reading outside of the university. The SPWF was a blast. It was like stepping into an alternate reality. There were fantastic costumes everywhere, leather, brocade, rainbows, tulle. Women in corsets, men in waistcoats and gauntlets. The gamete ran from highly realistic to fantastical, and I don’t think there was a bad one in the bunch. Along with the fair-goers, there were also bands, panels (I attended a fantastic one about Edgar Allan Poe, which makes me really want to go to the Poe Museum), and shops. My boyfriend and I stopped at the haberdashery, and I finally got a pith helmet. What I find funny is that I always wanted a white pith helmet, and it turns out that the white ones are from the Anglo-Zulu War, which is mentioned in The Earl of Brass.

I ended up not getting too decked out this year. I went as a hybrid between modern and Victorian instead of all steampunk because, as the Awkward Authoress, I was afraid being in a full, rather uncomfortable costume would set my anxiety off. It’s amazing how clothing choice can aggravate anxiety. Instead I wore my corset, black pants, and a biker jacket. Probably a bit more cyberpunk than steampunk, but I was comfortable in my own skin and actually enjoyed myself.

My reading itself went a little less smoothly. I ended up being scheduled at midnight as one of the last events of the night, and by then, most of the fair-goers had cleared out apart from the night-owls and revelers. It made me wonder if I screwed up AM/PM on my sign-up papers. Either way, I wasn’t expecting a crowd since I’m a brand new author with a small following. I knew three people were coming for sure, but I was quite pleased to see a few more come. The weirdest part was that my anxiety really wasn’t too bad. I made myself a little outline of what I wanted to cover before I gave my reading, and while I didn’t have a podium, my audience was very attentive and forgiving of the late hour. Then, it got weird.

What I can only describe as a New Orleans style band marched past my door followed by a parade of revelers from the courtyard. I could feel myself beginning to sputter. The band was so loud that I had to stop and wait for them to pass and ended up losing my place. Of course my stress level jumped, and I was embarrassed that I had to stop my entire program for a few minutes. Then, I said to myself, “Would it be better to pretend the band wasn’t there and shout over them?” No, it wouldn’t have worked anyway. As my aunt said when I told her, this would only happen to me. If something weird is going to happen, it’s probably to me, and a brass band marching through during my reading was not something I anticipated. Oh well.

The best part of the night was that a reader vacationing from Canada came to the fair and attended my reading. I knew she was coming since we message back and forth on Facebook, and she brought me a bag of goodies from Canada. All of the nights woes and anxieties melted away. It didn’t matter that the band played over me because someone actually: A) cared enough to come B) wanted to hear me read C) brought me a present when she obviously did not have to. I’m eternally grateful to her because she was able to squelch all of my fears and regrets and ended my night on a high note. Thank you so much, Lois!

Either way, if you ever want to do a reading or present somewhere, take a chance. Even if the night went a bit awry, it was worth it to get the experience under my belt.

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Writing

Blurb Reveal: The Earl and the Artificer (IMD #3)

May 13, 2015May 12, 2015 Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

Hi everyone,

I have been working on and off on The Earl of the Artificer. Since the end of the semester a week ago, it’s been hard to get back into the swing of my summer schedule. I’m still in the transitional period, so hopefully by next week, I’ll be completely into full-time writing mode. In the meantime, I have [finally] composed the back of the book blurb for The Earl and the Artificer. Typically, I like to write these fairly early on, especially if I know where the story is going. It may change between now and when the book is released, but without further ado, here is the blurb for book three:

After an uneventful wedding, Hadley and Eilian Sorrell should have foreseen the trouble waiting for them at Brasshurst Hall. Eilian wants nothing more than to leave England, but at the insistence of his mother, he and Hadley travel to his abandoned ancestral home to meet his tenants. They soon find the house and the quaint neighboring village are not what they seem.

Behind a mask of good manners and gentle breeding lurks a darker side of Folkesbury. As Eilian and Hadley struggle to fit in with the village’s genteel society, they find everyone is at the mercy of Randall Nash, a mysterious man who knows every secret and seemingly appears out of thin air.

When the village blackmailer turns up dead, the Sorrells find themselves entangled in murder, theft, and intrigue with the manor at the heart of it all. Something long thought lost and buried within Brasshurst’s history has been found—something worth killing for.

I hope the blurb has piqued your interest. In a few weeks, I’ll put up a Goodreads page for book three even though the book won’t be coming out for quite a while (the current estimate is winter ’15 to spring ’16).

As a side note, I’ll be doing a reading at the Steampunk World’s Fair this Friday night, so prepare to see plenty of pics and a post about my experiences after. Please check out the schedule here, and if you are attending the SPWF on Friday, I hope to see you there!

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Writing

Art Inspired by the Books

May 10, 2015May 9, 2015 Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

One of the things I love about having artwork commissioned is seeing my characters come to life. You imagine them in your mind, but no one but you has a clear understanding of what they look like. Over the past year, I have commissioned artist Fiammetta De Innocentis to draw Eilian, Hadley, Adam, and Immanuel, and I absolutely love her work. She has captured my characters perfectly, and I just had to share them with the world.

Eilian and Hadley from The Earl of Brass. — Eilian and Hadley from *The Earl of Brass*.

Adam and Immanuel from The Winter Garden. — Adam and Immanuel from *The Winter Garden*.

couplesketches___happy_b_day_kara____by_fi_di-d7qipel — Adam and Immanuel from *The Winter Garden*. My best friend commissioned this for my birthday

A Valentines Day sketch of Adam and Immanuel.

Adam and Immanuel a year or two after the events of The Winter Garden, strolling along the beach. — Adam and Immanuel a year or two after the events of *The Winter Garden*, strolling along the beach.

I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I do! Commissioning artwork is a great way to support an artist AND get some fabulous artwork of your characters.

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Writing

5 Tips for Beating Writers Block

May 8, 2015May 8, 2015 Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

Sorry for not blogging sooner, but I have been under the weather for the past week. Today’s post will be about the dreaded writers block.

Writers block can be one of the most crippling experiences for a writer, and after experiencing a bout of this recently myself, I thought I would post a few tips that may help to get through it.

Ask, “Would your characters actually do this?” Sometimes being stuck is caused by something as simple as trying to force a scene. Step back for a minute and think about how the scene can be reworked. Is your character doing something out of character? This can be the bane of a plotter’s existence because they have their outline and want to stick to it, but at times, a character can be whispering to you that they don’t want to or wouldn’t do what you are intending them to do.
Free write. Is another story knocking at your brain but you’re 2/3 into another one and don’t want to give up on it or throw yourself into a new project? Take a few minutes to let the scene out. Save the file in a separate folder of scraps or future projects and let it go. You can always revisit it when you’re finished with your current project, but for now, it’s out of your brain and on paper for later.
Make an outline. Sometimes you need to see it on paper to get going. It’s often a case of where have I come from and where am I going? Draw out what you have thus far and then where you know you have to go. Typically, I use a blank sheet of printer paper and a brightly colored pen to stimulate ideas and remove constraints (no idea why it works but it seems to). Don’t put the future points too close together, leave space to fill-in with ideas. What do your characters need to do and how do we get them there?
Look for visual inspiration. You have ideas, you know what you need to do, but the spark just isn’t there. Try going onto sites like Pinterest or Tumblr and looking for pictures that have to do with your story. If it’s set in the Victorian era, look up historical photos or vintage clothing. Is there a celebrity who looks like your characters? Look them up. Throughout the writing process, I create a Pinterest board of inspiration and look to it when I’m feeling stuck or meh about my writing.
Read. One of the best pieces of writing advice I have ever gotten is to read. Reading will not only stimulate ideas, but it will be a refresher for craft. How does the author get to the climax? How are the characters built with depth and how do we find out about them? Read authors who inspire you and see how they did it. Learn from the masters, and let their words power yours.

Hopefully this helps you in your writing. The block is often caused by stress or fatigue and not laziness on the author’s part, but when you feel stuck, try some of the tips mentioned above and see if they help get you through. If nothing else, go for a walk and clear your head.

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Personal Life

Don’t Be Cruel to Each Other

May 4, 2015May 3, 2015 Kara Jorgensen4 Comments

I can’t say it enough. Don’t be cruel to each other. It doesn’t matter who, whether they’re male, female, transgender, gay, straight, black, white.

Over the last few years, we’ve heard stories of young people killing themselves after being bullied. At first, it seemed to cause a sensation, but now, we let out a collective “Awe, what a shame” and go on with life. It shouldn’t be that way.

We should be asking ourselves why this is happening and try to stop it. We can try to instill in the next generation that no matter race or sexuality, we are all human and should be treated as such, but we need to start with ourselves.

It makes me sick to think that someone is sitting in their room or their car or their school bathroom crying at this moment because of something miserable someone said to them that isn’t even true. You’re fat. You’re worthless. You’re stupid. You’re retarded. You’re too short. You’re too tall. You should kill yourself. No one should hear these things, and there is no need for anyone to ever say them.

Words are the most powerful force in the universe. They can raise and lower mountains, build worlds and crush spirits. We must choose our words carefully because their impact is irreparable. Can you think of something someone said to you that hurt you deeply? Was it years ago? Yet, you still remember it. You’ve felt the effect of it yourself, so now imagine someone saying that to you every day. How would you feel to have your self-worth stripped away constantly? It doesn’t matter how many times someone tells you you’re amazing or pretty or smart because you still remember that awful thing someone said to you, and that will always cling to your mind.

So how do we begin with ourselves?

Watch your words. Some of us have a quicker filter than others and can stop ourselves in time from saying something unkind, but the first step to strengthening that filter is a bit of foresight. Think about what you’re going to say before you say it, and does it need to be said? Not to make you feel better but to help the other person. Will it hurt them? Would it hurt if someone said it to you? It’s such a simple thing, to think of how we would be affected, but it’s shocking how often we don’t do it.

If you see someone else abusing another person verbally, step in and say something. Nip it in the bud. Don’t be abusive back, but stand-up for the other person. Tell them it isn’t right to treat someone that way and why. Try to defuse the situation and give the other person comfort and support. Ask them if they’re all right. What would make you feel better? The best outcome is that the bully/abuser will back off and hopefully think twice about doing it again, and the other person will remember that someone stood-up for them and not that their worth was stripped away once again.

You never know how powerful your words could be. You could destroy or save someone, but which would you choose? I should hope you would want to stand-up for someone because if you were in that situation, wouldn’t you want someone to help you? It’s such a small thing.

Monthly Review · Writing

April 2015 in Review

May 1, 2015April 30, 2015 Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

Starting in January, I decided it would be a good idea to look back at each month and see what I have accomplished in my writing and marketing as well as reflect upon what needs to be improved in the future.

April was a crazy month. At the university, it’s crunch time for papers and projects along with a deluge of events. I think I spent more time at the university than I ever have in my past year and a half there. With all of these extra curricular activities, I was a tad stressed out. Okay, a lot stressed out, which led to me buying quite a few books. I have no shame regarding that, but I don’t think I should have rewarded myself for not getting as much done as I hoped.

What I did accomplish:

Finished reading for class and turned in portfolio
50% done with final paper (I’ve been bad about finishing this)
My thesis portfolio was accepted
Learned more about marketing by reading Joanna Penn’s How to Market a Book and Tim Grahl’s Your First 1000 Copies
Scheduled a 99 cent sale for The Earl of Brass from May 22nd-26th
The Winter Garden has 6 Amazon reviews and 7 Goodreads reviews
Sent out my first newsletter

Goals for May:

Write 3-4 chapters of The Earl and the Artificer
Do a preliminary edit on the chapters I write
Read 3-4 books at least
Stay positive and work on stress (as always)
Do well with my reading at the Steampunk World’s Fair
Get my art commission done

I think I’m most excited about the last one. One of my favorite artists opened her commissions again, and I jumped at the chance to get one. At first, I was wait-listed, but she added more slots to allow me a few others to get in. I won’t give too many details, but it will be Adam and Immanuel from The Winter Garden. As much as I’m looking forward to (and dreading) the Steampunk World’s Fair, I am super excited about more artwork of my characters. The date and time of my reading at the Steampunk World’s Fair will come in a few days. They’re still working on the schedule.

Anyway, April has been a difficult month for me. Everything was due for class, so I quickly polished off the books I needed to read and started my papers and portfolios. This means I have only been able to write one chapter. Luckily, by the end of the first week of May I should be able to really get back into writing book three. In my last post, I discussed how book three has been my problem child, and it really has been. For me to write, I need to figure out what story within all of my random ideas I would truly like to read. Otherwise, the book is stilted and just not fun to write. After having a discussion in the car with my boyfriend last night, I feel that I have a better handle on where it’s going. I’m sure I’ll still pester my bestie some time this weekend about it.

I know I’ve set myself a somewhat rigorous schedule for May in terms of writing, but I think with time on my hands and a plan, I can get through at least three chapters. I tend to be a slow writer because I hem and haw over every word, yet I’ve gotten through that much before in a few weeks when I was really determined. The hidden “to-do” is to figure out the rest of my major plot points and get maybe the next five chapters mapped, so I can hit the ground running when I start writing in the next few days.

Last month, I gave myself the goal of working on managing my stress. I didn’t. I was a mess this month. Part of me doesn’t want to rely on excuses, but this month was insane. It seemed like I was constantly on the go. I was definitely stressed out, so much so that I threw my body out of whack. I really don’t want that to happen in May, so I will try to take things as they come and not freak out. This is partially why I gave myself the goal of reading a few books this month. I need to take time to read something good to engage my mind and imagination and to unwind a bit. Reading always helps me focus and inspire my writing. Some books I’m hoping to get through are: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, A Case of Possession by K. J. Charles, Auraria by Tim Westover, and Possession by A. S. Byatt. It’s an eclectic mix, but I’m dying to get to them.

So what are your goals for April?

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Personal Life · Writing

Errant Plots and Acccepted Proposals

April 29, 2015 Kara Jorgensen3 Comments

The other day I received an email from the director of my graduate program that my thesis proposal was approved! Not only that, but she wanted the file to use as an example of what a proper MFA thesis proposal should look like. I beamed with pride for most of the day, and I feel as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. In the fall, I will officially begin my thesis and finish up with my MFA in May of 2016, which really means I’ll be going into book three full force as soon as possible.

Part of the reason I hoped my proposal would pass in one shot is that I am trying very hard to separate myself from what I wrote in it about book three. For the professors to approve your proposal, you need to show that you have your shit together and are really prepared to take on a big project and actually finish it, so you have to provide a lot of info about your work even if you really haven’t thought it through yet. It’s all subject to change (thank god), but I had to do quite a bit of cooking up of ideas in a brief amount of time. Now, my very anal analytical side wants to take all of my half-assed ideas from the proposal and check them off, but I know it won’t turn out well. The ideas I wrote down aren’t forming the story I would like to read.

Because of this, I know I need to take a step back and re-evaluate my ideas and where the story is going. It’s been on the backburner for about three weeks while I was working on classwork, but now that the semester is wrapping up, I can finally go back to it. It feels great to be able to finally go back to my writing after a self-imposed hiatus, yet it’s daunting knowing that I need to figure this out before moving forward.

My writing style is somewhere between plotting and flying by the seat of my pants. I don’t like to plot the whole thing out, but I need to know where I’m going before I begin writing a chapter. This system gives me structure but allows for fluidity and for my characters to stretch their legs a bit.

At the moment, I feel a bit lost with The Earl and the Artificer. I have a few chapters done, which are shaping up to be a good foundation, but it feels like an insurmountable task to figure out where I’m going. The good thing is, I say this every time I begin working on a new book and by 10,000 words in, I’m usually fairly on my feet. I don’t think the anxiety goes away until I’m two chapters away from finishing it.

I’m also back to reading historical fiction again, which always seems to help. I’ll be outlining and diagramming and creating monstrosities that look more like summoning circles than outlines, but now that my proposal has been accepted and my final paper is well under way, I should be able to finally get into book three. I plan to keep everyone posted on the writing process and what I discover along the way with research or writing or myself, but first and foremost, I must write.

Writing

10 Bookish Confessions

April 27, 2015 Kara Jorgensen7 Comments

To prove that I am a human being and to hopefully connect with my readers, I occasionally like to do “about me” posts. This time, I thought I would write ten book-related confessions about myself. Seems fitting for a blog about writing and books… and writing books.

My favorite classic is Jane Eyre. I read it in 2013, and I was in love with Jane and Rochester (especially Rochester). Since then, I think I’ve read bits and pieces of it about four times. There’s something about a man whose ugly-handsome, scandalous, and willing to dress as a woman just to troll his date(s).
I have a bracelet of some of my favorite novels. Yes, I’m a lit nerd, so much so that I commissioned an artist on Etsy to make a charm bracelet for me of my favorite books. The books in the pic are The Night Circus, The Mummy by Anne Rice, Jane Eyre, Souless, Frankenstein, and Johannes Cabal: Necromancer.
My pets names have a literary theme. My dog’s name is Edgar, after Edgar Allan Poe. My cat’s name is Sherlock (Holmes), even though he’s more like a pudgy, blundering Watson, and my other cat, who passed when he was a kitten, was named Erik after the Phantom of the Opera.
My favorite type of writing is that which is sensual and well-written. I love great plots and I love characters that grow, but what really draws me into a work is being immersed in it body and soul. I want to see it, I want to hear it, I want to experience every emotion that character is feeling. If the sentences aren’t good or the writing is flat, it immediately drops to three stars in my mind.
My preferred format of book is paperback. I’m warming up to ebooks, but a paperback is still my favorite way to read a book. I like to hold it, display it, let others borrow it, and show it off, and with ebooks, I can’t do that. I tend to not read hardcovers because they’re cumbersome to lug around. My bag already is cripplingly heavy, and a two pound book doesn’t help. Also, I just find their bulk harder to hold. That and the ever shifting and sliding book sleeve.
I’m a book-finisher. I can probably count one hand the books I’ve put away permanently because they were so bad. No matter how god-awful the book is, I feel the need to finish it. It may be cutting off my nose to spite my face, but there’s a part of me that still hopes the book will get better. Plus, no one can tell me that I missed the good part. No, my review stands because I read and finished the book.
I will read erotica or romance, but I hate naked people on book covers. It’s a pet peeve of mine. I know sex sells, but not to me. I hate half-naked men and women equally. I don’t want to see your giant man-pecks or your pert derriere. An understated cover that is closer to sensual or intriguing than arousing is more my style. I tend to avoid books like that. This is also why I am on the look out for a better version of Teleny. I am embarrassed by the cover (not only half-naked but hideously drawn).
Of my two books thus far, The Winter Garden is my favorite. I know we aren’t supposed to have favorite children, but I really, really love book two more than book one. There’s been so much personal and professional growth since I wrote The Earl of Brass, but I also just love the characters. Out of all of my characters, I think I connect the most with Immanuel. The Winter Garden is also a much darker story, and as a writer, I thoroughly enjoy writing twisted characters and delving into some rather complex emotions.
I have a thing for fancy bookmarks yet rarely use them. I love fancy bookmarks. Ones with tassels, fabric ones, paper ones, metal ones, ones that are silly, ones that are artsy. It doesn’t matter, I want them. Oddly, I tend to use scraps of paper or folded post-its most often. Over the years, I’ve lost a lot of beautiful bookmarks, so now, I’m afraid I’ll lose them. Currently, I’m actually using adorable silicone seedling bookmarks my cousin got me.
My favorite genres are: historical fiction, historical fantasy, and Gothic horror. When I say Gothic horror, I’m thinking like Dorian Gray or Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Horror with some upper class panache. If the book has a tie to the past and is able to submerge me in it from cover to cover, I’m sold.

Well, there you go. Ten bookish things about the Awkward Authoress.

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Uncategorized

Woman in a Cage: A Steampunk Feminist’s Perspective of the Victorian Crinoline

April 26, 2015 Kara Jorgensen2 Comments

Great article about the manifestation of women’s role in society through fashion.

Cogpunk Steamscribe

A modern reconstruction of a crinoline

The basic structure of a crinoline is a cage, so a woman wearing a crinoline is actually trapped inside a cage, unable to run or move about freely. If there was ever a more powerful metaphor to sum up the restrictions of a Victorian woman’s existence, I can’t think of one. As both a writer and a feminist, to me the crinoline sums up worst behavioural excesses of the Victorian era.

Steel-cage crinoline circa 1858.

Some styles of crinolines even resembled bird cages. What an image … thousands of women walking around inside their cages, unable to accidentally brush up against a fellow human being. struggling through doorways, constantly having to be aware of their surrounding in case they knocked over furniture or small children. I know I’d be on edge. as I am not the mot graceful woman to start with. And oh…

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Writing

Rediscovering My Inner Reader

April 24, 2015April 23, 2015 Kara Jorgensen5 Comments

One of the things I remember clearly about my senior year of high school was how many books I read. I devoured book after book. Mysteries, suspense thrillers, classics, it didn’t matter. If I owned it, I read it, and I plowed through my to-be-read pile faster than ever. Then college happened. A double major, papers, assignments, studying anatomy and novels, and taking between six and eight classes a semester took their toll. When could I squeeze in time for reading? I couldn’t. Even the summers I used to get ahead in my fall literature classes. Reading for fun was but a memory.

In November, the little nagging voice in the back of my head began to call out, “Read something! Read something!” So of course, I started to sort through my books for grad school and realized I had finished my reading list early. With a pang of guilt, I picked up a book I had been meaning to read since I got it for my birthday. It was the first time I had read a book during the school year in ages. It was like a sigh of relief. No having to constantly analyze the text (though I tend to do that passively anyway), no deadlines, no books I didn’t want to read.

When the semester at the university began again, I thought that was the end of my pleasure reading since I surely wouldn’t have time for it. Most people who stop reading for pleasure say it’s due to a lack of time, but I began to find times when I could read the books I wanted. Here are some ideas for reviving your inner reader:

Read during your commute. Thinking back to senior year of high school, I realized a lot of my reading was on the bus to and from school. Nowadays, I drive myself to the university, so sadly, there’s no reading during my commute, but if you take a bus or train to work or school, bring a book.
Before bed. An oldie but a goodie. You know when you’re playing on your computer when you know you’re past the point of doing anything productive and even Candy Crush is beyond your capabilities? Put the computer away and settle into bed maybe half an hour earlier than usual. It’s amazing how thirty minutes can accumulate into a book or two a month.
Get a Kindle or a Kindle app for your phone. It can be hard to tote around a hard cover or even a paperback novel, but with a Kindle or Kindle app for your phone, your library is always on hand. If you have some free time on your lunch break or between tasks, you can open your book and continue where you left off. You’d probably reach for your phone anyway when boredom sets in, so why not read? Some books even let you download the ebook for free if you buy the paperback, which means you can read it even if you accidentally left the paperback at home.
Read a book you actually want to read. Not to be a hipster, but I rarely like the books everyone is clamoring about. Twilight? Hated it. 50 Shades? Pointless. A Discovery of Witches? Not my taste. Instead of reading what everyone else is reading or what your friend suggested, go to the bookstore (or Amazon) and look for a book that actually catches your interest. You can also preview a book on Amazon, so if you start reading it and are hooked, download it. Nothing is worse than trudging through a book you hate, and it’s much easier to get into a book and make time for it when you actually want to read it.
Read in the bathroom. I can already hear the resounding ewww. Do you go on Facebook or Twitter on your phone while you’re doing your morning routine or are taking a bath? If so, then get on that Kindle app. I’m a supporter of bathroom reading. As a caveat, I only read MY books in the bathroom, no books borrowed from friends are allowed. That’s just part of the book borrower’s honor code.

Most of these are really simple and probably very obvious, but as someone who read over a thousand pages over the course of two months by reading at night, in the bathroom, and between tasks, I can say that it all adds up. At the end of the day when you think you’re too mentally exhausted to do anything, you may find that reading will actually reduce stress and help to settle you down for the night.

The TL;DR version is find a book you want to read and you’ll find that there are gaps in your day when you can squeeze in reading, you just have to want to do it.