Tag: the reanimator's soul

The Reanimator's Soul is available for preorder! The Reanimator’s Soul is Available for Preorder!
the reanimator's soul · Writing

The Reanimator’s Soul is Available for Preorder!

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

As the title says, I have officially put The Reanimator’s Soul, book 2 in the Reanimator Mysteries series, up for preorder at all major retailers! Right now, you can only preorder it in ebook form, but the paperback will be available closer to release day.

Speaking of release day, The Reanimator’s Soul comes out October 24th, right in time for an atmospheric Halloween read.

The cover reveal will be sometime during the summer, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, check out the blurb below.

An awkward necromancer, his undead love, and the crime that might break them.

Felipe Galvan has been dead for five months, and whether he likes it or not, he’s changing. But with his daughter home from college and Oliver still adjusting to their new partnership, Felipe is more than willing to continue pretending everything is fine.

All Oliver Barlow wants is to be a good partner to Felipe. When they finally get a case after months of light duty, he thinks it will be the perfect opportunity to prove himself. That is until a mutilated corpse leads them to Oliver’s former lover and the Institute for the Betterment of the Soul–a clinic claiming they can cure people of their magic.

Between Oliver’s old wounds and Felipe’s secrets, they stand upon a knife’s edge. If either man falls, they risk losing not only their home but everyone they hold dear.

So what can you expect in The Reanimator’s Soul?

  • Teresa Galvan
  • The tether becoming a problem
  • A less than savory clinic
  • Oliver’s ex
  • And of course, a strange corpse
an aesthetic. it has a momento mori skull, a victorian man reading a book, a creepy Victorian house, "i am someone who did not die when I should have died," an antique map of New York, "there are times when I am convinced I am unfit for any human relationship," antique medical tools, victorina man in his shirtsleeves, an anatomical drawing of the brain

I’m greatly enjoying writing this book and hope you all will enjoy it. If you haven’t read book 1, The Reanimator’s Heart, yet, it’s available in ebook and paperback at all major retailers. Or if you did read it and want some more time with Agatha and Louisa or Felipe and Oliver, newsletter subscribers get Flowers and Flourishing, a sapphic novella, and “An Unexpected Valentine,” which takes place three weeks after The Reanimator’s Heart.

In future blog posts, I’ll talk more about The Reanimator’s Soul, so stay tuned! If you’re interested, you can add it on Goodreads or preorder it at your favorite retailer.

new blog post: on false starts On False Starts
Writing

On False Starts

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

This is part of the process, this is part of the process, I remind myself every time I start a new book.

Without fail, I have a false start. I know why I have false starts; I just don’t like that I do. Typically, this happens because I am excited about the book and want to dive into it, but I haven’t actually gotten to the point where I know where I’m going or what the larger point is of something I mention early in the story. Or I have an idea of what I want to say and where I’m going, but I mess up what point of view it’s from. Usually, I realize this halfway through writing the scene when things feel off.

I am neither a pantser nor a plotter but some secret third thing. I like to think of my writing process as gardening. I start out with a basic idea of what I want to accomplish, what the end goal is, and sort of let things happen as they may while pruning and prodding the plot to make it cohesive. Plots and plants need shaping and scaffolding sometimes. While writing, I do have a very basic act by act outline where I plan the main points of the plot (or the key beats) and I also keep a stack of note cards with a bunch of scenes on them that I know I want to use in my story. Sometimes I pull them out to move stuff around or figure out where I need to go next.

The problem is that I need the beginning to be solid before I move on. I know there are plenty of writers on the internet who will be like, “No, you must move forward! You must keep going no matter how messy it is because progress is progress.” Yes, that’s great, but that doesn’t work for me. If the foundation isn’t solid and the beginning doesn’t feel at least somewhat tidy and logical, I can’t move forward. This means I spend a lot of time futzing with the opening chapters of my books until I hit about 10,000 words. From there, everything seems to flow better. I would much rather mess with the opening chapters and get the book on a decent foundation because everything flows from those opening scenes. They set the stage for everything else, so they need to make sense. I also do another editing session at the 25-33% mark for added cohesion.

The false starts have become a part of the process as I’ve grown as a writer, but I’m still coming to terms with “wasting words.” It’s hard for me to give in and say, “Okay, this isn’t working. Let’s restart.” My brain would like to push through and keep going, but sometimes rewriting a chapter is easier than fixing it piece by piece. That’s what happened with The Reanimator’s Soul. I got a chapter and a half in and was not happy with it. At first, I wasn’t 100% sure where things had gone wrong, so I put it aside to write “An Unexpected Valentine.” Sometimes a palate cleanser is necessary for clarity. Once I finished that short story and reread what I had written of The Reanimator’s Soul, the issues were glaringly obvious. The prologue needed beefing up, and the first chapter was in the wrong point of view. I went back and rewrote the prologue chunk by chunk and totally restarted chapter two. Between finishing “An Unexpected Valentine” and doing the rewrites, I had also worked a bit more on my outline and note cards, so things were clearer.

The question I had for myself was, “Would I have figured this out if I had just waited a week or two to start The Reanimator’s Soul instead of diving in headfirst and making a mess?” and the best answer I can give is no.

For me, those false starts are part of the process. They help me tidy up the ideas I have and sort of troubleshoot things that don’t work in a way I probably wouldn’t have figured out through thinking or outlining alone. Some things sound great on paper but just don’t work in the actual story. Other times, you think you could do A or B, so you just pick one and pick the wrong one. Oops. So far, false starts have happened for the past four books I’ve written, and I’ve probably done the same for more, but I just don’t remember them.

At some point, you have to figure out where optimization ends and the process begins. You can’t eliminate all the mess in the writing process, so sometimes we have to acknowledge that we need to write through a little chaos to find the gold that comes after. Knowing this also helps you better estimate how long certain parts of the process will take. For me, I always know act one will always take twice as long as any other part of the writing process, and I can live with that.

New blog post: january 2023 wrap-up post January 2023 Wrap-Up Post
Monthly Review

January 2023 Wrap-Up Post

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

Phew, January has been one of those months where it is a mad dash toward the finish line, but it has also been one of the best months I have had in a while. Writing/editing Flowers and Flourishing went well, and that’s been sent out to my newsletter subscribers. The spring semester started, and my students seem like a good bunch (hopefully energetic and interested too). Best of all, I feel like I’m finally coming out of my winter exhaustion. Anywho, let’s take a look at the goals or aspirations for January that I made last month

  • Figure out how quarterly taxes work
  • Start working on the second Reanimator Mysteries book
  • Book research
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Finish editing Flowers and Flourishing
  • Send out Flowers and Flourishing with my January newsletter
  • Finally, a little relaxation via gaming or art regularly

Books

My reading goal for January was to read 8 books, and I read 10 books.

  1. The Six Deaths of the Saint (#3) by Alix E. Harrow- 4 stars, still loving the Into the Shadows series (different authors each book). The way Harrow plays with time in this short work is superb.
  2. The Kingdom of Copper (#2) by S. A. Chakraborty- 4 stars, you know a book is good when you finish it and immediately dig around to find the next one. It is a doorstop, but it was so worth it, especially if you like Middle Eastern flavored mythology mixed with court intrigue.
  3. A Mirror Mended (#2) by Alix E. Harrow- 4 stars, more broken fairytales with our universe-hopping hero only this time she falls into the wrong story and she must save herself and an unlikely ally.
  4. Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse- 5 stars, so frigging good. An atmospheric mystery complete with angels, demons, and a gritty new world.
  5. Into the Windwracked Wilds (#3) by A. Deborah Baker (aka Seanan McGuire)- 4 stars, if you like Wizard of Oz-esque tales, this series is for you. It is meant for a middle grade audience, but it’s still complex and intriguing for adults as well.
  6. Lost in the Moment and Found (#8) by Seanan McGuire- 5 stars, a phenomenal read about childhood trauma and what happens when you can’t trust the adults in your life, one of my favorites from this series so far (though I love all of them).
  7. Mummies, Cannibals, and Vampires by Richard Sugg- 4 stars, a bit of book 2 research. It focuses on the way corpse medicine was used for centuries, the rehabilitation of doctors as a profession, and the way the rich made use of the poor. Fascinating stuff, writing at times could have been tighter/better organized.
  8. A Garter as a Lesser Gift by Aster Glenn Grey- 4 stars, a Gawain and the Green Knight retelling set during WWII, it does a great job of capturing the original story while keeping it fresh and modern.
  9. Not Your Valentine by Jackie Lau- 4 stars, a contemporary romance where a woman who has had her breakup go viral denounces love only to recruit her friend into being her fake boyfriend to get her friends off her back. You can guess how this goes wrong.
  10. Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom- 5 stars, fascinating look into the history of books bound in human skin with forays into medical ethics, book challenges, fakes, and the history of several examples.

Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

Buckle in, buttercups. It’s been a busy month.

  • The Reanimator’s Heart won the Queer Indie Awards for Best Historical Romance!
  • Officially finished writing Flower and Flourishing (yes, I said I finished last month, but I needed to add/rework some stuff)
  • Edited Flowers and Flourishing multiple times
  • Proof-read Flowers and Flourishing (though I’m sure there are still typos *laugh sob*)
  • Formatted Flowers and Flourishing, set up my Bookfunnel account, and set it up there as a newsletter freebie
  • Updated all my newsletter info to match the aforementioned update/book release
  • Sent out Flowers and Flourishing to my newsletter subscribers (sign-up at the top of the page if you want it or you can add it on Goodreads)
  • Made a landing page on my website for Flowers and Flourishing
  • Announced the title for the sequel to The Reanimator’s Heart, which is The Reanimator’s Soul (add it on Goodreads)
  • Started brainstorming ideas for The Reanimator’s Soul before I start writing
  • Started doing research for The Reanimator’s Soul
  • Spoke at the Romancing the Gothic Book Club about The Reanimator’s Heart
  • Looked into quarterly taxes- more confident about it but also feel like puking every time I think about it
  • Played video games weekly to unwind
    • I started playing Lemoncake but didn’t really love it because I’m not great at those sorts of running around, optimization games
    • Then, I started playing Bear and Breakfast and have been enjoying that much more
  • Finished drafting all my lesson plans/notes for the new class I’m teaching
  • Created all the syllabi and Blackboards for my classes this semester

Blogs Posted

Writing

I’m not going to post my weekly stats again because it’s a weird mix of writing and editing, which isn’t very quantifiable. What I can say is that I started the month at 29k words in Flowers and Flourishing and ended the month at 37k words, which means I wrote 8,000 words. Considering I was absolutely fried at the beginning of the month, I’m really happy with this. Some of these words were brand new, others were fleshing out and/or changing things I wrote in the first half of this book. Writing and editing for me is never a linear process. I tend to do a two steps forward, one step back kind of thing where I write, edit, write, edit, then do a major edit, then write more, and repeat. A lot of people like to zero/fast draft and then start a new draft from beginning to end, but that just isn’t how I work. I tinker with my past writing session’s words as a warm-up before I jump back in. For me, it eliminates a lot of stress at the end when I need to clean up the manuscript since almost all of it has been touched multiple times. While writing this month, I also made a list of things I needed to edit/tweak in a Notepad file and had that open as I wrote. That way, I could make sure I mentioned little things that became important later. Notepad as a tiny, moveable stickynote while I’m editing/writing does wonders.

I also did a lot of brainstorming for The Reanimator’s Soul. In the past, I’ve been bad about actually putting pen to paper with ideas, and then, I get mad at myself when I forget them. The hope is that if I write a bunch of stuff down and pick through it after, it will help me figure out where to start the story and make outlining a bit easier.

Hopes for February

  • Learn more about writing mysteries specifically (research!)
  • Outline Act I of The Reanimator’s Soul
  • Write 500 words a day (14k total)
  • Grade a shit ton of papers with my brain in tact
  • Manage stress
  • Do more art
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out my monthly newsletter
new blog post: my 2023 writing projects My 2023 Writing Projects
Writing

My 2023 Writing Projects

Kara JorgensenLeave a comment

Okay, so let me start by saying, this is going to be more of a “what I would like to do” type list while knowing full well I will not be able to write all these things. What I will do is divide it into “Definitely Doing” and “Would Like to Do” this year. Also keep in mind that the dates associated with the “Definitely Doing” projects are subject to change and are ballpark estimates at this point. My hope is that I can get through three projects this year (even if the last is published in early 2024), but a lot of this depends on the amount of classes I am assigned in the summer and fall.

Projects I am Definitely Doing

Flowers and Flourishing

(A Reanimator and Paranormal Society Romance Companion Story)

Release date: end of January to newsletter subscribers only for free

Size: Novella (about 33,000 words)

Add it on Goodreads

So this novella is the backstory for how Agatha and Louisa met and fell for each other. I have more information about it in this blog post, including the blurb and such. You can join my newsletter here if you would like to receive the novella in your inbox later this month. This story will also be exclusive to newsletter subscribers for a while. The plan is to eventually write a bunch of other shorter works all set in the Reanimator/Paranormal Society world and package them in one book/anthology.

The Reanimator’s Soul

(The Reanimator Mysteries #2)

Release date: late 2023 (hoping for a fall release like last time)

Size: Novel (90k-100k words)

Add it on Goodreads

This is the sequel to The Reanimator’s Heart, which takes place a few months after that book leaves off. I won’t get into too much detail here, but it will feature a new society targeting paranormals in New York City, though in a more nefarious way than the Paranormal Society. Oliver’s ex happens to be in town again, and Felipe is struggling with his new life [again] while his daughter’s in town.

The Reanimator’s Soul is going to be my main focus/large scale project this year, so I expect it to take the largest chunk of time.

Trousers and Trouble

(A Paranormal Society Romance #2)

Release date: realistically, early 2024

Size: Novel (50k-75k)

Trousers and Trouble is the prequel story of when Bennett arrived in Brooklyn, met Ruth and Rory, realized he was trans, and eventually came to the Paranormal Society. This more like a romance of self-love than a traditional romance. The series title is set in stone, so *shrug* we’re rolling with this being more about loving yourself, found family, and friendship, including a bit of a quasiplatonic type arrangement between Ruth and Rory.

I already have some of this story drafted and generally know where I’m going with it. I just put it on the backburner because it required more joy than I was able to muster due to grief stuff at the time. Now, I’m feeling better and hoping to jump back in between book 2 and 3 of the Reanimator Mysteries.

Projects I Would Like to Do

As already stated, I have a finite amount of time in a year, and I basically know how much I can accomplish in a year. These things are overflow ideas that I will probably get to eventually, but if the idea struck and I had time, I might bang them out.

  • An untitled short story about Gale and Head Inspector Williams from The Reanimator’s Heart
  • Start plotting Book 3 of the Paranormal Society Romances as I think it will connect with the story line of The Reanimator’s Soul
  • An untitled short story involving Oliver, Felipe, and the beach because it makes me laugh to think of poor Oliver dealing with sand and seagulls. It also goes well with a piece of art I commissioned of them.

All of the shorter works mentioned would go out as freebies to my newsletter subscribers first until they were eventually packaged into the aforementioned anthology with Flowers and Flourishing.

I am so excited to dive into these projects this year, and I hope you will enjoy them as well! Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes info and updates about The Reanimator’s Soul, Trousers and Trouble, and so much more.