Better Know An Author – Karen Eisenbrey

Our weekly spotlight series on authors from around the world. These week we sat down with Karen Eisenbrey!

Please give a brief introduction including your name and where you are based

Hi, I am Karen Eisenbrey, writing from beautiful Seattle, Washington, where I lead a quiet, orderly life and invent stories to make up for it.

What book or books have you published or are working on at the moment?

I currently have 5 novels out, in 2 different series (all from Not A Pipe Publishing):

The Daughter of Magic fantasy trilogy was completed in 2021 and includes Book 1: Daughter of Magic; Book 2: Wizard Girl; and Book 3: Death’s Midwife.

The St. Rage YA series is a garage-rock/superhero mashup set in Seattle and includes Book 1: The Gospel According to St. Rage and Book 2: Barbara and the Rage Brigade.

I also have short stories and flash fiction in several anthologies, including Strongly Worded Women and Shout.

What drives you to write?

I have always loved stories. When I get an intriguing idea, I just want to follow it through until I know how it comes out. Then I want to make it as good as I can so other people will want to read it. Now I have a lot of characters who I know really well, I love putting them into situations to see what will happen.

Where can folks find you online and on social media?

Website and blog: https://kareneisenbreywriter.com/

Newsletter signup: https://kareneisenbreywriter.com/newsletter-signup/

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/KarenEisenbreyWriter

Facebook group The Rage Brigade: https://www.facebook.com/groups/431572087883199

St. Rage band pages: https://www.facebook.com/strageband and https://strage2.bandcamp.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarenEisenbrey

What is one piece of advice you would give to another author out there who might be struggling?

Trust the story. If it interests you, it will interest a reader somewhere, so keep at it, whether that means following a detailed outline or discovering the next scene when you come to it. A badly written draft can be improved in editing, so get it down however you need to. It’s OK to take breaks when the tank is empty, but don’t give up.

What are some of your five-year goals with writing?

Five years does not seem like that much time anymore. My first published novel came out 5 years ago and that seems like yesterday! But so much has happened since that I could not have foreseen. That said, I have some plans for myself:

Finish and submit my workplace space romcom, Ego and Endurance;

Finish my YA fantasy WIP, The Agate Staff (spinoff from Daughter of Magic trilogy);

Polish and revise the 5-book prequel series to Daughter of Magic trilogy (which might take 5 years right there—one of the books is not yet written other then as flashbacks);

At least draft a third St. Rage book. So far, I have one scene.

Final thoughts?

I preach the gospel of tiny ideas. You don’t have to have a big, perfect, complete idea for a book in order to start writing it. A small, flawed idea can be enough to get started; listen for that “ding” in the back of your mind that tells you when you’ve got something good. Use one idea and another will follow, and another, and another. They will get better and they will never run out until you do.

Also, please buy books from independent bookshops whenever possible. In the case of indie and small-press books, you benefit three small businesses at once: the bookseller, the publisher, and the author.

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