about Karen

What’re your favorite tarot cards?

I’m partial to the Moon and the Queen of Wands. They just keep showing up in all my readings, and I’m here for it.

What’re your sun, moon, and Rising Signs?

Aquarius Sun, Pisces Moon, and Scorpio Rising. Apparently, I’m known to be quite chill.

About Writing

How do you deal with Writer’s Block?

When I get stuck, it's usually for one of two reasons. Either I don't have ideas to work with, or the scene I'm currently writing isn't exciting or doesn't make sense plot-wise.

Gathering ideas looks like reading books, watching movies, listening to music, etc. Making sure that the scene I'm writing is exciting or makes sense looks like journaling about it--getting it out of my head and onto something visual and tangible so that I can interact with it.

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Read a lot. Read books that inspire you. Read books outside the usual genre that you read. Read books about the craft of writing and how to get your message across. Start reading books only to abandon them halfway through, and figure out why you abandoned them.

Next, write a lot. Be bold. Be weird. Be experimental. Clichés are fine in rough drafts, but when you revise, dig deep for the thing that only you can write.

Lastly, network a lot. Find other writers and readers to talk about writing and books with. Find your mentors, cheerleaders, and tribes that'll support you and your work. Don't go it alone.

about Book Coaching

Why should I hire You as a book coach?

I don’t specifically know why you should hire me as a book coach because I don’t know you very well and can’t gauge your personality through an FAQ webpage. If you happen to be a BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ writer of speculative and/or commercial fiction like myself, chances are good that I’d be a good fit for you as a book coach, in which case you’d fill out my Client Intake Q&A Form for me to properly gauge whether or not we’re a good fit for each other.

aren’t book coaches and editors the same thing?

Nope. They’re different. The skill sets for both positions overlap because they both work with words, but where they differ is how much time they interact with the writer.

For an editor, working with a writer is typically a one-time process. The writer hires an editor to polish or evaluate their manuscript, the editor does this according to their training, the editor hands the edited manuscript back, the writer accepts or rejects certain changes, and boom. It’s all well and good.

For a book coach, however, they’re looking at the writer and their writing holistically. It could be that a writer has been working on a story for years, but they can’t quite get past their impostor syndrome. Or, they’re struggling to articulate their story’s vision while juggling raising children and meeting the demands of their job. Or, maybe a writer just can’t quite figure out what they need to level up their writing and get the attention of agents and editors. This is where a book coach can come in and be a knowledgeable professional in their field to help guide them through their roadblocks, not just polish their language overall.

about editing

What is…

sensitivity reading? proofreading? copyediting? developmental editing? line editing? Beta Reading?

I encourage you to visit this page on the Editorial Freelancers’ Association’s website for all your inquiries related to everything editorial. I could spend an inordinate amount of time defining them all one by one, but I think they do a much better job already.