Karen Eisenbrey (she/her) lives in Seattle, WA, where she leads a quiet, orderly life and invents stories to make up for it. Although she intended to be a writer from an early age, until her mid-30s she had nothing to say. A little bit of free time and a vivid dream about a wizard changed all that. Karen writes fantasy and science fiction novels, as well as short fiction in a variety of genres and the occasional poem if it insists.

She has also sung in church choirs, played drums in a garage band, and was surprised to find herself writing songs for her debut YA novel The Gospel According to St. Rage, a finalist for the 2016 Wishing Shelf Book Awards. A YA wizard fantasy, Daughter of Magic, was released by Not a Pipe Publishing in 2018 as part of The Year of Publishing Women and was also a Wishing Shelf finalist. Wizard Girl, the sequel to Daughter of Magic, was released in July 2019. Gospel was re-released in a 2nd edition from Not A Pipe in August 2019 and followed by a sequel, Barbara and the Rage Brigade, in November 2019. Death’s Midwife (Daughter of Magic Book 3) released in March 2021. Watch for Ego & Endurance, a hard sci-fi workplace rom com/survival story, in 2023! Karen shares her life with her husband, two young adult sons, and four feline ghosts.       

1) First, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me!  When did you know that writing is what you were called to do? What is it about being a writer that you love the most? What about being a writer frustrates you the most?

I started seriously considering being a writer between the ages of 12 and 16. I had always loved stories, and I enjoyed writing assignments in school, but it was in that age range when I realized that someone had written every book I had ever enjoyed. I still didn’t know how any of it worked, but it seemed like a plausible career.

What I love best is playing with my imaginary friends: meeting my characters, getting to know them, listening to their life stories, giving them something interesting to do and then following them around while they do it.

There are many frustrating parts about being a writer, including that I actually have to write the story. I can’t just dump it out of my head and have it be any good. It takes years or decades to get from idea to finished manuscript. And then once it’s finished and published, I have to put on my promoter hat and try to persuade readers to give it a chance, out of all the thousands of books published every day. I don’t have much natural talent for that, but I might be improving.

2) Can you tell us a little about your book(s) and where our readers can find out more about them and you? 

My newest book, A Quest for Hidden Things, is book 1 in the Tales from Deep River fantasy series. It’s a cozy hero’s journey that kicks off a longer arc of discovery and redemption. This is a prequel series to my published Daughter of Magic trilogy, a young-adult wizard fantasy series about a girl from a magical family who discovers she can visit the dead in the afterlife. I also have the St. Rage garage rock/superhero duology, comedies featuring an almost-all-girl teenage garage band fronted by a secret superhero. And last but not least, Ego & Endurance is a workplace rom com on a spaceship to the asteroid belt. It turns into a survival story when everything goes wrong and they have to rescue themselves.

The best place to find me and my books is on my website, https://kareneisenbreywriter.com 

I can also be found on Facebook, Bluesky, and X/Twitter under my own name.

3) What projects are you currently working on?

I am in the late stages of editing book 3 of the Tales from Deep River series, titled Promise Stones and Granny’s Bones. It follows the main characters of A Quest for Hidden Things in parallel stories as they complete their educations, begin their magical careers, make relationship mistakes, and generally live as independent young adults. I am also slowly drafting book 3 in the St. Rage series, working title Truth. Justice. Rock & Roll. I work on it in spurts, but I recently figured out what the main plot should be, which may move things along!

4) What has been your most significant achievement as a writer thus far? Where do you see yourself within your career in the next five years?

Having seven books out feels huge to me. For a long time, I was just writing and revising, with no clear notion of how to get to the next step. I feel extraordinarily lucky to have found Not A Pipe Publishing when I did. We are a great fit for each other!

As for where I see myself in 5 years—I plan to keep doing what I’m doing now. I retired from my day job in 2023, but I’m busier than ever! Five years from now, the 5-book Tales from Deep River series should be all published, and maybe also the third St. Rage book, but I also have another trilogy I can hardly wait to start writing teen comedy tropes in a high fantasy setting. Should be fun.

5) How have you dealt with rejection within your writing career?

I try not to take it personally. I write the best story I can manage and submit it where I think it might be a good fit, following the submission guidelines to the letter. That’s all I can control. I default to expect rejection, so if I get an acceptance, I am utterly thrilled. And if a piece is rejected, I find somewhere else to submit it. If the rejection came with feedback, I take it under consideration to make the story better. I recently got an acceptance on a story I had submitted something like seven times. So, you just never know.

6) Do you have a schedule for when you write?  Do you outline your novels?  How long does it generally take you to finish a novel?

Not a schedule, exactly, but I aim to spend about an hour writing and/or editing every day, usually in the late afternoon. Lately most of that time has been spent on promotion for the new book, but I’m getting back into edits now.

I wouldn’t call what I use an outline; it’s messier than that. When I have a new book idea, I note down all my thoughts about it: what kind of story it seems to want to be, who should be in it, what the general plot and complications might look like, etc. When it seems like I have a feel for it, I list possible scenes in a possible order, then start drafting. This gets me through the first draft, which is usually thin on details and action. Most of the real writing happens in revisions.

As for how long it takes to finish a novel… It depends on the book. A Quest for Hidden Things was 25 years from initial idea and drafting to publication. Ego & Endurance was 13 years. Daughter of Magic was 9 years. But The Gospel According to St. Rage was less than 2, once I realized it was a book, not a short story. So, there’s a real range, but my usual timeline looks like a few months to draft, a year or so of revision to make it readable by anyone other than me, then more revisions based on beta readers’ feedback, followed by seemingly endless tightening and polishing before I submit the manuscript.

7) Do you believe that there is ever a point in life where it’s too late for an aspiring writer to become successful in this industry?  Do you feel a late start would hinder their chances?

I hope not, because I was a late bloomer myself! Although I was interested in writing from my youth, I didn’t start writing with intent to publish until my mid-30s and was not published until my 50s. Now, my definition of success is quite modest: having a published book I can put into readers’ hands. But if a person has a story to tell, it’s only too late if they’ve died before starting.

8) Are you an avid reader and have you always been? What’s the first book you ever read that really touched you emotionally and moved you?  Who is your favorite author? What book are you currently reading?

Before I could read, I loved being read to. Once I could read myself, there was no stopping me—I always had my nose in a book. When I was 8 or 9, I stumbled upon a book in the school library, Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink. It is about 2 preteen sisters who are shipwrecked with a bunch of babies, and how they take care of themselves and the babies until they can be rescued. I read it through and immediately went back and read it again, because I was so captivated by this tale of resourceful children, and girls at that, solving their own problems and keeping each other safe.

My favorite author is Ursula K. Le Guin. She made me want to be a writer. She wrote genre fiction that was also great literature, touching on all facets of the human condition in lively and interesting ways.

I am currently reading Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde, another great favorite author of mine. He does a great job of couching serious issues in ridiculous conceits.

9) Given the recent shake-ups in publishing, what are your thoughts about how the publishing industry is being represented today? Do you lean more towards traditional publishing or self-publishing as a preference? Does being a hybrid author interest you? 

Every time there’s a scandal or shakeup in the publishing industry, I’m kind of thankful I didn’t invest more time in the query trenches. It seems like a few big names are funding the whole industry, which benefits the smaller names to some extent, but often leaves them with less support than they might have expected going in.

I’m a big fan of small presses. I see them doing a lot of creative things, like how Not A Pipe Publishing took part in The Year of Publishing Women in 2018. The Big 5 would not have been nimble enough to pull that off. It got my attention enough that I submitted Daughter of Magic to them, and it was published that year. Nobody is getting rich or famous in the small press space, but a lot of cool books from talented authors are getting a chance there, and we get a lot of moral support, as well as a say in things like title and cover design. I also see a lot of quality work from self-published authors. I don’t have the business sense or intestinal fortitude to go that route, but I admire and encourage those who do. I haven’t looked into hybrid enough to know whether it would be a good choice for me.

10) I feel like writing is a remarkable tool to help people not only express themselves, but also to cope emotionally and mentally.  I know for me I write to be and feel more authentic. What unique quality is there about you, about your art, that you feel represents your authenticity?  How does writing help you to be more empowered in your purpose?

A lot of my writing is for and/or about teenagers who are misfits or outcasts or just trying to figure out their place in the world. My characters go through some dark and difficult stuff, but I present it with warmth and humor as they discover the power of friendship and collaboration, of using their talents and abilities to make things better, not only for themselves but for their community. In a way, I’m empowering my own teenage self, who didn’t have a whole lot of confidence in herself. I’m doing the things now that she hoped to do in her 20s. It took an extra few decades, but we got here, and it feels good.