Jessica Knauss's Blog, page 12

Books of the Last Year: A Recap

The past year has been a whirlwind, in good and terrible ways. But that doesn't mean I haven't been reading, and today I'd like to acknowledge some of the finest books I've read (relatively) lately. A mention here constitutes endorsement, and I plan to place reviews in the appropriate sites.

The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna Van Praag. I wanted something to read on the plane to Spain, but I don't recall how I came across this author. I loved the sense of women's history and empowerment here.

 Modern Girls by Jennifer S. Brown. A fellow Launch Lab alum wrote this perfectly researched and imagined historical fiction about some of the most universal women's struggles.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I had this book recommended to me many times before I finally picked it up at my then-local bookstore, Antigone in Tucson, Arizona. It was the last in a long and hallowed line of books I read to my husband. He hadn't grown up with adults reading to him, so I started reading him my favorites and exciting new books to him before we were married. When my voice would give out, he would often pitch in, especially if we were at a really good part. This is why my husband put Harry Potter in our wedding vows. I had a lot of trouble getting into The Night Circus. Though my husband enjoyed it, I couldn't see that it was coming to any particular point. We didn't quite finish before my husband checked into the hospital, and after he lost consciousness, I read the last three chapters to myself sitting in a chair next to his bed. Of course, that's when the story all comes together and I ended up finally understanding why so many people recommended it to me.

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin. I was nervous to get into this book because the great Manolo García, my idol in all things creative, recommended it to me when I met him in May 2016. If it was no good, what would that say about this artist I so admire? I purchased this book at Antigone two days before my husband passed away, which you might think would mar it for me. But I remember going to pick the book up with my sister-in-law as a much-needed break from the hospital, a slice of normal in a world that was quickly turning upside-down. I needn't have feared any of this. Lucia Berlin's writing is so overwhelmingly fantastic, this book is the only thing I remember about the first month after my husband's passing.

Monterey Bay by Lindsay Hatton. A tour-de-force by a fellow Launch Lab alum.

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. On point and familiar, even though everyone's grief is different, with the added benefit of falconry drama—doubly unforgettable. I wish I'd read this before publishing the goshawk scenes in Seven Noble Knights !

The Grief Recovery Handbook by John W. James and Russell Friedman. Useful and no-nonsense exactly when I needed practical coping mechanisms.

The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud. This author was a favorite for my husband and I to read to each other, and I was comforted to be able to read this book when it came out on our wedding anniversary. I loved the mind-blowing imagery of life after death and how the two worlds might intersect. And I'm glad Lucy didn't abandon Lockwood & Co. for long.

Odd Adventures with Your Other Father by Norman Prentiss. I came across this gem by a fellow Kindle Press author when we did a cross-promo together. Whimsical, touching, and shocking in all the right places, this book made me realize I love some kinds of horror writing. The end is an unspeakably beautiful fantasy for someone who's lost a loved one to cancer.

Narrow River, Wide Sky by Jenny Forrester. I earned an internship at Hawthorne Books this winter, and focused on setting up the book tour and other publicity concerns for the wonderful author.

The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch. Thank goodness I came across this daring and truthful memoir in the Hawthorne offices! Read it. Now. You'll thank me.

Dora: A Headcase by Lidia Yuknavitch. A hilarious examination of the gender and age bias in traditional psychotherapy. It made me want to read every other book Lidia Yuknavitch ever produces.

Life is Short—Art is Shorter by David Shields and Elizabeth Cooperman. Astonishingly effective in their brevity, the pieces here inspire you to experiment in this age of short attention spans.

Death's Dancer by Jasmine Silvera. Another wonderfully imaginative book by a fellow Kindle Press author.

The Miniature Wife and Other Stories by Manuel Gonzales. I picked this up because I've been accepted into the prestigious Tin House Summer Workshop, and I'm thrilled I'll be working with Manuel Gonzales in July. Every one of these stories excited me for its approach, its novel logic, its turns of phrase, or the proliferating concepts I sensed behind the imagery, which was always exactly as crazy as I needed it to be.

Violation by Sallie Tisdale. Some of the best essays by one of the best essay writers.

Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown. I won this advance readers copy via Goodreads. I think disappearances and faked deaths are a whole genre in themselves. This one had compelling characters and interesting twists.

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier. Another Goodreads ARC win. Othello is my favorite Shakespeare, and the way the author transferred it to a 1970s middle school playground is fascinating. Great pop culture references run through the interesting and believable decision to make the action take place over a single school day.

Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant. After a tragedy or trauma, you no longer have Option A available. I'm doing a lot of thinking about what my Option B is, and this book helps with that as well as with not feeling so alone.

I'm astonished I've read so much when concentration has often been a challenge this year—I've left out plenty of books here! Thanks for checking out my recent literary path. Straight an narrow it ain't!

Achieving a Big Goal without My Soul Mate: Seven Noble Knights at the Harvard Book Store

My trip to Massachusetts last week was the culmination of so many hopes and dreams. It was also the first time I'd been back to the place where I met my husband without him. Friends, beauty, and acute loss combined to create an emotionally complex triumph for my writing career.

Reading at the Harvard Book Store is the most obvious validation I've had of my book baby, Seven Noble Knights . I've been planning this event since before my husband passed away so unexpectedly. I always thought he would come with me, be his wonderful supportive self, and take photos and videos. I had to look elsewhere for the support I needed, and am amazed and thrilled that I found it.

Among the awesome people who attended the event were the other reader, talented memoirist Nadine Kenney Johnstone, author of Of This Much I'm Sure ; Jennifer S. Brown, author of Modern Girls; Rick Heller, author of Secular Meditation ; and Maile Hulihan, author of the forthcoming comedy Trinity of Bitches. Their enthusiasm helped me focus on the wonderful things about the evening.

I've rarely seen anything more beautiful than my book baby for sale in the Harvard Book Store.

Right next to checkout, ready for the next eager reader! Looks like it's already sold a copy or two...

I wanted the audience to love my epic novel as much as I do, so I read from it with great gusto.


Want to see the reading in action? You can because of kindness and support from my college creative writing advisor and dear friend, who took the video.


After the reading, Nadine Kenney Johnstone and I took questions from the audience. We discussed inspiration, how to get the writing done even when moving across the country, our next projects and sequels, working with an academic press, the lost medieval epic poem on which the novel is based ("It doesn't get more exciting than that!"), and the value of human life in the tenth century in light of the excerpt's mention of a "homicide fee." One audience member astutely pointed out that Seven Noble Knights would make a great television series. I'm not the only one who thinks so!

On a side note, look at the book behind Nadine: The Regional Office is Under Attack! This is by Manuel Gonzales, with whom I'm going to have the honor of working this July at the Tin House Summer Workshop!

Nadine also spoke about the reliving/processing/healing effects of writing her memoir and I wondered if that was in my future, too.

One of the prettiest city blocks in the entire USAMany readers purchased books and I got to sign them with a nice pen I wish I could've kept. After the rush, Alex from the Harvard Book Store had me put my name in the remaining copies. Signed copies of Seven Noble Knights are now available if you drop by or order online! Nowhere else.

Friends tell me my husband's spirit was there to witness this event that meant so much to me.

I know. It wouldn't have happened without him.

If you can't get enough Seven Noble Knights videos, don't miss the intimate reading of Chapter I—murder, mayhem, and machismo in just five minutes!

Reading Up a Spring Storm in Oregon

On Saturday, I went with my supportive mother to the Saint Helens Spring into Art phenomenon at the community center. There were culinary arts, rug weaving, paintings and sculptures on display, a dog adoption area, and ukulele band performances, to name just a few.

The community center building houses the town library, and I found my baby, Seven Noble Knights , in really good company on the new shelf.

I wore my shirt with the awesome medieval sleeves in order to read the first chapter of Seven Noble Knights for a diverse and enthusiastic audience in the auditorium.

Audience members told me I brought the story and the time period to life with my reading, so I felt pretty good. This was great community-centered practice for my reading at the Harvard Book Store later this week!

Afterward, I set up Seven Noble Knights (with a printout of its Historical Novel Society review), Tree/House , Unpredictable Worlds , and Awash in Talent in the children's area of the library with several other local authors. Even though we were tucked in the back of the community center where people had to come looking for us, I sold and signed several copies of Awash in Talent and one of Unpredictable Worlds , and chatting with readers and the librarians was a lot of fun.

One male reader asked me what Tree/House was about, and I amazed myself saying, "It uses Jungian archetypal imagery to retell the Bluebeard legend." Tree/House is kind of a hard sell to a male reader, anyway, but I'm not sure what made me venture into the alienating scholarly definition of a book many people have enjoyed without knowing about Carl Jung or the Bluebeard story. Note to self: Tree/House is the story of a woman's empowerment through sleeping in trees.

Another note to self: If I had mentioned the book signing at the reading, I might have attracted more historical fiction readers to the second event. It's not easy to remember to be your own publicist when you're having fun.

Thanks to everyone who listened to the first chapter of Seven Noble Knights and who stopped by my booth! And to my mom, who was my biggest fan on Saturday!

If you just weren't in Oregon on Saturday, I did a special YouTube reading of the first chapter, which you can watch any time here.

Enjoy! And I'll see you at Harvard!

Springing Along with a New Publication and Events

I know many of you are finishing up your taxes, that springtime blight. I've done mine for the first time as a widow, and it was about as fun as I expected.

Lest you think the piles of W2s and 1099s swallowed me up, it's time to let you know about the other amazing projects I've been working on.

The first is ready for you now! My historical short story, "The Lake," has come out in the award-winning Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine . The April issue is chock full of spine-tingling delights. My contribution makes use of Jungian imagery to pay tribute to one of my favorite poems ("The Lake"). The poet, Edgar Allan Poe himself, shows up as a young man in this story to have a transformative effect on an impressionable girl. It doesn't get much more gothic.

I never thought of my self as a horror writer, but more and more, I'm attracted to the psychological aspects of scary stories. If it has something creepy or uncanny, I'm there! There's something for all your horrifying needs in this issue of Dark Gothic Resurrected . It's also available from Amazon.

I'm proud to say the folks at Kindle Press have included Awash in Talent in a big sale: 150 Kindle Books for $1.50. Time to make my zany Rhode Island book the bestseller it should be! This unique piece of art and labor of love won't cost you more than a cup of coffee until April 30.

I'm also busy assembling superauthor outfits for not one, but two events this spring:

April 29: Spring into Art at the Saint Helens Public Library will see me reading briefly from Seven Noble Knights with many other talented authors. I'll also be at a table where you can purchase Seven Noble Knights , Awash in Talent , Unpredictable Worlds , or Tree/House and get them signed right before your eyes! I look forward to talking with you on April 29.

May 3: I return to the place where I first lived with my true love and fulfill a life dream: A reading at the Harvard Book Store with Q&A about Seven Noble Knights ! If you're near Cambridge, I encourage you to show up for this free event, which will also feature wonderful memoirist Nadine Kenney. It's sure to be standing room only, so come early! The bookstore has signed copies available for preorder, too!

Photos and videos to follow.

Interview with Jasmine Silvera, Author of the Kindle Press Fantasy Death's Dancer

In honor the Kindle Scout Second Anniversary Sale, I'm sitting down with Jasmine Silvera, author of the fantasy Death's Dancer . We found each other when I commented that  Awash in Talent is a fantasy, but doesn't follow rules, so it's sure to be a wild and crazy time.

Check out the action as it unfolds at 10 a.m. PST March 27, and check back here later for a full transcript. Jasmine will return the favor and interview me, and post a transcript at her blog, too!

All Kindle Scout–winning titles are on sale for 99 cents now through April 3. Fantasy, YA, romance, mystery, thriller, suspense—Kindle Scout loves them all!

About Death's Dancer :

Isela Vogel is dancing on borrowed time: a degenerative hip threatens her successful career bringing the favor of the gods to her patrons. Now, one big job could set her up for life; if it doesn't get her killed. The Necromancer Azrael must harness the power of a god to stop a killer, and that requires a dancer. 

Capricious gods and scheming necromancers are the least of Isela's worries. If she and Azrael fail, it will cost more than her life. If they succeed, she will lose everything she loves. 

And then there's the danger of falling for a Lord of Death.

I'll be talking with her about the ways her novel surprised her, the Easter eggs she's hidden inside Death's Dancer , and whether there's any fun to be had outside of writing. Join us live at 10 a.m. PST March 27 or back here afterward! 

Springtime Renewal with a Free Book and Big Sale

It' been a long winter. Luckily, the Vernal Equinox anthology is here, just in time to celebrate spring. This free anthology takes renewal as its theme. If you've ever wondered whether Emily from Awash in Talent is trapped forever in her bizarre forced-therapy prison, the story I contribute will show you the way she finds renewal. It's the first chapter of Awash in Talent 's anticipated sequel, Call It What You Will (which is still being written). This entertaining story and nine others in the fantasy, horror, romance, and literary fiction genres are yours for free!

Author and anthology-maker Lincoln Cole's page gives you a link to Vernal Equinox and showcases all the featured novels in one convenient place.

The release of Vernal Equinox coincides with the Kindle Scout Anniversary Sale. In honor of two years of reader-powered publishing, all Kindle Press titles are only 99 cents each, today through April 3. A panoply of wonderful writing awaits, including Awash in Talent and all the books from Vernal Equinox! Check them all out at Amazon or get the deal conveniently on Awash in Talent 's page.

Be sure to check out A Book A Month's appealing and well organized page for the event. Don't mess around with genres you don't care about—find your favorites with an easy click!

Also in celebration of renewal, in April my deep psychology story "The Lake," based on an Edgar Allan Poe poem, will appear in award-winning Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine.

Lest you think I haven't been busy, I'll let you in on a secret: I've been writing a fantasy story, set in Providence, Rhode Island, and another special place, with all new characters. I'm letting my imagination run wild. My writers group has called it magical, unique, vividly rendered, entertaining, and just great. It's good to have my honest efforts rewarded, and I have high hopes I'll be able to share a complete version of this story with you soon.

And last but not least, check out the popularity ranking of the Seven Noble Knights All Classical interview, also available here.

Radio Stars: Seven Noble Knights and Me

Portland's All Classical station is at the intersection of the river and the light rail. Picture it: You're an artist, and someone you're not related to and have never met and you know appreciates the type of art you do in general has seen your art and liked it enough to talk with you about it for thirty minutes at his radio station.

A selfie in the very moments when my authorial fame hits its zenith. Exciting? You bet. I know because it happened to me!

Ed Goldberg at Portland's All Classical is an avid reader, and I had the inestimable pleasure of chatting with him (at New York speed) about  Seven Noble Knights .

Check it out and download it free at the station's site. It is also on iTunes (the J. K. Knauss March 1 track) also free.

The view from the studio wouldn't be complete without rain clouds. As you'll see when you have a listen, we crammed a lot of information into thirty minutes! I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed making the recording. Doña Sancha, Don Gonzalo, their seven sons, Mudarra, and Doña Lambra await you!

And check out the other Seven Noble Knights events in 2017, including another, shorter audio interview and a couple of book signings!

Book Club Magic with Divas, Sangría, and Medieval Spain

Reading makes you blossom The Literary Divas February meeting, which featured discussion of everyone's favorite epic of medieval Spain, Seven Noble Knights , had near perfect attendance and a special appearance by yours truly, the elusive author J. K. Knauss.

Seven Noble Knights, hurrah! The group has varied tastes and don't often agree on books, but luckily, everyone found something to like in Seven Noble Knights . I let the readers control the discussion, which ranged delightfully all over. I was tickled to hear comparisons to Game of Thrones and the consensus was that reading Seven Noble Knights is like being inside a movie. We discussed the pleasant challenges of a book with more than thirty characters and how long it takes to write an epic novel. We delved into the psychology of Doña Lambra, Zaida, Don Gonzalo, and Gonzalico, and agreed that Blanca Flor is more mysterious than I intended. Almanzor was a favorite character, and I got to explain that his reputation in history is terrifying, so it was thrilling to portray him in a positive light. My inspiration and years of research paid off when many readers picked up on subtle details.

I'm always surprised when readers want little ol' me to sign their books, but there was a whole lot of signing going on, too.

"The book club needed a book like this," one enthusiastic reader said. "It's well written and we all learned a lot!"


The group enjoyed an elegant selection of Spanish tapas: Mediterranean salad, paella, tortilla de patatas, bread, Manchego cheese, chorizo, Spanish olives, almonds, and sangría, with olive oil in almost everything and a delicious, colorful fruit tart for dessert.

The evening concluded with an impromptu reading of my prize-winning flash fiction, "Stairs to the Beach." The dark humor was highly appreciated.

You, too, can experience Seven Noble Knights with your book club! Check out suggestions here and contact the author if you'd like to schedule an author appearance or Skype session.

Today at Unusual Historicals: María de Padilla, Royal Mistress

Reenactors portray María de Padilla and King Pedro
in the Royal Palace in Sevilla. The theme this month at Unusual Historicals is "Mistresses." For my turn, it could be none but María de Padilla, whose legal status as queen was never confirmed. Nonetheless, she is more famous and beloved than many historical queens. The few facts that have come down about her make for great historical novel fodder! Read all about it at Unusual Historicals today.

Book Clubs, Authorial Fame, and Real Life

Look, Ma! I'm famous! As part of my deliberate, full-of-intention book launch for Seven Noble Knights , I arranged an interview with my local newspaper. It came out last week and looks impressive, taking up the entire content of page A3. (If you click the picture, you should be able to enlarge and read the article.)

I unexpectedly got two calls from local well-wishers when they saw the article. All right, I thought, today St. Helens, tomorrow the world! On Friday, I learned that Seven Noble Knights is the official selection of the Literary Divas Book Club for February 2017. I think the choice is a direct result of the article in the paper. I prepared for book clubs with a set of discussion questions in the back of the book, and I'm happy to visit or Skype with a book club with members who enjoy historical fiction—just contact me. I'll make an appearance at the Literary Divas meeting, which will demand an in-person performance of my authorial persona.

The authorial persona is the face an author presents to the world, an integral part of her "brand" in this new age of authorship. My persona is based heavily on the real me, but as it's developed, I've emphasized only the fun, exciting, or humorous parts of me. I figure no one wants to read books from a gloomy Gus. When circumstances have become too frustrating to bear in silence, I've blogged about them from a humorous angle to make them easier to swallow. See my posts about living in a hotel for nine months in 2013 or getting an apartment in Arizona with no furniture in 2011 for examples.

Last July, something happened to me that is not funny at all, ever, and that changed everything about my life down to the finest detail. I'm talking about the death of my beloved husband. I've written about it a couple of times here, but overall, I'm no Helen Macdonald (author of H is for Hawk ) and no one wants to read about my grief, especially before I've had time to frame it with a tangible piece of wisdom.

It hasn't been easy to gauge how much of the truth to reveal during  Seven Noble Knights ' book release. Sometimes I mention my husband deliberately, and sometimes I gloss over his existence. Both options feel wrong. I hate to mention that death has already parted us, but we had an insanely happy marriage that deserves celebration. If I try to gloss over my grief, there's always the risk that people will ask a question whose answer cannot be fudged, and I will go too deeply into territory I don't want to visit publicly. During the book launch, these have usually been questions about my writing process and my future writing plans. My husband's love was woven throughout my life, even my writing process, and now that he's gone, I'm faced with existential questions about whether to move forward that must be answered before I can answer how.

I completed both of my novels before my husband became ill, and I dedicated both of them to him. When the page proofs of  Seven Noble Knights  came back with my paragraph about him in the present tense, it was intensely painful to have to remind the publisher that my husband can only be referred to in the past tense now. It doubly hurt that I had never shown the dedication to him, so he never got to see it. I had been saving it as a surprise.

My mother found a typo in the published edition, and I don't know whether it's been corrected. In the second-to-last chapter, I refer to a character as a "young window." It should be "widow." I think the typo was a Freudian slip, because I didn't want to be a widow when I first wrote the passage any more than I do now, to the extent that I didn't even want to type the word.

But these are not the anecdotes that sell a medieval epic, are they?

In the newspaper interview, I approached this issue subtly. Notice that I don't go into why I've returned home to my mother, and I only mention that because of the local connection. In any other context, it would be a nonissue. I refer to my husband simply as "late." Such a small word doesn't describe the wonders of our marriage or the yawning black abyss that is my grief—because no one wants to know about that. It provides only the bare fact. In order to maintain the positivity of my authorial persona, that small word may be as far as I can go.

The part about the idea for the sequel is true. Recently, I've recuperated hope for life, and I hope that I will actually do some writing on that project soon.

I've discussed where to draw the line with a couple of psychology professionals, and their conclusion was to "Do what makes you comfortable." Not easy, since I haven't felt comfortable about anything for more than six months! If you have brilliant ideas about how much of my own sad story to tell as part of my authorial persona, I'd love to hear them.