All posts by Karen Diem

Karen is a nonfiction author now writing urban fantasy mixing trouble with independent heroines, superpowers, and the endless search for pants. She is also a bibliophile and fangirl.

Change Isn’t Always Scary

Sometimes, it’s a lot of fun and involves supervillains who aren’t nearly as gone as certain part-time superheroes thought.

Why, yes, I’m talking about Change, the ninth book in the Arca superhero urban fantasy series, which just came out today, October 25, 2024! Book Cover of Arca Book 9, Change, by Karen Diem

What’s this one about?

Well, people keep telling Zita Garcia to go to Hell. This time, she’s actually taking their advice. Alone and working against the clock, the sometime superhero raids the Greek Underworld to stop a massacre, save her best friends, and maybe even salvage that relationship she’s been screwing up.

Maybe. This is Zita, after all.

For the first week, Change will be $2.99 USD (or equiv) and will go up to $3.99 after that. Embrace Change and grab a copy from your retailer of choice!

Still bracing yourself to handle Change? Try reading the first chapter to ease yourself in.

Enjoy! I’ll be starting work on book 10 for release next year.

OBLIGATORY NOTE: I am an Amazon affiliate, and if you buy from links on this site, I may someday receive compensation for making the links available. I’d like that.

Sea What I Did There?

Sometimes, being a superhero means ruining Christmas. When Atlantis wants to give the gift of a destroyed Baltimore, can Arca and her perky nemesis stop them in time?

This is that story. The eighth book in the Arca superhero urban fantasy series, Sea, surfaced today and is available at most ebook retailers for $3.99 USD (or equiv). It has all the characteristics of a fun Christmas story: superheroes, Atlanteans with nuclear weapons, and serious shenanigans, all with holiday music playing in the background.

Minor spoiler: No one gets tossed out of Nakatomi Tower, but people definitely get thrown.

Buy it here.

Still unsure if Sea is the buddy comedy-action adventure-superhero-urban fantasy melange you’ve been hoping for? Dive into Chapter One to check it out.

For any of you washed away by all of the puns and ready to give me shell about them, I’m shore Book 9 won’t allow me to use as many.

Running With Sharp Objects

… and by that, I mean the seventh book in the Arca superhero urban fantasy series, Sharp! It has all the things you’d hope to find in an account of a Halloween visit to mom’s cozy small town. Pumpkins. Apple cider donuts. Murder. Fiberglass aliens. Theme supervillains. Guilt. Mystery. Car crashes. Random monsters. Possibly explosive pumpkins. You know, the usual.

Sharp releases October 26, 2022. Grab a copy now for $2.99 USD or equivalent! The price will go up to $3.99 USD in a few weeks. Paperbacks will hopefully be available in time for Christmas. Buy it here.

If you’re still not certain if it’s for you, read the all the other books first. If you’ve already done that and are afraid that it just won’t live up to the cheesy innuendo, bad decisions, and exciting action adventure of the rest of the series, check out Chapter One for a taste of the nutty goodness.

Someone Order More Pizza For This Party!

The sixth in the Arca superhero urban fantasy series, Party, is now in full swing! It has food! Dancing! Cheesy jokes! A government conspiracy! A nefarious supervillain! All the stuff you love at a festive gathering without the actual people or awkward silences!

Not as many exclamation points, though, as I used them all up here.

Grab a copy now for $2.99 USD or equivalent! The price will go up to $3.99 USD after August 12, 2021. Paperbacks should be available starting September of 2021.

Buy: Amazon Kobo iTunes Barnes & Noble Smashwords Other Stores

If you’re not certain if the lame jokes, questionable decisions, and heart-stopping action adventure will go with your party shoes, give the Chapter One a quick read.

A Day Late, Several Dollars Short

Here we go. A short update since I’ve been so bad about them regarding Party‘s release and the Convention of Heroes.

RSVP for the Party

Party will be released on August 6, 2021. It’s at the editor now. Newsletter folks will get an advance copy of the first two chapters in July.

Convention of Heroes

So, the convention’s already started so I’m late in posting this, but I’m participating in the Superhero-fiction.com 2021 Convention of Heroes. They’ve greatly expanded the convention from last year with a wider variety and greater number of events. They have their own Discord server where they’re doing watching parties and live commentary. I hang out there off and on most days. To go there, it’s https://discord.gg/vY7UbdqF.

Apparently, they wanted to outdo the folks at QuaranCon, so they asked me to be on two panels, and moderate one of them. I “moderated” the panel on Crafting a Superhero and will be participating in the Captivating Worldbuilding one.

The Crafting panel surprisingly went very well with far fewer people tied to rockets or railroad tracks than I expected, despite one panelist being in an undisclosed offshore location with no electricity and three others in the middle of lightning storms. No one got superpowers in it either, sadly. I blame Amazon for refusing to deliver a volcanic lair with prebuilt death traps (I’m lazy) and the required sharks with lasers in time for the panel and for less than ten dollars. The Superhero-fiction.com folks were also crafty enough to fill the panel with just amazing authors who write in multiple superhero subgenres and had really fascinating stuff to say. They’ve probably stuffed all the other panels the same way.

For the first time, I’m doing a reading, as well. I read the first chapter of Party. So. Surprise! The first chapter will appear on this site probably in July.

Check out the con at: http://www.superhero-fiction.com/convention.

These links are available on my About page as well with previous con appearances.

Update: Decidedly Not Dead Yet

No, I’m not dead. I’m just terrible at remembering to update my website.

Like many people, I spent almost all of 2020 and 2021 thus far at home. While the introvert in me was happy to not have to deal with people too much, it brought its own issues. Under the load of extra work brought about by not being the only one at home, not being able to go out when I needed something, and random shortages, I forgot to update my website, thus this clearinghouse of a news article. So, for those of you who were wondering, I’m not dead. I’m not maimed. I’m just behind on my to-do list. Sorry!

So, what’s up? Quite a bit, actually.

Reschedule the Party, We’re Out of Pizza

Book 6 in my Arca superhero urban fantasy series, Party, is running late. I’m hoping to release it summer of 2021 instead of its original May 5 release date. No date is currently posted because I won’t be releasing an exact date until I have a finished draft and at least one pass through my editor done. The Books page will be updated when I have that date.

Works Set Free (Or Priced Fairly) In The Wild

As part of the Beneath The Mask superhero romance anthology, I released an Arca World short story, Tough Love. It’s a little bit of a change from my usual work, as it is a clean and sweet romance, albeit with superheroes and lots of punching. It occurs after Toga, and before Breaking The Ice. The short description is: Tokio might be doomed, but is Andy’s secret relationship?

NOTE: Everything in the anthology before my story is nookie-free. Everything after it contains superheroes making some extremely steamy whoopee.

You can find it here, both for sale and in Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/39Hgfx9

Even if they can’t get Tough Love for free for at least a year (the contract says so), my newsletter folks did get a new exclusive Arca World story, Breaking The Ice. It occurs after Tough Love and before Party. Here’s the short description: Andy’s been living a secret life as a superpowered vigilante for over a year now. The first day at a new job should be a piece of cake in comparison. Shouldn’t it?

Giving It All Away

My book Super is currently in a virtual book fair with over 100 other awesome science fiction or fantasy novels. People at the fair have a chance to sign up for a giveaway! You could win stuff.

Here’s the important part though: All the books $2.99 (USD) or less! Some of the books are Kindle Unlimited, some aren’t (like mine). It’s definitely worth a look. I’ve picked up a couple books myself.

Check out: https://clcannon.net/bookfair

(Virtual) Public Appearances

Last year, I participated in a panel for QuaranCon 2020, a virtual writer’s convention.

Or at least my avatar did.

They apparently didn’t learn anything from last year, so I’ll be on a panel again, this time talking about writing short stories. It was a fun and educational conference last year, and the panels this year seem pretty dang awesome too! My panel will stream live on YouTube on April 8 at 4.30pm EST. You can find a link to it on the QuaranCon page (and a translation to your time zone) at: https://www.quarancon2020.com/schedule-1/Writing-Short-Stories

Once the conference is over, I will update the About page to include a link to the actual panel.

Keep Your Toga On!

Toga! Toga! Toga!

Toga - Arca Book 5 - By Karen Diem As of May 5, 2020, Toga is loose and running free, throwing laurel wreaths and available for purchase at every major retailer. Don’t myth this one! The ebook is $3.99 USD or the equivalent, and most major ebook retailers should be more than happy to sell it to you.

Paperback versions will follow in a few weeks, but the 6×9″ books will be bursting with historical inaccuracies, lame jokes, and all the Arca you expect and then some. I’ll comment below when that happens. In the meantime, you can get a quick glimpse of the first chapter here.

And yes, this notice is late. It’s one of many things running sideways right now. Hope your Cinco de Mayo was a happy one!

For Your Free Viewing Pleasure

Bored? Stuck at home obsessing over that thing you meant to do that didn’t turn out quite right or perhaps never got started?

Let me help you procrastinate.

I’ve started attending and serving on panels at (virtual) cons. It’s great. I get to show off my invisibility superpower and be that mysterious voice that comes in from offscreen with the awesome jokes and everyone else gets to practice making faces at said comments.

Anyway, on April 28, 2020, I was on the Superheroes panel of QuaranCon 2020. We talked about superheroes we’ve known and loved (from afar, well outside of restraining order boundaries, I swear!), as well as small bits here and there about our own writing. The other panels at the convention were also entertaining; I particularly enjoyed the one on fight scenes.

This week, I’ll be attending the Superhero-Fiction Con and speaking on TWO panels, despite the con organizers having been with me on the QuaranCon 2020 panel. That con will have one panel every weekday from May 18 to May 22 at 6PM EST. I’ll be speaking on the Tuesday (May 19) panel on creating the powers behind the heroes, and on the Friday (May 22) panel on superhero origins.

After that, I’ve got no more virtual conventions planned for the moment. That’s subject to change if and when I get asked to do a sufficiently interesting one again. If they’d like to PAY me, that’d be even better. Cash dollars, Paypal, or homemade chocolate chip cookies only.

Concrete, Quarry, and Chronology

Long-haired daschund in a santa hat — Photo by Arlette Rieken on Unsplash

Every year, I’m between a rock and a hard place. I try to release a short story to my mailing list as a thank you and holiday gift at least once a year. The problem, however, is whether to deliver it before the new year so they can have something short and fun to curl up with when they need a break from celebrating, or after the new year when money is typically tight and a free story would be a good way to unwind from all those resolutions.

This year, I came up with a good solution: two stories, Concrete and Quarry. One delivered before the holidays, and the other after. In both, Zita’s trying to live up to her social obligations when something goes wrong (she IS a superhero, after all). Both stories occur between Monster and Toga.

Quarry, released January 2020, covers Zita-as-Arca hanging with a friend not long after the events of Monster. Here’s the description:

Some people dig up trouble everywhere they go, even when they’re literally in a hole in the ground.

Zita Garcia’s one of them. The part-time superhero has to step up–or climb down–to save the day yet again.

Concrete, released November 2019, covers Zita-as-Zita on yet another successful (-ish? Close enough.) blind date a few days before the events of Toga. Here’s the description:

Never stand between a woman and her snacks. Everything would’ve been fine, if the robbers had just left the snacks alone.

Sometimes, a woman has to take action, even if she’s pretending not to be a superpowered vigilante.

Just wait until she tries to attend a party someday. Both stories and their descriptions are listed on the Books page.

Additionally, I’ve added a chronology page to this website so that those who prefer to read their books and stories in order now have a reference without needing to read through the descriptions of each story.

Happy holidays and may 2020 be kind to you.

Hunt Down Monster!

Monster is on the loose! The fourth book in the Arca superhero urban fantasy series released today, May 5, 2019. What happens in this one? Here’s a quick description: Monster by Karen Diem

When the authorities abandon the search for a serial killer targeting Zita Garcia’s family, the sometime superhero will do whatever it takes to find him. If finding him means fighting literal monsters, wrangling glitter-obsessed vampires, or going to nightclubs, she’s in, even if the undead and line dances make her skin crawl. She needs to solve this fast—before things go from bad to hearse.

Here’s where you can find Monster:

Paperback versions will follow in a few weeks, but I can tell you that the 6×9″ books will have 322 pages filled with adventure, lame jokes, and all the Arca you expect. I’ll comment below when that happens.

To celebrate the release and readers who’ve stuck around for the past three books, I’m releasing the ebook at $2.99. After a week or so, the price will go up to $3.99 USD (or equivalent). I have no current plans to put it on sale again this year, though that decision is subject to change.

Need more info? Check out the full description or the first chapter!

AND… Super will be on sale for 99 cents USD (or equivalent) in all stores until May 15 for readers who like to start from the origin story and work their way up to the latest adventure. See the Books page for the store links.

NOTE: I am an Amazon affiliate, which means if you purchase an item at Amazon following a link on one of my pages, I may someday receive a few pennies from them.

And Now For Something Completely Different–Or Not

Roses in December, an Arca World Story by Karen Diem cover, showing a young masked woman with magic in her hand.

On December 7, 2018, readers opening my newsletter got a copy of my latest free short story, Roses in December. Chronologically, Roses follows Pie and precedes Monster (May 2019). It includes no spoilers, but references information in the Arca novels. Check the sweet cover out!

Unlike the rest of my books and stories, Roses is an Arca World story—it’s in the same world as Arca, but focuses on a character other than Zita. In this case, it’s all about Wyn.

Description

When her aunt with dementia is taken on a disastrous day trip, research librarian Wyn will have to step out of the stacks and get down and dirty to save her.

Even if that means hiking.

This story has no violence or sexual innuendo, though there’s danger, damsels in distress, heroic heroines, and perilous peril. Zita has a cameo, so there is also one Spanish obscenity, free of charge. It touches on adult topics though, so still not a story for children.

Availability

Roses is free, but only available to newsletter subscribers, both new and existing. While the December newsletter had the first link to it, the January newsletter will include the link again for those too inundated with holiday sales notices to catch it the first time. Subscribers will also have periodic chances to download all the short stories for free during the year.

Arca World vs. Arca

The Arca series will continue to be my focus. However, since the world isn’t about any one person, however interesting and awesome they consider themselves, my work isn’t either. Arca World stories are about all the other people and events. Many thanks to the readers who wrote in asking for more Wyn—Roses is for you!

So, if you have a favorite you’d like to see more of, let me know. I’m always happy to hear from readers and that character might be the hero or heroine of the next Arca World story.