Book 1: Blood Ties of the James Findlay Journals *NEW SERIES* A James Findlay mini-adventure. Because villains are the heroes Read More ...
The James Findlay Journals
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Welcome
Karen J Carlisle is a writer of Victorian mysteries, steampunk, fantasy, and cosies with a twist.
Illustrator. Gardener. Chocoholic and tea lover.
Karen is currently working on the second book in her steampunk adventure duology, The Department of Curiosities, set mostly in Adelaide.
The new Aunt Enid digital book box is available now!
The Aunt Enid: Protector Extraordinaire eBook Digital Book Box Contains a Special eBook edition of Aunt Enid:Protector Extraordinaire, Aunt Enid’s Lemon Butter recipe, printable Book Posters, computer wallpapers, character art colour-in pages, ambient soundtracks, and a printable pdf crochet pattern.
(This item is a virtual/digital product, with downloads via zipfile, and link to download eBook, only available direct from author.)
Purchase your copy now.
More Book Boxes:
Take your reading enjoyment up a level with the first of my new Immersive Experience Book Boxes.
Gaslamp #1 and Aunt Enid #1 boxes now available with book-related items, stickers, and bookmarks.
The boxes are created separately, so you can purchase your preferred book/s (in either paperback or eBook). If you already own either (or both) books, you can now upgrade your reading experience.
Aunt Enid #2 book box experience is coming soon!
Aunt Enid #1
This book box experience was created specifically for Aunt Enid: Protector Extraordinaire and contains 5+ bookish items.
2 bookmarks- 2 book related stickers
- Mr B page holder
- Book candle with lemon scent to use when reading the story.
- book-related jewelry
- Bonus crocheted Mr B coaster
- book teas and coffee to enhance the reading experience.
- reusable zipped book case to protect your book when travelling.
- Value approx AU$58.
You can now order your own box for the complete reading experience!
Box Packing Video: What’s inside!
Gaslamp #1:
This book box experience was created specifically for Doctor Jack & Other Tales and Blood Ties and contains 4 bookish items:
- 2-3 book related stickers
- 2 bookmarks
- Crimson Smog book tea created esp. for Karen’s gaslamp books
- book-related jewelry
- book related lapel pin
- reusable, zipped book case to protect your book when travelling.
- Value approx AU$53.
You can now order your own box for the complete reading experience!
Box Packing Video: What’s inside!
Limited edition ‘12 Days of Twixtmas’ Book Box (physical book box) left
To celebrate the release of Twixtmas, Karen is creating a limited number of book boxes, with paperback and book-related items (available now).
Direct from author only. Enjoy 12 days of opening presents (including paperback), each a book/Christmas-related item – some hand-made by the author herself (that’s me!).
Included: the paperback (and eBook download), something to drink, something to play with, things to decorate with, something to use when reading, something to wear, and more!
Box Packing Video
Unboxing video by Suz’s Space (SPOILERS – what’s in the box)
**Digital Book Box coming 2026.
Doctor Jack & Other Tales digital eBook Box – Announcing my first digital book box!
This was one of my secret projects for 2024, inspired by author Nicole McKeon, The eBook box was launched to celebrate Doctor Jack & Other Tales being the chosen book for August’s Temporal Textural Talks – a steampunk book club run by Madame Askew and the Grand Arbiter
What’s inside: eBook download link, annotated maps, printable art and ‘Ghastly Murder’ front page posters, computer wallpaperss, printable character art colour in pages, ambient soundtracks, printable crochet pattern for your own granny book square!
Grab your eBook box now from: https://karenjcarlisle.com/product/doctor-jack-ebook-box/ (AU$)
This item is a virtual/digital product. No postage is required.
Want regular updates and news?
Sign up to Karen’s email list for her monthly newsletter, Tea & Tidings.
You can find Karen on youTube, Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky and Mastadon , and support her on Patreon to receive sneak peeks, exclusives, behind the scenes, and more, or buy her a cup of tea at Ko-fi.
Other books include:
Her ongoing series, The Aunt Enid Mysteries, is cosy(ish) fantasy mysteries set in Adelaide.
Great Aunt Enid is your average seventy-something year old. She loves to cook, is a regular at bingo and spends hours in her garden, talking to her army of garden gnomes and fussing over the colour of her hydrangeas…
And only she stands between the Dark and the fate of the world.
Aunt Enid’s back, but something’s changed…
A deal with fairies… to solve a mystery… and prevent a war.
Fairies and magic: It’s all real!
A Fey Tale: Find out how Arthur Conan Doyle’s visit to Adelaide in 1920, and how Adelaide’s mysterious fairy doors inspired the book.
Twixtmas: Sally must travel to an unknown Otherworld, with an unwanted companion, to safe a friend.
Book 3, Twixtmas, Now available direct from author and online
VIEW BOOK TRAILER #1/ BOOK TRAILER #2
Your BONUS Aunt Enid prequel mini-adventure is available in eBook/digital format with newsletter subscription.
Ever wonder that happened to Doctor Jack (The Adventures of Viola Stewart)? His journey continues in the first book of the James Findlay Journals.
Because villains are the heroes of their own story.
A dark mystery on the high seas in a new series.
Available direct from author in eBook and paperback
or from online stores.
View Booktrailer HERE and Don’t forget your Book Tea!
Karen has collaborated with Adelaide tea merchant Wyverstone Tea to create Crimson Smog, a book a tea blend to enjoy while reading Blood Ties. Read more about Book Teas HERE. (links to Wyverstone tea)
The Adventures of Viola Stewart is a three-book series of Victorian mysteries, set in the late 1880s. Viola Stewart is a widowed optician with a penchant for detectiving who, with her friend, Doctor Henry Collins, chases secret societies and uncovers nefarious plots. All three books in The Adventures of Viola Stewart have been re-released with new shiny covers.
Buy them now – DIRECT FROM AUTHOR or online – via Karen’s shop.
For those who love to read Christmas/Holiday stories: you asked for it, so you got it. Karen has published Viola Stewart’s Christmas adventure (first published in The Illusioneer & Other Tales), Tomorrow, When I Die, separately as paperback.
It’s Christmas Eve. A friend is in trouble. A life is in danger. A knock on the door could change everything. It’s all just a matter of time. Is it part of another plot by the mysterious Men in Grey? Viola must find out the truth before it is too late.
Buy your print copy direct from author HERE. (eBook cover also updated)
Mrs Hudson Investigates – original short eBook series of Holmesian mysteries featuring Mrs Hudson, John Watson, and Mary Watson.
With the help of Mary Watson, Mrs Hudson proves she is just as canny as the Great Detective. I mean, what can’t a woman do if she puts her mind to it?
The Department of Curiosities is the first book in her second series (duology) of books set in her Victorian steampunk world. This series is set in early to mid 1880s, with new characters, and is a rollicking steampunk tale of adventure, a heroine, mad scientists, traitors and secrets. All for the good of the Empire.
(Second edition, 2023 – eBook and paperback, with new cover. Available now – from author and online)
View Booktrailers HERE
Cogs and Conspiracies is a steampunk short story collection:- Five short tales set in a world of steampunk and alternate history, with adventures from England to the Antipodes. Here be villains, gadgets, mechanical creatures, secrets and conspiracies. All in time for tea.
Available in Paperback and eBook direct from authoror from online stores. (2023)
Find out about Karen’s other short story collections HERE
