Kara Barbieri

Kara Barbieri is an American author most widely known for the Permafrost series. The first book in the series, White Stag, was originally published on the website Wattpad. Thanks in part to the book's quick rise through the Top Fantasy Stories list, White Stag won a Trailblazer Watty Award and caught the attention of publisher St. Martin's Press.

Early Writings
Barbieri started writing at eleven years old after being inspired by their twin sister. While their sister eventually stopped writing, Barbieri continued, completing a total of seven books before beginning White Stag that ranged in genre from Sci-Fi to Adventure/Fantasy. However, since the author believes their earlier works are less than ideal examples of their writing, they do not plan to publish them, stating "[none of the early books] will... ever see the light of day if I have anything to do with it."

Wattpad and White Stag
After querying publishers for some time about their writing, Barbieri decided to join the popular reading and writing site Wattpad as a way to get feedback on their work and potentially advance their writing career. Although they had experimented with several other online writing communities, Barbieri "thought [Wattpad] would be a good community" and wanted to continue sharing their writing. On this site, they chose the username Pandean "because it means 'Of Pan/Pan's Pipes/A State of Panic' and I'm a neurotic mess."

Barbieri began writing what would become their first published novel as a form of therapy, stating that it started as a cathartic novel but soon grew into much more. It was inspired mainly by Germanic myths of the Erlking, as well as a famous poem by Goethe about this figure, and written mainly in their basement late at night for around six months; they often fell asleep at their computer. They began publishing the novel serially almost immediately after joining Wattpad, in early October 2015, and it quickly rose through the rankings of top stories. After gaining thousands of votes and comments and hundreds of thousands of reads, White Stag won a 2016 Watty Trailblazer Award, a Wattpad writing award recognizing authors who break new ground in late September of 2016. With this win came membership in the Wattpad Star program, an official Wattpad program designed to support successful and popular online authors. In November 2016, Wednesday Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, acquired the rights to the White Stag trilogy, to be published in Fall of 2018.

Barbieri began publishing chapters of the second novel, Goblin King, soon after completing the first. In addition to the second book, they wrote and published many short stories, poems/songs, and Permafrost FAQs and trivia collections in early 2016, and began writing the third book in the series, Hunting Party, in late 2016. Although the books are being traditionally published, the original rough drafts of the novels remain accessible on Wattpad.

Personal Life
Online, Barbieri is known for being one of the most active and engaging users, having made over 15000 comments in discussion threads in just under two years. They have also hosted several contests and raffles for Permafrost fans. Their blog, Permafrost Online, is dedicated to their writing process and provides tips and encouragement for other writers as well as updates on their life.

Aside from writing, Barbieri enjoys spinning fire staves, practicing with weapons such as throwing knives, swords, and spears, and reading both original books and fanfiction in their free time. They own several cats and are well-known for their love of goats, stating they want to use the money earned from writing to open a goat sanctuary. Barbieri identifies as a lesbian and is a member of a large Pagan fellowship; they state on their Wattpad profile that they don’t care who a person is or what they believe in as long as they treat others decently. Barbieri is also very open about having borderline personality disorder and Asperger's syndrome and will speak honestly with fans about these conditions in an attempt to reduce the stigma around them.

Trivia

 * Barbieri almost turned down Wattpad staff's offer of helping them publish their books because they wanted to publish the traditional way; however, they’re glad that they accepted their offer in the end.
 * Barbieri enjoys lemon-flavored things.
 * In addition to speaking English, Barbieri can read French, and knows rudimentary ASL, Finnish, and Norwegian.
 * Barbieri's favorite paper towel brand is "whatever's cheapest".
 * Barbieri is afraid of any and all fish.
 * They once put knives in their boots in McDonald's.