Author of the Trans-Pecos, Sacred
Emblem, Sacred Journey, and Sacred Messenger series, Karen is a best-selling
author, motivational keynote speaker, wife, and all-around pilgrim of life.
She writes multicultural, offbeat love stories that lift the spirit. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved annually, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Westerns spurred her to write (pun intended). Wanderlust inherent, Karen enjoyed traveling, although loathed changing schools. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Hill Country with her husband Peter and her “mews”—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog.
She writes multicultural, offbeat love stories that lift the spirit. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved annually, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Westerns spurred her to write (pun intended). Wanderlust inherent, Karen enjoyed traveling, although loathed changing schools. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Hill Country with her husband Peter and her “mews”—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog.
Have you always wanted to write fiction?
I think I have always wanted to write fiction.
My escape, as a child, was into books. My parents moved quite often – eight times
when I was eight years old. Depending on where we moved, I was either a
city-slicker or a country-bumpkin. Reading was my only getaway, and writing
became a an even better flight of fantasy.
Tell us about your road to publication.
I broke into publication through cookbooks. Before
the age of computers and Internets, people relied on cookbooks, and I found
them a lucrative start to a career in fiction writing.
How do you come up with your characters?
Mostly, they evolve. First, I think of the action.
Then a character comes to mind. Sometimes, I search photos online, looking for
the characters I picture in my mind. Then I refer to those photos to remind me
of the color of their eyes or some other physical traits.
How do you come up with your plots?
I like to brainstorm with friends. I call it “Playing
Dolls,” where we imagine where the characters go and what they do next.
Tell us about your latest book, The Wild Rose Pass. What made you write it?
Driving home, we missed the turnoff and followed
TX-118 north. Snow-covered and glinting against the frosty blue January sky, a
remote jumble of mountain peaks and ranges beckoned as they rose above the
desert floor. I was enchanted.
A hasty glance at the map told us these were the
Davis Mountains. As we approached, vertical basalt columns rose like thousands
of giant fingers reaching for the sky. The palisades, buttes, and bluffs
towered above both sides of Wild Rose Pass with a raw, majestic beauty, and I
breathed a contented sigh, sensing a homecoming.
Then, when I learned a friend’s
great-great-grandfather had not only worked for Fort Davis’ cavalry as an Indian
scout in the 1870s and 1880s but had been captured as a child and raised by
Comanches, an idea took root. The outcome of that budding thought bloomed into
my latest historical novel: Wild Rose Pass, Book I of the Trans-Pecos
Series.
What advice do you have for beginning writers?
Write every day. Keep the storyline fresh. Then, even while you sleep, your mind will work out the plot and characterizations.
How about a blurb:
Cadence McShane,
free-spirited nonconformist, yearns to escape the rigid code, clothes, and
sidesaddles of 1880s military society in Fort Davis, Texas. She finds the
daring new lieutenant exhilarating, but as the daughter of the commanding
officer, she is expected to keep with family tradition and marry West Point
graduate James West.
Orphaned, Comanche-raised, and always the outsider looking in, Ben Williams yearns to belong. Cadence embodies everything he craves, but as a battlefield-commissioned officer with the Buffalo Soldiers instead of a West Point graduate, he is neither accepted into military society nor considered marriageable.
Can two people of different worlds, drawn together by conflicting needs, flout society and forge a life together on the frontier?
Want more? Let's get an excerpt:
Reining his horse between catclaw and prickly-pear
cactus, Ben Williams squinted at the late summer sun’s low angle. Though still
midafternoon, shadows lengthened in the mountains. He clicked his tongue,
urging his mare up the incline. “Show a little enthusiasm, Althea. If we’re not
in Fort Davis by sunset, we’ll be bedding down with scorpions and
rattlesnakes.”
As his detachment’s horses clambered up Wild
Rose Pass, the only gap through west Texas’ rugged Davis Mountains, Ben kept alert
for loose rocks or hidden roots, anything that might trip his mount. A thick
layer of fallen leaves created a pastiche of color shrouding the trail from
view. He glanced up at the lithe cottonwood trees lining the route, their limbs
dancing in the breeze. More amber and persimmon leaves loosened, fell, and
settled near the Indian pictographs on their tree trunks. When he saw the red-
and yellow-ochre drawings, he smiled, recalling the canyon’s name—Painted
Comanche Camp. “How far to Fort Davis, lieutenant?” called McCurry, one of his recruits.
“Three hours.” If we keep a steady pace.
Without warning, the soldier’s horse whinnied. Spooking, it reared on its hind legs, threw its rider, and galloped off.
As he sat up, the man groaned, caught his breath,
and stared into the eyes of a coiled rattler, poised to strike. “What the…?”
Flicking its tongue, hissing, tail rattling,
the pit viper was inches from the man’s face. A sheen of sweat appeared above the man’s lip. “Lieutenant—”
If you want more and would like to read on, here are the buy links:
Amazon Paperback
Barnes & Noble NOOK Book
Barnes & Noble Paperback
If you would like to connect with Karen:
Facebook Goodreads
Website
Amazon Author Page
BookBub
AUTHORSdb
Thank you, Karen, for being my guest! Any comments or questions for Karen?
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