Karen Young

Blogging at Fresh Fiction

Karen Young | Determing the BIG DILEMMA
August 2, 2011
I'm not sure how I came up with the idea for the plot of LIE  Read More...

I'm convinced that I didn't choose writing as a career; it chose me. After numerous long distance moves necessitated by my husband's career, I realized I would never be in one place long enough to climb the corporate ladder. In sheer desperation I decided to try writing a book. When a major publisher bought it, I knew that I had found a career! Or, rather, it had found me.

Actually, the seeds were planted early in my childhood. I read voraciously...anything and everything I could get my hands on. In fact, at one point when I was in my teens, my mother said, "Karen, I'm afraid you'll never amount to anything if you don't get your nose out of a book once in a while." When my first book was published, she was very proud—and possibly astonished.

Writing fulfills something inside me like nothing else. I'm drawn to explore the problems of contemporary women. I see the difficulties women face in maintaining relationships, in balancing marriage and motherhood with career, with divorce, with the challenge of blended families, to issues facing society as a whole. There is plenty to set my muse to creating.

And looking at my body of work, it is possible to see my growth as a writer. Although I was first published in traditional romance, I was soon penning romantic suspense, then mysteries, then thrillers and now Christian fiction.

Ten years ago, I lost my husband to a fatal heart attack. Not only was my world changed, but I was changed in ways too numerous to mention. Conventional wisdom says no major life decisions should be made within a year of a traumatic event. So, exactly on the dot of one year, I sold my house in Jackson, Mississippi, packed up and moved to Houston, Texas. After living a nomadic lifestyle for many years, I'm firmly settled and have become a full-fledged Texan. The only disadvantage (besides the sweltering hot summers) is that two of my three daughters live far away—in separate states—so that I don't see them as often as I'd like.

But in spite of being separated by long distances, my family is a joy. I have five incredibly handsome and stunningly intelligent grandsons. I guess I will have to wait for one of them to present me with a great grand-daughter as my daughters have not come through on that dream. All in all, between my family and my career as a writer and my many friends, I consider myself wonderfully blessed.

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