Please enjoy and share my new essay for the Collegeville Institute.
Cheers, Karen

I have the most wonderful news. My new novel, Arborview, will be published next year.
Yes, you heard right. The contract has been signed. Final edits are underway, and so is the cover design. The Wild Rose Press, a well established and growing publisher, has purchased the rights, and I’m working with a super supportive and generous editor.
I’m still pinching myself. It’s a magical way to kick off the holiday season, and some good news to cap off a year that’s been so difficult for all of us.
I don’t have a release date yet, but it will be in 2021, and I’ll keep you all posted. While I’m on that theme, I want to thank the friends and colleagues who’ve helped me bring this book–which has been in the works for six years–to life. They know who they are, and I’ve got a hefty “Acknowledgements” section in the novel.
It goes without saying that Cathy has been on this ride from the beginning, through multiple revisions and moments of hair-tearing doubt. She is irreplaceable, and the best editor I’ll ever have. I’m not going to say I love her, because she already knows it.
Writing a novel is like running a marathon. You dig deep and push with all you have. Now we’re crossing the finish line.
It isn’t every day dreams come true. Thanks for being part of mine.
Here’s hoping the blessings of the holiday season–large and small–bring us all comfort this year.
–Karen
Iâve been a journalist and a fiction writer. But essays? Not since school, and that was more, well, academic in nature.
I donât know exactly what possessed me when I learned the Collegeville Institute was looking to build up its stable of freelance essay writers. I love the Collegeville Institute and its mission, and I think my heart just leapt at the prospect of being a part of it.
Iâm thrilled to have published my latest this month. Take a look. I think the photo they chose way overshadows my essay, but in a good way.
Essay writing has been such a gift. Itâs an unexpected platform, one whose benefits and challenges I am just beginning to understand. I feel lucky, blessed, to have stumbled upon this opportunity to writeâin a different wayâabout the things that move, and resonate with, me.
The âmeâ part is a big leap. Writing as yourselfâfor fiction writersâcan be a bit unnerving. But it can also be liberating and empowering. One of the reasons we write in the first place, I think, is to have the sheer pleasure, to experience the power, of matching our thoughts with just the right words. The pleasure of saying what you mean.
Essays are challenging in different ways than fiction. But some of the benefits are similar. They help me think through issues and sharpen and organize my understanding. In a nutshell, they help me make sense of it all. Isnât that what writing is for?
Anyone else out there dabbling in a new different genre? Let us know.
Write well, friends.
–Karen
Hi All,
Cathy and I have had a busy fall, writing and…drumroll…publishing. Every author knows that digital self-promotion is just part of the process today, like it or not. We don’t especially like it, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
In that spirit, we share our latest triumphs. We love the triumphs, don’t get me wrong. We just feel a tad squirrelly, tooting our own horns. So this time, I’m tooting Cathy’s, and she’s tooting mine.
Please join us in celebrating. It’s always a gift to find your way into print!
Cathyâs had a few publishing ups and downs lately. Her first novel, A Hundred Weddings, went out of print when her publisher folded. But sheâs had two stories published in the last couple of months, and has another coming out in the spring. Check out âThe Huntâ in Appalachian Heritage magazine, and âDreaming about the Bouviersâ in Pithead Chapelâs online journal. Look for âGently Usedâ to appear in Wordrunner eChapbookâs April 2020 anthology.
Cathy’s strategy these days: “I use mostly use Submittable to send in stories (donât we all?) and currently my list includes: six stories that are âActive,â exactly two that are âAccepted,â and a whopping 50 âDeclined.â I also keep a submission folder in my inbox full of emails from publications that donât use Submittable. Nearly all are rejections, of course. Some people would find this discouraging. I donât. I always see it like playing the lottery. Thereâs that initial moment of disappointment when I first find out, and then the shrug, and the self-reminder that itâs all a big crap shoot anyway, and then the self-nudge of âHey, you need to get that piece out again.â And on it goes. Bottom line: ABS: Always Be Submitting!”Â
–Karen
Karen has been up to her eyeballs in her novel rewrite, but she is psyched to have just placed an essay with the Collegeville Institute’s awesome online magazine, Bearings Online.
Karen explains: “Iâve been a follower of the Collegeville Institute for a few years. I love the way they examine spiritual and literary issues, encouraging exploration that unites the two.
Last year, I was brainstorming ideas that I could pitch as essays for their Bearings Online magazine. The work is so eclectic and thoughtful. I love scrolling through. I had an idea about the spiritual implications of feeding wild bird that just seemed to fit.
Everyone who knows me knows I love wild birds. They seem to wing their way into all my work. But when I pushed the concept of feeding them a little deeper, asking why we do it today on such scale, I realized that scattering seed is not a small act, but a large and symbolic one that resonates deeply for the feeder, as well as for the fed.
I queried the Institute with a few essay ideas, and their lovely digital team member author Stina Kielsmeier-Cook liked this one. (It was also my favorite!) But it had to wait, while I finished a novel draft rewrite. After I delivered the rewrite to Cathy a few weeks back, I turned to the birds. The essay flowed naturally from there, with one section leading to the next, and the Bible quotes serving as lovely introductions.
I am thrilled to be published on the Collegeville Instituteâs platforms. They do a terrific job sharing their authorsâ works, and encouraging participation. And I am in very good (and talented) company. Every time I go to the site, I learn something new and come away just a little bit better for it. You canât ask more than that.”
–Cathy