Karen Douglass, Author

Karen Douglass, Author: Prose & Poetry

Category: Uncategorized

  • Writer as Architect

    While other little girls were jumping rope or playing with paper dolls, I was drawing house plans. My grandfather was, among other things, a building inspector, and I happily tagged along while he inspected new construction in our small town. If I had been born later in the century, I might have said that I wanted to…

  • Blind Faith in Fiction

    When I left high school, I’ve wanted a creative life that allowed me to do some good in the world. I dreamed of working with Jimmy Doolittle, the doctor who did generous work in Cambodia. Or serving on the Hope Ship, a floating hospital. So I went to nursing school and from the outside, it looked…

  • Ready to Rewrite

    Most people call this season spring; for me it’s critique season. The beta readers for Providence (sequel to Accidental Child) are hard at work and I’m working hard at being patient. I know I’ll have plenty to do on the rewrite, but my generous readers will guide me. Obviously, the final decisions are mine and the book…

  • Poems Come from Everywhere

    Last week I was journaling about a disagreement with a friend and did not understand my own strong objections to the other side of the issue. So I tossed the problem into my unconscious/subconscious (I never know where these things land.) and decided to sleep on it. As sometimes happens, I woke up from a dream that…

  • Index Cards & Buffalo Chips

    You’ve heard the adage about using the whole buffalo? Hold that thought. I read this week James Alexander Thom’s The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction, in which he warns about the danger of relying on the digital storage of extensive research, and the need to retain the material after a book is published, in case…