Karen Randau started writing as a way of life as soon as an elementary school teacher taught her to print Run Spot Run. Most of her major life events got processed in prose.
She put that way of life into a career by getting a degree in journalism/public relations from the University of Texas at Austin. The career that spanned the industries of high tech, mental health, and non-profit
For nearly three decades, she worked for Food for the Hungry, an international relief and development organization that partners with communities in developing countries to help them end extreme poverty.
She feels privileged to have witnessed that life-saving work in Bolivia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. She brings these unique experiences to her writing.
She was quietly confessing strange thoughts to a friend one day and asked, “Do you think I’m going crazy?” The friend answered, “No, I think you have a novel in you that wants to get out.”
And so she wrote a novel, got it edited by more than one published author/editor, and learned that writing marketing materials is different than writing a novel.
She attended conferences and workshops, rewrote that first novel five times, and talked to dozens of published authors about what it takes to produce an engaging, fast-paced story that readers will relate to. One of the valuable lessons she learned is that too many edits will destroy a story, and she quit work on novel number one.
A few years later, she had more of those crazy, upsetting thoughts — but this time recognized them for what they were: an idea. That idea turned into her debut novel, Deadly Deceit, the first in her four-novel Rim Country Mystery series. Deadly Payload was a finalist in the Book Excellence Awards and the Beverly Hills Book Awards. Her most recent releases are the three Frankie Shep suspense series and the Kayla Walsh mystery/suspense trilogy.