About Karen

Like most writers, Karen Hasley has been teased, tantalized, and mesmerized by the written word all her life. Her literary imagination has been active and vivid since elementary school. Working on her thesis for an M.A. in English, she explored women writers of the seventeenth century in intimate and fascinating depth. That research gave Karen a true appreciation for the remarkable contributions women have made to society and civilization. Combining history and literature in her own voice was a natural next step and the beginning of her unique historical romances.

One of Karen's recurring themes in her fiction is that whether settling a prairie, a tenement, or a suburb, whether homesteading or running the family business, whether born in 1870 or 1970, women display a remarkable strength, a unique insight, an encouraging hope, and a steady focus on family, home, and personal enthusiasms. Century and setting aside, they continue to manage the fundamentals of their lives without sacrificing compassion for others, without losing their ability to love passionately, and without compromising their own integrity.

Since the publication of Karen's first novel in the summer of 2006, she has been busy writing, promoting, making public speaking appearances, and marketing-only one of which does she have any true passion for and here's a hint: it's none of the last three activities mentioned. Circled Heart, available in December, 2009, is book four of the Laramie Series that began with Lily's Sister and continued with Waiting for Hope and Where Home Is. Karen's books integrate real-life women of history—women such as Jane Addams, Dr. Alice Hamilton, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Dr. Katherine Harwood Waller Barrett, and Donaldina Cameron—into the lives of remarkable fictional heroines of strength and passion.