What I love about Milwaukee: the art museum on the lake, especially the Folk Art there. The lake itself, a force to be reckoned with. Paul CeBar & the Milwaukeens. The brats, beer, borscht, and Alterra Coffee, especially when enjoyed at Alterra Café at the Lake. But now I love Milwaukee for a whole new reason. [...]
I sometimes wonder what my mother would say if she knew that her story—one of the saddest, sweetest love stories I’ve ever heard—was retold in a new way in my young adult novel, While He Was Away. Now Sourcebooks Fire is sharing the story yet again, in a second, exclusive edition, released nation-wide at Walmart. The fact that Sourcebooks believed enough [...]
Tonight, I took a quick break from watching elegant platform dives by astonishing young men to check my email. There was a tweet and it went like this: Back to press @SourcebooksFire on the terrific While He Was Away by @KarenSchreck! Todd Stocke, Editorial Director of Sourcebooks, posted the tweet. It took me completely by [...]
I used to take my feet for granted. There they were at the end of me, serviceable, pretty enough when pampered (which was rare), increasingly achy but resilient. I was self-conscious in my skin in certain seasons. Sometimes I felt like my body was a dress that didn’t quite fit. Or my hair or eyes [...]
Last Saturday, I celebrated the publication of While He Was Away with dear friends and neighbors at one of my favorite local bookstores, The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. It was a wonderful, meaningful time for me, full of laughter, good conversation, popsicles, Perrier, and Madeleines (in honor of Proust’s hunger for memory). Here are [...]
When I was four my parents bought me a pair of red cowboy boots. By day I wore them riding my black and white painted pony, Starfire. She lived in my bedroom, and we galloped so fast that her springs twanged and the metal frame that supported her lifted from the carpeted floor. By night [...]
Oklahoma. That’s where I’ve been these past few days, visiting family and spending time at two wonderful independent bookstores, Best of Books in Edmond and Full Circle Books in Oklahoma City. I signed copies of While He Was Away and talked with incredible readers and writers. I also appeared on the TV show, Rise & [...]
Just launched a site for While He Was Away. There’s a free chapter on board . . . I’d love it if you’d take a gander. http://www.karenschreck.com/while-he-was-away/ Thanks!
“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.” — Abraham Lincoln This past Friday, I attended my second Illinois Author and Illustrator Luncheon at the 44th Annual Illinois Reading Council Conference. I’m a big, big fan of the IRC and [...]
As Aubrey Poole, assistant editor for While He Was Away, wrote: “No more tweaks or changes—this is the file going to the printers!”