Karen grew up in southwestern Michigan and graduated from Western Michigan University, where she studied writing with Ken Macrorie.  She taught secondary school English and Latin for twenty-five years in Portage, Michigan.  After retiring from teaching, Karen returned to WMU to obtain a doctorate in Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology.  She practiced as a licensed psychologist in Kalamazoo for fourteen years.  After moving up north in 2006, she taught social science at Davenport University.  She currently is retired and devotes her time to writing and photography.

About her writing, Karen states:  "Writing has always played an important role in my life:  keeping a journal, writing professional articles, helping students become authentic writers, and writing college papers and a dissertation.  Writing a novel didn't start until I moved to Northwestern Lower Michigan.  There, my love of the Northwoods, crime fiction, and psychology came together with my first e-book mysteries, Culpable and Spinning.  It wasn't until my newest novel, Calling, published in both e-book and paperback formats that I feel I've found my stride as a writer."