Thursday, August 03, 2006

Dream On, Karen!


You know how people retort, "It's not brain surgery," when other folks whine about having to do something? Well, Karen Miller has a valid complaint.

Because for her, it was brain surgery.

Karen, a former Inky colleague who covered West Philly using the same hustler's instincts she used to self-publish Satin Doll, her first novel, in 1999, said she sensed she was ill months before she underwent surgery in May '05 because.....well, I'll let her tell you.

"All of a sudden, I couldn't dream. My writing was going so slow and you know how I can crank a book out (girlfriend wrote Satin Doll in two months). Then I started having seizures."

She was diagnosed with a benign tumor on her left frontal lobe, the side that powers conceptual thought. "I couldn't see the creativity in anything," she says.

Five days after she got out of the hospital, "I had my first dream. From July 12 to Aug. 14 I wrote 50,000 words and turned in a 78,000-word book."

Her fifth novel, Satin Nights, features the same sassy quartet of women we got to know in Satin Doll.

If you're in Philly on Aug. 15, come on by Karen's book party at Zanzibar Blue from 5 to 7 p.m. But just because you go doesn't mean that Karen won't try to sell you a book if you run into her on the street.

Though her work has landed her on plenty of bestseller's lists, "I will sell a book out of my car in a minute! The hustler in me has brought me this far. I'm not about to abandon that now."

1 Comments:

Blogger Mocha said...

Wow. Now that's talent. Dreaming to write... pun intended.

I'm checking you out on Philly.com! It is no surprise to me that you are quite talented and I'm quite glad to know you.

9:20 PM  

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