Karen Harper | What I Did On My Summer Vacation-(And How It Inspired My Novel)

Several years ago my husband and I took a two week trip to Alaska, one week by bus and train, one by cruise ship. I was surprised how much I loved "America’s Last Frontier," and realized it would be a great place to set a romantic suspense novel. Not only was the scenery awesome, but it could easily become dangerous, especially if-hm, let’s say a south Florida heroine visiting there is somehow swept down a wild river. And then, what if Mitch Braxton, her former fiancé, who owns a lodge nearby, risks his life to rescue her in a kayak, but then they are stranded in the wilderness... Ah, yes, the eternal "what if" of a fiction writer.

During our trip, I met and interviewed many unique Alaskans, some of whom thought nothing of holding down two or three part time jobs for the privilege of living in their beloved state. Besides meeting the human denizens, we were astounded to see so much of nature up close and personal: moose walking down the street; bears grabbing migrating salmon out of a wild river.

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Karen Harper | A Novel Idea Takes Root

Every writer needs a 'hook for the book.' By this I don’t mean only a grabber beginning, but something unique about the theme or setting. So for my June novel, Deep Down, I decided to hang the intrigue of the story not only on the romance between the hero and heroine or the murder mystery they must solve together, but on the rare, endangered and precious herb ginseng.


That's right—an herb, a root. The tag line on the front of Deep Down, screams "Evil takes root!" The herb ginseng is one of the most valuable but increasingly rare herbs in the world and has been for centuries. The Chinese emperors used to guard their imperial ginseng under pain of death. George Washington knew and traded the herb as did Daniel Boone. Some the best 'sang' in the world, as the Appalachians call ginseng, grows in the forests of Kentucky. Today, this cure-all is in demand by Chinese cartels, power drink companies, herbal conglomerates and the US Government, which has put it on the Endangered Species list. Tests are starting to prove that it delays (perhaps can help to cure?) certain endocrine-driven cancers. What an herb! What a hook for a scary, deep woods romantic suspense novel.

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Karen Harper | RESEARCHING THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

No, I don’t write vampire novels, but I do write both contemporary and historical fiction. For the last ten years of my twenty-five-year writing career, I have written one romantic suspense novel and then one historical novel—back and forth. I have a writer’s split personality since it takes different skills and research techniques to do both. I love reading and writing in two genres and in two times, but it does have its challenges as well as its rewards.

For my contemporary romantic suspense novels, I can visit the settings for my story and interview people who live there or have the same careers as my hero and heroine. For THE HIDING PLACE (Nov. 2008), I spent a week in the Rocky Mountains outside Denver. I was able to interview men with dogs trained as trackers. I took two classes to learn about how my female P.I. would work, one class from a tracer who looks for lost people, and one from a female private investigator.

When I write my Elizabethan novels (most recently, THE LAST BOLEYN and MISTRESS SHAKESPEARE), I can, at least, still visit my settings. Nothing like a research trip to England! The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Greenwich—and museums, of course—help me to understand Elizabeth Tudor and her times. Although I can’t interview anyone from that era, the Elizabethans were great recorders of their lives: diaries, lists of their possessions, wills, books, and, of course, their literature such as poems and plays. I even have a reference book of the poems, prayers and speeches the queen herself wrote. All of that helps my characters to come alive for me, and, hopefully, for the reader too.

One of the great things about being a writer is that I learn so much about things I would not ordinarily know. I hope my readers not only enjoy my books for great entertainment and emotion, but also for a fun, easy way to become more educated. Whether writing the past or the present, that’s my goal.

Karen Harper

www.karenharperauthor.com/