About Me

karen@karenranney.com

Odds and Ends

My name is pronounced Rain-ey, not Ran-ney. I know, odd, hmm? It’s a married name, but my real one.

Who I am

I read something the other day that moved me. It was a comment that people want what you do not because of what it is, but who you are. So I decided to tell you who I am, in as succinct a way as possible:

• I believe that you can accomplish almost anything if you believe it and add your actions to your thoughts.
• I believe that there are more nice people than there are ugly ones, and you should ignore the ones that bring you misery.
• I believe in the magnificence of the human spirit, in the kindness and love of which we’re all capable.
• I believe that character is what you do when no one is looking.
• I believe that we are judged by how we treat those of us who need help, how we care for the innocents among us and the animals in our world.
• I believe in the transformative power of love.

My story

When I was five years old, I decided I was going to be a writer.

I used to carry around this really big blue book, holding it in my arms much like I would a doll. I can still feel how heavy it was and recall the marks it made on my arms. I remember sitting on the front steps in Sherman, Texas with the book beside me. Sometimes I would sit with it in my lap and open it up, my fingers sliding on top of all those words. I’d try to match the ones I already knew to the ones in that magical book.

“I’m going to be a writer,” I told my mother. And she, in the way of most mothers, smiled and said, “That’s nice, honey.”

Little did I know it would take me a few years.

My oddities as a writer

I’m one of those writers who writes regardless of circumstances.  If there’s a hurricane, a flood, a death, an illness, I write through the experience.  It’s how I cope.  I can point to each one of my books and tell you if I was undergoing some trauma at the time.  The book itself has become a catharsis, and consequently, I feel a special bond to it.  Those books are Tapestry, My Beloved, After the Kiss, and The Scottish Companion.