Karen Gonzalez

Karen Gonzalez

About

Karen has been interested in folktales and folklore for more than three decades and has facilitated writing classes and workshops for more than twenty years .

Her poetry chapbooks include True North (Origami Poems Project), Coyote in the Basket of My Ribs (Kelsay Books) and forthcoming Down River with Li Po (Black Cat Poetry Press).

An award-winning fiction, poetry, and nonfiction writer, she has earned awards from Farmhouse Magazine, National League of American Pen Women, California Writers Association, and has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

Her work has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, North Bay Biz Journal, Australian Trade Community Journal, Verde, Potato Soup Journal, Sonoma Mandala, Big Blend Magazine, and Twisted in Time, Visual Verse, Zahir Tales as well as other magazines and newspapers.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degrees in Creative Writing and Anthropological Linguistics/Folklore from Sonoma State University in California, and her folklore research credits include “Sonoma County Scarecrows: Scarecrows as Folk Art,” which was presented to the California Folklore Society.

She is also an assemblage artist who was National Arts Program Featured Artist in 2022. Her work has appeared on the cover of several literary magazines and been displayed in several art galleries.

She lives in Northern California.

 

 
 

Vital Temptations: A Heart's Betrayal

Vital Temptations: A Heart's Betrayal

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Description

<p>Dr. Bethany McNeal is living her dream as a pediatric resident in one of the most sought-after medical centers in Seattle. Beautiful and intelligent, she’s missing only one thing—love, which she put on hold to focus on her career after ending a tumultuous relationship. Everything changes when she meets Dr. Brent Anderson, a charming and handsome fellow resident. Despite her reservations, Bethany falls for Brent—hard. When she learns Brent is married several months into their relationship, she immediately breaks it off. After graduating residency and going their separate ways, Bethany tries to move on with another man—real estate broker and personal trainer Charles Blakely. But just when things get serious with Charles, she realizes she’s still in love with Brent, and she finds herself caught between the two men, facing a series of difficult decisions and harrowing events that will change her life forever. Will she be able to recover from the vital temptations that turned her perfect life upside down?</p>

Story Behind The Book

Originally, folktales were stories created by ordinary people to be passed on orally from one generation to the next. Over time, with the advent of printing and later the Internet, oral tradition has rapidly been replaced by our ability to collect and store the information electronically (e.g., blogs, Web sites, digital media like CDs) or in books, including scrapbooks, workbooks and journals. The difference between researching and recording ac- curate family histories and writing folktales is that the folk teller (the writer) recounting folktales can focus upon his or her own memories. These rather than genealogy are the stuff of folktales.

Reviews

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;line-height:116%;"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:116%;font-family:'tempus sans itc';color:#000000;">&quot;Family Folktales: What Are Yours? provides quick and simple techniques to capture family history and preserve it for generations to come. Karen Pierce Gonzalez revives the lost art of family storytelling by inspiring us to recall favorite people, events and cherished objects in as little as fifteen minutes. Drawing on her experiences as a writer, student of folklore and creative writing teacher, Karen demonstrates how simple and rewarding writing family stories can be. Stories are indeed medicine, and I recommend this book for anyone wanting to deepen their relationships with their families.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;line-height:116%;text-align:right;"><strong><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:116%;font-family:'tempus sans itc';color:#000000;"> Catherine Anne Held, Ph.D., Ancestors’ Way</span></strong></p>