Remembering a friend …
Today is bittersweet.
On the bright side, Crush the King, Crown of Shards #3, has been released (Go! Read! Enjoy!).
On the not-so-bright side, today, March 17, is the birthday of my friend Karen Borrelli, who passed away in February from metastatic breast cancer. She would have been 62. I dedicated Crush the King to Karen (among other people), although she never got to see a finished copy of the book.
Karen was a self-described “diva” who had a rescue dog named Biscuit, a cat named Rewrite, and a red Cadillac that she nicknamed “Ruby Sue”. She was a journalist and romance author who loved to travel and take photographs. Karen worked at The Buffalo News, which ran a very nice story about her life and journalism career: https://tinyurl.com/sty77sa
The last book that Karen wrote (under the pen name Trixie Stilletto) was Do Grave Harm, which focuses on a woman undergoing breast cancer treatments who comes across a murdered technician. I always got a kick out of the fact that Karen named the book’s heroine “Jennifer”.
Karen was one of the most cheerful people I’ve ever met, and she always tried to look on the bright side of things. She was also one of the most determined people I’ve ever met. When she got her cancer diagnosis, Karen had to cancel her dream vacation to Alaska. But she went to Alaska the next year, even though she had to take her chemo medication with her in a cooler. Karen had moxie.
Karen was always there when I needed to talk about book stuff or just life in general, and she always loved to chat over lunch, often saying, “Hey, we gotta eat!”
In honor of Karen, I’m going to make a donation to my local food bank. I hope that you will consider making a donation to your local library, animal shelter, food bank, etc. Let’s put some positive vibes out in the world, just like Karen did.
Thank you for reading.
