Karen was born in Burbank, California, the fourth of five children, and the only girl.

 

Her fascination with the twenty-six letters of the alphabet began when she embarked on her first major (unfinished) writing project at age 3: to copy the entire Los Angeles phone directory into her older brothers' school notebooks. 

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She's led an eclectic life getting her first job at age 12 as a groom for a top polo player in Los Angeles. Her junior year of high school she was shipped off to a private boarding school in Scottsdale, Arizona and later worked as a dough-roller at a pizza chain while attending the University of Arizona. Later she moved to Coconut Grove—an enclave in Miami—to be closer to her father, a practicing psychoanalyst.  

 

Soon after he unwittingly helped her get a job at the Hotel Mutiny. The Mutiny Girl is inspired by her first hand account working inside the hotel's lux private club covertly doubling as the epicenter for Miami’s multi-billion dollar cocaine trade.  

 

Since 1982 Karen has made a living in the commercial film/video production business as an award-winning producer, writer and editor.  

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She is the author of the Gold and Courage thriller series. The first book, The Mutiny Girl, was released in 2019 followed by Killer Deal, Express Intent, Sick Money, Money for Nothing and Liable. 

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She moved to Texas in 1998 where she still lives with her rescue poodle-mashup, Dexter. She is an avid equestrian (sometimes referred to as 'horse-crazy').