Monday, October 1, 2012

Author Guest Post: Karleen Koen, Author of Before Versailles

It is a pleasure to welcome Karleen Koen to The Muse in the Fog Book Review today, as she shares with us the inspiration behind her stunning novels of 17th century France. 


"Sometimes I’m asked in what order someone should read my books. I guess this is because some of the same characters appear in the three which are published. (Author's note: now there are 4.) First, I think it doesn’t matter. Read whichever one comes your way, and go from there. Each book is written to stand alone: a full-fledged story with beginning, middle, end. But as the one who writes them, it is very interesting to me the way they have unfolded in my imagination. The first one was written to heal over a great hurt. The second one was written because the publisher made an offer I couldn’t refuse. The third one was written because that’s what was there for me to do when I left a regular job. The fourth one is being written now because it’s the one I’ve been trying to write since the second. (It is out, part of this blog's review and is a giveaway: Before Versailles.)  A piece of it tumbled out in the third. That was when I realized how large this particular story (Louis XIV) was, and that my mistake had been to try to fit that story into one book. So now I write another piece of that story. And when it is finished, I will take one thread and unfurl it forward into the time period of Dark Angels, and those characters, Richard and Alice, will come back on stage. But then the book after, six, if I’m counting correctly, will again look backward to Alice’s girlhood. And then, and only then, will I be ready to go forward to the early 18th century in which Barbara, the character of the first and second novels, lives. Somehow, there’s a psychic order. I must finish with Louis XIV and Alice before I can begin again with Barbara. It’s as if I threw a rock in a pond, and the rock was the first book, and these which come after are the ripples in my imagination. Those basic themes of what is love, what is forgiveness, what is redemption just keep widening."


Also by Karleen Koen:

To learn more about Karleen and her work you can visit her here:

Intrigued by the decadence and courtly intrigue of 17th Century France? Be sure to check back later today for my review of Before Versailles and giveaway!


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