Meet Karen Heenan:
Karen Heenan was born and raised in Philadelphia. She fell in love with books and stories before she could read, and has wanted to write for nearly as long. After far too many years in a cubicle, she set herself free to follow her dreams - which include gardening, sewing, traveling and, of course, lots of writing.
She lives in Lansdowne, PA, not far from Philadelphia, with two cats and a very patient husband, and is currently hard at work on her next book.
Debut Book:
Bess has the voice of an angel, or so Henry VIII declares when he buys her from her father. As a member of the Music, the royal company of minstrels, Bess grows up within the decadent Tudor court, navigating the ever-changing tide of royals and courtiers. Friends come and go as cracked voices, politics, heartbreak, and death loom over even the lowliest of musicians. Tom, her first and dearest friend, is her only constant. But as Bess becomes too comfortable at court, she may find that constancy has its limits.
New Release:
Memories are all he has…
Now they could save his life.
Returning to England after almost five years in exile, Robin Lewis is arrested and charged with heresy by the dying Queen Mary. As he is escorted to the Tower of London, Robin spins a tale for his captor, revisiting his life under three Tudor monarchs and wondering how he will be judged—not just by the queen, but by the God he stopped serving long ago.
When every moment counts, will his stories last long enough for him to be saved by Mary's heir, the young Queen Elizabeth?
The interview:
What inspired you to write this story?
This story, A Wider World, was inspired by Songbird, my first book. I call it a not-sequel, because it’s a different main character, although Robin Lewis did appear in Songbird. The whole thing started out when I read in a biography of Henry VIII that he was such a music lover he purchased children to sing in the royal choir, and that idea just wouldn’t leave me alone. So that started me off with Bess and Songbird, but Robin was also based on something I read, about a young chorister who was taken from Cardinal Wolsey’s choir to the king’s, because of his beautiful voice. Unlike Bess, whose voice meant everything, Robin sees his talent as the means to an end - the end being a world larger than the court. He gets his wish, and occasionally lives to regret it.
Are you a plotter or pantser? Tell us your process.
I’m a little bit of each. I start with an idea - it can just be an incident, like Bess’s purchase by the king in Songbird - and then I just write flat-out for about 20k words, to get the feel of my characters, their voices, and some vague idea of where I’m going. By that point, I generally know more, and I try to figure out the ending, and a few points in between to make sure I get there. Writing historical is helpful because I also have historical events and people which need to be included and which almost always influence the plot and characters.
What’s next for you?
I’ve just finished and submitted Lady, in Waiting, the third novel in my Tudor series. The main character, Margaery, enters the story near the very end of A Wider World, and she’ll carry this book. It’s my way of writing a series when I didn’t really want to write a series - I pick someone to hand off the story, and my previous characters can be involved, but I’m no longer writing in their point of view.
That’s a neat way to do a series—stand-alones, yet the characters have cameos in other books. Thanks for letting us get to know you.
Where to find Karen:
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