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Walking with Elephants was my debut novel, although I am not new to writing. I was a theater critic and celebrity interviewer for a weekly tabloid in Jacksonville, Fl and I earned a Master’s in Mass Communication from Oklahoma State University. For 15 years I worked in Corporate America as a technical editor/editor/writer. I experienced first hand the politics and intrigue that goes with that territory and the balancing act that comes with being a working mother. I salute all those mothers who are the glue that holds their families together while pursuing the nine to five brass ring. That experience was the inspiration for Walking with Elephants.
With my second novel, Sunspots, I continue to be in awe of the magical and wondrous phenomenon called life. As an observer and obvious participant in feminine values and approach to our human challenges, I bring this perspective to my work. Fascinated by the mysteries of the unseen forces that perhaps play a role in guiding our choices, I search for answers in the mundane as well as in the cosmic forces that surround us.
Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
Aurora is grieving deeply for her husband Jake. He was killed in an automobile accident and she keeps imagining that he is coming back to bed with her. Her mother's friend Marina has stayed with Aurora after Jake's funeral; she is like a sister to Aurora. Steven and Harriet, Aurora's unmarried Jewish hippie parents, conceived her after they witnessed the Northern Lights. Steven and Harriet lived in separate apartments on different floors of the same apartment building in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, until Steven moves to California while Harriet continues her work in helping battered women. Aurora adopts the name Celeste Abbott and tries for a career on the stage, lives in cramped quarters with roommates, and supplements her career by working as a substitute clerical worker. While at one of her temporary jobs, Aurora meets handsome Jacob "Jake" Stein from Austin, Texas, who wears Ostrich boots and loves opera. Jake is Aurora's "dance with destiny" as she falls in love with him. He is a combination of looks, brains, and serious money, but is he really the man for Aurora?
"Sunspots" by Karen S.Bell is a delightful and detailed story of Aurora's dealing with what life has dealt her with a little help from ghostly presences. Aurora has the ability to look at a situation before her and relate it to a movie and its actresses. The dialogue between characters and the action throughout the story are really good. Main character Aurora, her mother and father, Marina, Viola, Jake, Cliff and all the other characters are believable and multi-dimensional. "Sunspots" presents the cosmic forces and other-worldly influences very well and it is a novel that thoughtful readers everywhere will enjoy.
