Prodigies

For forty years, I’ve been trying to write a fictional tennis story about two sisters. My first attempt, in college, received kudos from my creative writing teacher and fellow classmates but was never published. It wasn’t good enough. But I kept at this story, often changing points of views and genres – another try as a short story, then a middle grade novel, then a YA novel and eventually an adult novel. Nothing felt right. Nothing worked. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say. I put it away for years before returning to it. Again.

Part of the problem was that I was trying to write about real people. As a kid, I was a tournament tennis player and fascinated by the dynamics of the other players and their parents (perhaps if I’d spent more time worrying about my game, I’d have been a better player). Most fascinating were these two sisters and their larger-than life dad. But I didn’t know them personally and kept imagining their lives and that tangled me up. It wasn’t until a few years ago when I ditched writing about these people, put distance between me and the tennis in the story and changed everything – the setting, the POV, the sister combination – that the story finally came together. It took me 40 years to follow the advice I often give my students: don’t be afraid to take something from a story that isn’t working (a character, a theme, a plot) and plunk it down in a completely different world.

To read the story, click on the blue link below. Thanks for reading!

Prodigies

Arts & Letters Fiction Prize!

I am thrilled to announce that my short story, The Cellar, is the 2021 winner of the Arts & Letters Prize for Fiction. The story, which is set my native Midwest, tells the tale of a family in emotional crisis as a potential devastating tornado approaches. With these hot days and popup storms — last night the rain was so heavy that I couldn’t see more than twenty feet outside the window — I’m thinking so much about how weather figured into my childhood. The tornado sirens. The lake-effect snow storms. Such ripe material to explore! But also how the extremes we are experiencing in weather are the result of climate change.

Here is the link. The story will published in the journal’s fall issue.

https://artsandletters.gcsu.edu/23rd-annual-arts-letters-prize-winners/

Jenna Blum and I are speaking together!

So excited that the great Jenna Blum and I will be speaking at the Waltham Public Library on Thursday, September 20, at 7pm. Both of our most recent novels, although quite different, deal with the devastating power of secrets. Come join us!

https://www.city.waltham.ma.us/sites/walthamma/files/events/jenna_blum_and_karen_day_flyer.pdf

Boston South End Library next week!

So excited to be guest speaker at the South End branch of the Boston Public Library on Tuesday, June 26 (685 Tremont Street) as part of the Friends of the South End library speaking series! We'll begin at 6:30. I'll be talking about I'LL STAY, life as a writer, the transition from middle grade writing to adult fiction and anything else that's on your mind!

https://www.friendsofsouthendlibrary.org/events/2018/6/young-adult-author-tall-tales-a-million-miles-from-boston-karen-day-will-present-her-first-novel-for-adults-ill-stay-on-tuesday-june-26