Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan but too young to fight deportation to the south, the sunny city of Bradenton, Florida became home for Karen Jones. After twenty-five years in the sunshine state, Karen gave it all up for a truly hot spot, packed it up, and moved to Fort Worth, Texas...where the thermometers have been known to hover at 120 degrees at dusk in peak summer. Texas changed everything for her and she found herself moving ahead in her career as an author and publisher.After living in the South for the better part of her life, the new and improved Karen Syed aka Alexis Hart managed to get back to the great North--sorta. Life is treating her well in Laurel, Maryland where she and her husband have settled. She is the president and owner of Echelon Press, LLC. This wasn't always the case.In a former life, when she owned an Independent bookstore in Grand Prairie, Texas, where she was nominated for the Publishers Weekly 2000 Bookseller of the Year.Karen has had eight full-length romance novels published, is a featured author in three anthologies and has five more books scheduled for release at some point before she...well, eventually. Her stories run from straight contemporary to paranormal/ghost/time travels. Her latest title, Dark Shines My Love was featured in the Mr. Romance Cover Model Pageant at the RT Booklover's Convention in Kansas City, MO in October 2003.She has served as an Educational Workshop Coordinator for the Romantic Times National Convention, founded a Romance Writers of America Chapter, and spent fifteen years molding the minds of the future (read: preschool teacher.) In addition to everything else, Karen was the founding Director of the IP Directive (Independent Publishers Directive), a promising organization committed to increasing the success and productivity of independent publishers worldwide, and the chairperson for the EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Connection) Publishers Coalition. She is a member of the Thriller Writers International, Mystery Writers of America and to date, a displaced member of Sisters in Crime. Many years ago she founded and presided over the Fort Worth Romance Authors (RWA).
Click here to subscribe to:
The Hart of the Matter Newsletter |
