The Keys: Voice of the Turtle, a mainstream fantasy from Karen Hulene Bartell

Please help us welcome Karen Hulene Bartell to the blog this week. Karen is here to share her mainstream fantasy,  The Keys: Voice of the Turtle. Welcome, Karen! We are all very excited to hear more about your book!

Q&A with Karen Hulene Bartell:

Q: Where is your favorite place to write?

A: Although I can write anywhere—from jotting notes in a moving bus to scribbling thoughts on the church bulletin—my home office is my favorite writing nook. I work at a French Provincial desk I finished myself. The keyboard slides into a drawer, and the computer screen overhangs it. Two orange-striped cats stretch out on the desktop. The dog sleeps beside my chair, and an open travel brochure is usually within sight, calling to me…

Q: What inspires you as an author?

A: Travel inspires me. I’ve gotten some of my best ideas while navigating the streets of a new city, or hiking up a rocky mountain trail, or even sitting in airports between flights. There’s something about being “on the road” that stimulates the creative juices.

Q: What do you like the most and the least about writing?

A: Most—Writing beats reading because I get to choose the action and ending!

Least—Post-publication marketing is the anti-climax of writing.

Q: What are you working on next and when can we expect to see it?

 A: I’m in final edits for Wild Rose Pass, a completely new genre for me—Historical Western Romance—which I believe Wild Rose Press will release in early 2020. Plus, I’ve begun writing Kyoto: Tale of the Fox, a mainstream fantasy set in Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan.

Fun Fact #1 of The Keys: Voice of the Turtle

The protagonist is named Keya. In the Lakota Sioux language, Keya means Turtle. The setting of the novel is the Florida Keys, and the premise is protecting sea turtles and their nesting beaches. Finding the name Keya for the main character—who’s Native American and a turtle aficionado—was kismet.

Fun Fact #2 of The Keys: Voice of the Turtle

Keya’s “bright lights of Broadway” recollection is a fictionalized account of my own theatrical experience in Manhattan at age eighteen. “Made it to off-Broadway, love. Close, but not quite the same.”

About The Keys: Voice of the Turtle:

Hours after arriving in the Florida Keys to help her cousin Keya create a turtle preserve, Ruth discovers a washed-up body and not one, but two apparitions—Maita, the angry victim’s spirit, and Bart, a swashbuckling ghost. Ruth’s curious ability to connect with the ghosts may help them move on, but how?

Keya is in a probate battle over her turtle-nesting beach. Land-hungry relatives want it bulldozed and developed. Like Ruth, she has a special gift—she can talk to animals. Between Ruth’s help and Keya’s unique ability, they work to save the property, but is it too late?

Can Keya save her beloved turtles? Can Ruth find Maita’s murderer or help Bart solve his 400-year-old mystery? There’s more than meets the eye to Keya’s land. Add in a dashing sailor who believes in her, and Keya may have more than she bargained for…

The Keys: Voice of the Turtle Buy Links:

Excerpt fromThe Keys: Voice of the Turtle:

“These nesting grounds are the reason I’ve fought to keep this property intact. If this beach is developed, the impact will destroy it, but fighting the lawsuit is expensive. I’d hate to sell this place to pay court costs.”

“But you said keeping the nesting grounds intact is only part of the reason you stay.” Ruth gave her a sympathetic smile. “What’s the rest of it?”

“Call it my legacy.” Keya stood up straight. “When I’m gone, I’d like this beach to remain as nature intended it…for the turtles. Since I’ve never had children—”

Earnestine meowed.

Keya grinned. “That is, except for my furry, four-legged kids, I’ve never had children. I have no one to leave it to other than who or what will make the best use of it. Conveying this land to the turtles would be my way of leaving the world a better place.” She turned toward Ruth. “Does that make sense?”

She nodded. Her cousin’s intentions were clear. “But legally, how can you will the property to the turtles?”

“Easy. I leave it to the Turtle Refuge.” Keya chuckled as they meandered along the beach. “And this is where you come in. When you’re writing the brochure, add a few paragraphs about planned giving and charitable bequests…” Keya stared as if in a trance.

“What’s wrong?”

Her hand shaking, she pointed to a shady patch of beach half hidden by sand dunes. A lifeless hand lay tangled in seaweed, its fingernails broken and bloodied.

Racing behind the sandbanks to help, Ruth skidded to a halt, her heels digging into the sand. A woman’s bloated body lay staring at the sun, her eyes opaque and unseeing. “Do you recognize her?”

“No.” Keya shook her head as the cat gingerly approached, sniffing and meowing. “But Earnestine said she smells familiar.”

“Knock, knock,” called a man’s voice.

Ruth flinched at the sound. “Who’s there?”

 About the Author:

Author of the Sacred Emblem, Sacred Journey, and Sacred Messenger series, Karen is a best-selling author, motivational keynote speaker, wife, and all-around pilgrim of life. She writes multicultural, offbeat love stories steeped in the supernatural that lift the spirit. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved annually, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Wanderlust inherent, Karen enjoyed traveling, although loathed changing schools. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Hill Country with her husband Peter and her “mews”—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog.

 Connect with Karen:

 

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