Writingchat Bios: Z
Karyn Kay Zweifel was born in McAlester, Oklahoma, a small town chiefly known as the home of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. For miles around, friendly signs on the major roads advise motorists not to pick up hitchhikers -- they may be escaping convicts.
She began writing almost immediately. Her first literary project, at age six, was a puppet show, featuring brown paper lunch sacks disguised as puppets. All the characters were dead by the end of the show. Soon after, Karyn became interested in history, writing a short story about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. She constantly wrote movie scripts in her head, which resulted in many unfortunate spills due to her head in the clouds and untied shoes.
She moved to the Deep South at the tender age of nine, and in her better moments considers herself a Southerner. She continued to write, which prompted her sister to predict that Karyn would one day write the verbiage on the back of shampoo bottles. The sister proved to be prophetic.
Karyn attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts as a drama major, which accounts for her well-polished histrionic skills. The study of theatre arts provided her with a thorough, if unusual, grasp of historic events, which she has yet to relinquish. It was during her tenure at the School of Fine Arts that Karyn began to cultivate an appreciation for the bizarre.
After a sudden departure from high school, Karyn attended LaGrange College in Georgia before receiving a degree in English from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Unaccountably startled to discover the sparse demand for English degrees, Karyn wound up in a position as a junior
copywriter for a direct response advertising agency. She fled that job in short order, and became a freelance advertising copywriter who dabbled in feature writing and storytelling to amuse her friends and family.
Karyn is the author of _Southern Vampires_, which was chosen by the American Library Association as a "quick pick" for young adult readers. She has also written _Covered Bridge Ghost Stories_ and _Dog-Gone Ghost Stories_, and she is hard at work on _The Contractor's Book of Excuses_, with the able assistance of her plumber, roofer, carpenter, and do-it-yourselfer husband.
She lives in a spooky old house in a historic district of Birmingham with her family, which includes a wonderful dog named Buster, and an extremely intelligent cat named Tabby. Karyn enjoys telling stories (the Biblical variety) to her Sunday School class, gardening, cooking, reading and wandering through the neighborhood with her dog. She travels extensively
for work and pleasure.
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In addition, I'll tell you that my husband's name is Doug, and he's a musician who works in sales to make a living (I wouldn't marry him until he promised to get a job, having dated {read: supported} many shiftless musicians in the past).
My daughter, Katy, is eight, and I dreamed I would have her long before I met Doug. He took that in stride, fortunately. And, as you know, Doug & I are expecting our second child in November, and I'm sick as a dog and tickled pink to be that way. (Enough cliches to make you gag, right there)
My publisher and I have had a falling-out, and as a consequence, my poor books are orphans. My royalty checks are laughable (just got one last week), but I still cherish the thought that someday I'll be able to give up writing blurbs for shampoo bottles and just write fiction. Or at least fiction and magazine features.
And now that I've bored you to tears, I'm off to eat another box of crackers while lolling in bed.....
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