Poetry and prose

Most people know Karen Heath as the clerk and treasurer for the Town of Medicine Bow, but she is also a writer of seven fiction works and a book of poetry which she recently published in 2021.

Her book of poetry is titled "Book of Days".

A poem in the collection called Elm on the Lawn is one that Heath likes to read to those who don't know her work.

'Warm gentle drops and flickers,

Dancing from leaf to leaf,

Fuzzy dark emerald sprays

Thunder speaks, growling long and low like cougar.

Funnel elm collects and hands water down, leaf by leaf,

Soothing a thirsty soil."

This is Heath's first book of poetry.

In addition to publishing "Book of Days", she also has a new fiction book on Amish life called "Heart Choice", which is a follow up to "The Choice" which was published years before.

"I grew up around the Amish when I lived in Pennsylvania," Heath said. "'The Choice' is a romance about an Amish man who leaves his way of life for an English girl and the second book is about his brother who left the Amish when he was kicked out of his home as a teenager because he wouldn't take his baptismal vow. So it is a search for a home and a family."

Although Heath is not Amish, she dealt with the culture often. She went to the New Holland horse auction with friends and worked with people that were Amish in upbringing.

"I like that they feel if you work close with the land, you will become close to God," Heath said. "It was interesting to be around these people."

"Heart Choice" took nine years for her to finish from when she released "The Choice" in 2012.

Before her series on Amish life, she wrote five books featuring selkies that make their home in Maine.

A selkie is a legendary creature originating in Irish folklore and the Orkney Islands. They are said to live as seals in the sea but shed their skin to become human on land. Stories frequently revolve around female selkies being forced into relationships with humans by someone stealing and hiding their sealskin, sometimes not regaining the skin until years later when they commonly return to the sea, leaving their human family.

Heath's heroine is Annie Shaw, a high school champion swimmer raised in Maine but not near the sea. When she does get near the ocean, specifically a place called Shelmerton Cove, Shaw discovers she has another supernatural family.

Heath had first work published in 2011.

She is self published and happy to be so, although there are glitches.

"The good thing is that you have total control of your work and get a much higher percentage of sales," Heath said. "I use Lulu and they recently went to having the work be submitted as a PDF. I have had a little problem with conversion that crops up in the published work. Mostly spacing being off, but I am a big believer in self-publishing even with the hiccups."

She said attending Wyoming Writers conferences encouraged her to self-publish.

"I realized it was for me when I was told publishing companies can change what they want," Heath said. "That is just the way the publishing world works. By me doing it myself, my work stays pure It is all me."

Heath has been writing stories since she was eight. Poetry writing came later when Heath was a teenager.

There was a friend she sent her poetry over the years and recently he sent many of the poems back to her, telling Heath she should publish them.

"I did and I am pleased with the outcome," Heath said. "Writing is my passion and I can say I am not done. There will be more to come.