Bio

Karen Power – Author – Butterfly Barn – Ireland

Karen Power

Irish Times Best selling author, Karen lives with her husband, Michael and their two children, Aisling and Eoghan on a farm in County Waterford along with their nutty springer spaniel, Sam.

Butterfly Barn , a contemporary women’s fiction novel was released in November 2014 to huge critical and commercial acclaim. Karen Tomkins, Broadcaster/Journalist wrote, “Her ability to intertwine a fictitious novel with important contemporary issues is what sets Karen Power aside from other writers in her field.”

The manager of Hodges Figgis, Ireland’s most prestigious and oldest bookshop compared Karen’s writing to “Maeve Binchy’s with seasoning” and the manager of The Book Centre, Waterford said, “The book launch was the biggest in the shop’s long history selling over 300 books on the night.”

Due to Butterfly Barn’s success, Karen’s much anticipated second novel On Butterfly Wings, hit The Irish Times Best Sellers List. Unheard of for an independent author. “A wonderful achievement,” was how Joe Duffy, national broadcaster for RTE Radio One’s LiveLine, described it.

Karen spent many years working in the travel industry. An element she incorporates in her writing. One Amazon reviewer wrote, “Ireland leaps off the page.” Her novels are set between New York, France and a fictitious, coastal town called Bayrush in Ireland. Currently along with writing, Karen delivers workshops called The Butterfly Barn Experience to groups across Ireland.

RTE, the national TV channel interviewed Karen, at her family home where she had the opportunity to discuss her passion for writing and the issues she is determine to highlight through her novels. From this she is continually invited to speak nationally about many of those topics including grief, pregnancy loss and specific learning differences such as dyspraxia, dyslexia & adult literacy. Karen says, “There is nothing quite like putting your feet up and disappearing into a good book. Books open your mind and heart into other peoples worlds making you feel not so alone and you realise that most of us crave the same things. Love, friendship and acceptance.”

Her dream is to one day create a ‘real’ Butterfly Barn. A place filled with positivity, fun and laughter. She hopes to convert an old barn on their land into a training centre. The surrounding outbuilding will be renovated into self catering units, and there will be log cabins dotted in the woods next to a lake. There, she hopes to provide a wide selection of themed weekends around writing, art, creativity in all its forms, holistic therapies, and more active pursuits like kayaking, horse-riding, hill-walking etc. She would love the place to attract tourists from near and far, especially those who feel the need to rejuvenate.

To gain a better insight into what the real Butterfly Barn will be pick up a copy of Butterfly Barn and On Butterfly Wings in all good book shops, or at your local library or online at Amazon either as an ebook or print on demand.

Both novels can be read as stand alone or as part of the series. Presently Karen is writing her third novel and plans to be still writing well in her eighties. “I feel so blessed to have found my passion and so grateful to my readers for allowing me to follow my dreams,” says Karen.

For speaking engagements or just to say ‘hi’ you can pop her an email at karenpowerauthor@gmail.com. She’s always to delighted to hear from readers.