Meet Karen Garloch, a first-time author and an award-winning journalist. She worked at newspapers in Ohio for fourteen years before moving to the Charlotte Observer in 1987. She spent thirty years at the Observer as the
health reporter and was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting. After retirement, she wrote the novel Stray Voltage, which won the 2024 Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction from Regal House Publishing. A native of Jackson County, Garloch is a graduate of Brownstown Central High School and Ball State University, where she is a member of the Journalism Hall of Fame. She and her husband, Larry, live in Charlotte, N.C.
Why do you write?
I write because I can’t not write. I write because I love words and stories. I write to figure out what I think or to work out problems. Since I was in sixth grade, I’ve kept a diary of each day’s activities and notes on my feelings about what happened. These calendars and journals fill more than half a dozen boxes in my closets at home, and I refer to them often if I can’t remember when something happened or how I felt about it. If I don’t document my days, I almost don’t feel like I’ve lived. I take notes all the time, when I attend a speech, when I’m on a sight-seeing tour, when I’m reading a book. I spent 45 years as a newspaper reporter, writing stories about other people. So, it wasn’t much of a stretch when, after I retired, I turned to fiction. Six years later, I’m celebrating the release of my first novel, Stray Voltage.
How long did it take you to write your book?
It’s hard to say exactly. I started making notes in the 1990s and got the
idea for a plot in 2015 when I heard a story about stray voltage from a farmer friend. After I retired from newspaper reporting in 2017, I began writing early chapters. In 2020, I enrolled in Authors Lab, a yearlong MFA-like program sponsored by Charlotte Center for Literary Arts. That’s when I got serious. I finished the manuscript three years later and began submitting to agents and contests. I won the 2024 Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction from Regal House Publishing. And the prize included publication in fall 2026.
Do you sketch out the plot first and work out the other aspects in relation to that?
It is said that writers are either plotters (who plot out their stories) or pantsers (who work by-the-seat-of-their-pants). I am definitely a plotter. I hate outlines with Roman numerals, but in Authors Lab, I learned to create a “scene sequence.” In this type of outline, I wrote small scene descriptions in the order I thought they should appear, but I gave myself permission to move them around if that seemed better. (No Roman numerals to recalibrate.) The sequence did change, and it worked very well.
Do you belong to any writing groups?
Yes. Authors Lab gave me a peer group of about 20 or more writers who were also working on fiction or memoir. We were divided into subcohorts, and many of those writers have become dear friends and valued editors. My manuscript changed and improved so much because of their input. Before Authors Lab, I also met weekly with one or two newspaper reporter friends as we worked on separate projects but kept ourselves accountable to put in the time. As Dorothy Parker is reported to have said: “The art of writing is applying the ass to the seat.”
If a movie was made of your book, who would be the stars?
For my main character, farm wife Hillie Schumacher, I would choose Linda Cardellini, who starred in the Netlix dark comedy Dead to Me. Or Maura Tierney who played Abby Lockhart on ER and now plays a lieutenant on NBC’s Law and Order. Or Sandra Bullock. Or Virginia Madsen.
For Hillie’s husband, I’d cast Owen Wilson because I like his crooked nose and think he looks like he could be a farmer.
What does your writing space look like?
After years of writing in noisy, cramped newspaper newsrooms, I can write almost anywhere. It doesn’t have to be quiet or neat. I wrote most of Stray Voltage during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. My husband and I had just had a new deck built on the back of our house, so I enjoyed writing out there, sitting in a cushioned chair with my feet up on an ottoman and my laptop in my lap. If the weather made that impossible, I wrote at my desk in a home office we had recently renovated with built-in bookcases. It was inspiring to be surrounded by all the books I love as well as special photos and notes that gave me encouragement. If I wanted to get away from home, I staked out a table at one of several coffee shops around Charlotte. It reminded me of the newsroom, hearing other conversations and being around people working on their computers.
What’s the hardest part of writing or publishing?
The hardest part is finding the best words and getting the organization right. But I love that challenge, and I’ve gotten so much better at it over the years.
Getting published is harder. Obviously, it’s difficult to get an agent and a publisher. Many writers spend years at this and get hundreds of rejections. I got lucky by winning the Petrichor Prize, which included a publishing contract. That allowed me to skip right over the getting-an-agent part.
The second hardest part of publishing is marketing and promotion. Most writers are not natural promoters or salesmen. I have never even sold a box of Girl Scout cookies. Writing is such a solo effort. And now, suddenly, I’m asked to promote my book on social media and contact bookstores to schedule speaking engagements. That’s quite a switch.
Asking other authors for blurbs and reviews felt strange, although everyone I asked was very generous (probably because they’ve had to do it themselves). I’ve also had to ask for help with technical issues, such as creating a website and designing flyers to advertise speaking events. It has been a steep learning curve.
Who has supported you along the way?
Writer friends from the Charlotte Observer and the Authors Lab were early readers, providing great advice and editing suggestions. Authors Lab faculty taught me so much about fiction writing techniques. Other authors in Charlotte and in the Regal House Publishing family provided blurbs and reviews and offered to be “in conversation with” me at book signing events. I’ve also hired a publicist, Gold Leaf Literary, whose owners have been invaluable in their guidance and contacts with the booksellers, literary organizations, and award possibilities.
How did you work to avoid writing characters that feel preachy or self-righteous?
One of my characters is a conservative minister whose literal interpretation of the Bible kept him from being helpful to Hillie, my protagonist, when she sought advice about a problem with her husband. The minister basically said the husband is the head of the household. In my first draft, the minister was rigid, without redeeming qualities. In revision, I gave him and Hillie a backstory, describing how they had enjoyed a friendly, respectful relationship when she did office work for him as a teenager. I also added more about the relationship between the minister and his wife, hoping that would give him a more complicated life story and make him seem more sympathetic as a character.
What writing mistakes do you find yourself making most often?
I wrote Stray Voltage, my first novel, after 45 years as a newspaper reporter in Ohio and North Carolina. Because of that, most of my mistakes involved the failure to leave behind the stilted style of newspaper journalism.
I had to learn to write dialogue, realizing that people don’t always speak in full sentences and don’t always say what they mean. I had to open my imagination to write about what was going on in my characters’ heads, what they were thinking and feeling, not just what they actually said. It was fun after I allowed myself to enjoy that freedom.