| Karleen Koen | |
| Birth Name: | Karleen Smith |
| Birth Place: | New York City, New York |
| Occupation: | Author, historian |
| Language: | English |
| Education: | Bachelor of Arts |
| Alma Mater: | North Texas State University |
| Period: | Seventeenth and eighteenth century England and France |
| Genre: | Historical fiction |
| Notableworks: | Through a Glass Darkly |
Karleen Koen (née Smith) is an American novelist perhaps best known for her 1986 debut historical fiction novel, Through a Glass Darkly.
Karleen Smith grew up near Houston, Texas. In 1970, she majored in English and graduated from North Texas State University.[1] Koen became the first managing editor of Houston Home & Garden and then its editor. She decided to leave in order to focus on family.[2] In 2011 she attended the annual conference of the Historical Novel Society alongside Diana Gabaldon and Margaret George, among others.[3]
To help pass the dull hours at home, Koen began writing a historical fiction novel on her favorite time period, the eighteenth-century. The book centered on teenage noblewoman Barbara Alderley and her trials and travails as she navigates English and French society. To gain a publisher for her work, now called Through a Glass Darkly, Koen sent the manuscript to Jean Naggar, whose name she found in Writer's Digest. Naggar encouraged Koen to continue finishing the book; believing it to be "the launching of a major author," Naggar mailed the manuscript to five major publishing companies;[2] [4] Random House purchased it for a "whopping" $350,000 in August 1985, which was at the time a record for a new novelist.[2] [5] Koen and her husband used some of this money to purchase a three-bedroom house in Houston.[2]
Koen began work on her second novel soon after Through a Glass Darkly was purchased for print. She titled it Now Face to Face, and described it as ""a continuation and completion of Barbara's story and it involves [her cousin] Tony and the themes of bonding, family and love – and I don't mean sex."[5]
Her writing influences include Winston Graham, Daphne du Maurier, and Mary Stewart.[6]