Karen L. Schroeder is an educator, lifelong learner, martial artist, and storyteller.
I suppose I should have known I would become a writer long before I ever published a book.
During my freshman year of high school, my English teacher accused me of plagiarizing a short story I had written in class, claiming I had copied it from an episode of The Twilight Zone. Later that same year, she assumed I had watched the movie adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining instead of reading the novel for a book report. She finally believed me when her husband pointed out that my report contained details that never appeared in the film.
Unfortunately, those experiences left a lasting impression. Because my writing was direct and straightforward rather than the style my teacher preferred, I spent many years believing I wasn't a particularly good writer.
What I eventually learned was something far more important:
I wasn't a bad writer.
I simply wasn't her kind of writer.
I've always been drawn to stories that begin with a simple question: What if? That curiosity is one reason I've remained a lifelong Stephen King fan. While many readers focus on the horror, I have always been fascinated by the possibilities his stories explore and the questions they ask about people, choices, and the unexpected.
That same curiosity has shaped much of my life.
I've studied ballet, played basketball through college, worked in corporate training and development, earned degrees in Finance, Human Resource Development, and Curriculum & Instruction, and built a career in public education. Today, I serve as an Educational Diagnostician in Texas, helping students discover their strengths and reach their potential.
For eight years, I taught middle school mathematics. One of my favorite discoveries was that students were often willing to tackle even challenging calculations if a story gave them a reason to care. Long before I published books, I was using storytelling to spark curiosity and make learning more meaningful for my students.
That experience eventually inspired my educational children's books, written under the pen name Dr. KLeigh. Through Animal Adventures in Learning™, I discovered the joy of combining education and storytelling.
Now, those same questions that fueled my love of reading and teaching have found their way into fiction.
What if a society became so focused on certainty that it forgot the value of wonder?
What if time itself held forgotten secrets?
Those questions became the foundation for Clockwork Court: The Thirteenth Hour.
Today, through Wonderkeepers Writing Co., I write stories that celebrate curiosity, courage, learning, hope, and the power of asking questions. Whether writing for children or adults, my goal remains the same: to create stories that inspire readers to wonder what might happen next.
