Author Archives: Karen Hancock

About Karen Hancock

Christy Award winning author of Christian science fiction and fantasy novels

Christmas Wishes

Well, here I am again, remiss in keeping up with this blog. Yes, I am still alive. Am I still writing? Alas, I have not been, but once again, I have tentative plans to get back into my groove. Especially with regard to my blog and maybe, just maybe get back to working on my book in progress.

What have I been doing, instead? Raising and delighting in our fantastic Treeing Walker Coonhound, Rocky. He is so smart, so funny, so handsome, and so sweet… We just have to love him. Below is a photo of him and Stu in one of the dog shows we entered him in, where he won Best of Breed and Best of Winners.

He gets daily walks, and a weekly trip to a local canyon where we can let him off leash to run free and yet stays with us as he does so.

And now we’re moving into the Christmas season, which is going to be different this year because we are not going to travel, but stay right here at home. Much as we’d like to go to San Diego to see our son, daughter-in-law and grandkids, the cost of hotels, gas, and food is about three times more than it is any other time of the year. So we’ll have to wait until an off holiday time to do our visiting…

Anyway, I want to wish all of you who read this blog a very merry holiday season and a new year full of blessings in the Lord.

Just so you know…

Amazon is offering the new Arena hardcover for 50% off right now. What a deal!

I love this awesome Fall photo taken by @librarianswife on Instagram

And sorry for being MIA these last few months. I don’t know where the time goes. Whoosh! and another year has passed.

Am I hard at work on the next book? Alas, only if it’s to be the ongoing chaos that my office has become. Really, I will get things cleared up, but it seems we’re always off to something — hiking in a special canyon, rarely used on the day we go — where Rocky can run free and does. I’ve also been doing a lot of reading when time permits. I have stacks of books around me now that I’ve had for years and haven’t read. So there’s that, and of course, I have my current work in-not-progress. That needs to change as well, and I’m hoping–praying– it will. Also hoping I can get back to blogging on a regular basis again…

Hopefully next time I won’t have to rummage through all the stuff that has somehow exploded in my office…

Audio Book Version of Arena Released

Not only has Enclave Publishing done a bang up job of releasing a wonderful hard-cover version of Arena, they have now released an Audio Book version and sent me this graphic to post in honor of it. So if you’re looking for Arena in audio, you can find it on the Arena page on Amazon. Just click on the “Arena 20th Anniversary Edition highlighted below the graphic.

Image preview

Arena: 20th Anniversary Edition

by Karen Hancock, Aimee Lilly, et al,

4.5 out of 5 stars out of 238 ratings

Free with Audible trial and “Available instantly”

And the Winner Is…

Yes, the winner is Sheila Cone. Congratulations, Sheila! You’ll need to email me (karen@karenhancock.com) your mailing address , so I can send the book right out.

And a hearty thanks to all the rest of you who entered. I really appreciated it and found it quite fun. I may well do another giveaway in the not so distant future, so check back for updates. 😁

Arena Hardcopies Arrive

Yesterday I got two boxes full of Enclave Publishing’s hardcover version of Arena with a new cover design. I love it! I love that they’re hardcovers, love the heft, and the size, the colors of the jacket, and I’m sort of blown away by the “20th Anniversary Edition” notation at the top of the front cover. Has it really been that long?

In honor of this resurrection, I’d like to do a giveaway of one signed copy to one my readers: Everyone who comments on this post gets an entry, but only one gets a book. 😉

And the Weirdness Goes On

Here are some photos of my other weird rose “blooms,” all on the same bush:

So I did a bit of research and eventually found out that certain fertilizers can be the cause. It just so happens I’d run out of my rose specific Miracle Gro fertilizer and couldn’t find any more in local stores. Instead I had to settle for “All Purpose Plant Food” that included roses in the long list of plants it would work with. Here’s another shot:

As days went by and more and more of the prolific buds unfurled, all of them warped in some way, I finally tried the internet again, and this time hit pay-dirt. It turns out that with roses, all purpose fertilizers can cause the plant to go bonkers and pretty much do what mine is doing. It recommends that I cut off the weird blooms and use a fertilizer specific to roses.

I want to fix this so it’s normal again, thus following the instructions I’d found, I cut off the weird blooms, watered the plant well and am waiting. So far, among the other blooms getting ready to unfurl, most of them are looking normal. But time will tell…

Inside Out Rose Bud

I inherited my mother’s potted rose bushes upon her death a number of years ago: a pink one and a red one. The plants themselves are easily over ten years old and have been blooming faithfully and normally all that time. Until this year when the red one has done something I’ve never seen before:

It’s got a new bud growing out of the flower itself. This is, according to articles I’ve read online, “extremely rare.” And it’s not the only one on the bush. I wonder… is this a version of botanical dementia? 😁

Correct Link to Pre-Order the new Hardcover Publication of ARENA

Arena

https://BIT.LY/Arena20thAnniversary

Sorry for the malfunctioning link in my last post. It wasn’t clear at the outset that the “bit.ly” part had to be all Caps, and only after a bit of searching did I uncover this element. In fact, even with this correction, I’m not sure it would take one to the correct page. So far it’s been working for me. If it doesn’t work for you, just go to Amazon and type in “Arena Hardcover Hancock.” If that doesn’t work, please let me know and I’ll pass it on to the Enclave People.

Arena: The New Cover Reveal

Yes, it’s really going to happen. Enclave Publishing has just released the artwork for this special 20th Anniversary hardcover edition of my first novel, Arena. Kirk DouPonce, the cover artist, has done a great job echoing the original design even as he’s updated it for a new audience.

Image preview

This will be a limited edition hardcover. Very limited, I’m told, so you should preorder now! Releasing in April 2022. Here is the link if you’re interested:

https://BIT.LY/Arena20thAnniversary