I'm confessing. It's yet another weekend where I spent as much of it as possible without my ears on. Unlike most people, it's not sci fi when I admit I can remove my ears. Some folks know about my cyborg or bionic status, but for those who don't, I had two bionic ears surgically implanted last June, and now I'm relearning the world as a noisy place.



Yes, I can hear! So well, that many people at work at my day job don't know that I was deaf for 30 years - they treat me like any… Continue

Hi, I'm in Homer, Alaska, after my husband, son, and I escorted author Jessica Speart down from Anchorage on Thursday in our Silverado pulling the 26 ft travel trailer. Jessica was just back from Authors to the Schools and her visit to Kotzebue area immediately after Bouchercon (see B'con pics - http://picasaweb.google.com/karenlaubenstein/Bouchercon2007)



When Jessica left for New York yesterday, she took my service dog, Josie, with her. It's amazing how much that little dog was such a… Continue

There's a time in every writer's life where you're facing what might be your big break. Mine happened when I was working as a Congressional Fellow for Senator Kennedy in the late 1980's. His deputy press person told me about a friend of hers who was an agent with the William Morris Agency. Ah. And for most of my life, people had been telling me to write that book of all books about what it really was like being deaf in a hearing world, or trying to be deaf in the deaf world, or trying not to be… Continue

I posted photos I thought people coming to Bouchercon 2007 might like to see. Some of them are a few years old (as you can tell by the infant or toddler, who is now nearly 7 years old)... but I was looking at what I took around the time of our upcoming Bouchercon and can get an idea of what we keep trying to explain. Yeah, I AM a firm believer that sometimes the images are better than the words. Enjoy!

It was the strangest feeling - reading this article someone wrote that seemed to be writing about me and my life growing up as a hearing person who couldn't hear (i.e., was Deaf) and even the stint in Africa in the Peace Corps! Lastly, was the experience of bionic ears and being able to really hear in a way hearing aids can never do. Several folks sent me the article - sheesh - wonder why?



Then I learned the author, Josh Swiller, has a book coming out Sept. 7-UNHEARD: A MEMOIR OF… Continue