Karen Stephen
My fabulous adventure in Corsica involving, among other things, trying to sneak two Foreign Legionnaires off the island as a teenager percolated in my brain for decades and inspired my second novel MOTHER TONGUE, which is set amid the danger and chaos of the separatist movement in modern-day Corsica I write upmarket women's fiction with suspense and thriller elements .
My first novel DEGREES OF OBSESSION about a fifty year old woman pursued by a stalker when she tries to look up an old flame. I was thrilled to be asked to promote my novel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in 2006 at UCLA.
I was born in Chicago, Illinois to a father who was off a few days later to fight the good fight in as a naval officer in WWII and a mother who had graduated from the University of Chicago in Political Science in 1937. After an odyssey across many states, I ended up with a life on the beach in La Jolla where I mastered the art of body surfing with my girlfriends and the art of the writing from my honors English teacher.
I garnered a Masters in 1968 and a Doctorate in Psychology in 1970 and had a 40 year career as a therapist. This yeare I was lured out of retirement to serve as a Mental Health Director of a large health plan.
I am the mother two grown children and am devoted to my four grandchildren. I collect antique flamingo and have a Twitter presence as @docflamingo. I live in the San Francisco Bay area.
My first novel DEGREES OF OBSESSION about a fifty year old woman pursued by a stalker when she tries to look up an old flame. I was thrilled to be asked to promote my novel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in 2006 at UCLA.
I was born in Chicago, Illinois to a father who was off a few days later to fight the good fight in as a naval officer in WWII and a mother who had graduated from the University of Chicago in Political Science in 1937. After an odyssey across many states, I ended up with a life on the beach in La Jolla where I mastered the art of body surfing with my girlfriends and the art of the writing from my honors English teacher.
I garnered a Masters in 1968 and a Doctorate in Psychology in 1970 and had a 40 year career as a therapist. This yeare I was lured out of retirement to serve as a Mental Health Director of a large health plan.
I am the mother two grown children and am devoted to my four grandchildren. I collect antique flamingo and have a Twitter presence as @docflamingo. I live in the San Francisco Bay area.
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Mother Tongue
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Suspense
Child advocate attorney, Liz Fallon, desperately needs a break after legal blunders and her own negligence lead to the kidnapping and death of a mother and daughter she represents. Fluent in her mother’s native Corsican tongue, she nabs a job at a Paris newspaper as a lingua corsa translator for Pierre Benatar, whose coverage of the explosive Corsican Nationalist movement has enraged every separatist faction. When Benatar and his seven-year-old son disappear, she resolves to prevent another tragedy and cons her way to Corsica under the ruse of researching a tabloid story about the mazzeri, the isle’s ancient harbingers of death. She cozies up to the prime suspects using her secret knowledge of lingua corsa and the aid of an elderly Brit and a courageous teen Corsican cousin. The hunters suddenly become the hunted when Liz's inquiries arouse the suspicions and passions of both the separatist leader and the French police chief. When the mazzeri story also takes a chilling personal turn, she has to wonder whether Corsica intends to reclaim her as its prodigal daughter or destroy her. Cover photo by Fabie Centulle (Corse Passion) 
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Degrees Of Obsession
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Charlie Pederson, fierce but flawed like all women who have loved deeply and lost, takes a dangerous thrill ride from risky infatuation to the edge of disaster when she stalks her still suck-the-breath-out-of-you handsome college flame.
As a therapist, Charlie knows she should abandon her crazed obsession over Danny Shapiro. But as a woman turning fifty and stifled in her marriage to deadly dull Harold, she finds herself driven to take a dicey last chance to find all that her heart needs. Little does she suspect that an impulsive visit to Danny’s law office will make her the target of a homicidal erotomaniac. As she chases Danny down, she jeopardizes her professional reputation, infuriates her best friend, alienates her husband, and risks exposing the most painful secret of her life. DEGREES OF OBSESSION has it all—juicy romance and heart-pounding suspense. Best of all, it shines light on the fears, follies, and fantasies that drive the choices women make and on the love that redeems them. 
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