Former Roanoker Karen Chase tends to do things her way and her way tends to set standards. Consider her new book, the historical novel Carrying Independence.
This is a book almost nobody wanted to publish, but that those in the industry praised. It received pre-publication accolades and awards, but commercial publishers said, “No, thanks, the public doesn’t want a book about the Revolutionary War, written by a woman with a male protagonist.”
Chase will sign copies at the Williamson Road Library in Roanoke July 24 at 6 p.m. In addition, the Daughters of the American Revolution has scheduled a districtwide meeting for April 3, 2020 in the ballroom at Holiday Inn Tanglewood. Chase has been accepted as a resident fellow for the fall semester through Virginia Humanities at the Library of Virginia.
Chase, whose memoir Bonjour 40: A Paris Travel Log, became something of an independently published sensation eight years ago, thought otherwise. So, she published it herself and put together a marketing package (which she does for a living) that would be the envy of any Random House author.
Chase, who worked for two different Roanoke marketing companies and owned her own—224Design—was named the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year in 2004, but she wanted to write. So, she pulled together her blog on her visit to Paris (40 years old, 40 days, 40 nights), illustrated it, published it, marketed it and found quite an audience.
Chase, a native of Calgary, Alberta, is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and discovered in 2008 on a tour of Berkeley Plantation near Richmond (“I’ve long been a history geek”) that not all the signers of the Declaration of Independence were present at its creation. The story of getting the document to some of its missing supporters “stretched out before me.” It is based on fact, she says.
In the 10 years from idea to book, “I feel like I’ve majored in Revolutionary history” and “I know more about crafting rifles, skinning pheasants and spinning rolags of wool than I ever thought I would.”
Chase, who now lives in Richmond, worked at and studied writing, including being both a teacher and a student at the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference. “The RRWC is so engaging, in part because even though it’s a smaller community it’s particular strong on sharing highs and woes, and supporting one another. Some of the classes I took at the conference had a great impact on my writing, too—I specifically recall overhauling my word choices in two or three chapters after what I learned in Roanoke.”
Carrying Independence is the first of a planned three novels about America’s founding documents, says Chase. In addition, she plans publication in 2020 of the novel Decoys, which she describes as “Faulkner meets Fried Green Tomatoes.”
Carrying Independence will be on shelves in mid-June.
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).
