The Story behind the Story with Author & Motivational Speaker Karen Dean of Halifax, NS, Canada.

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Karen at the Great Moncton Riverview & Dieppe Book  Fair in April of this year and she kindly accepted my invitation to be our guest this week.

 I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading her Story Behind the Story.

Read on, my friends.

 

 

 

Resilience Expert, Inspiring Speaker, Fierce Leader, Bestselling Author, Entrepreneur, Mentor, Mom, Survivor, Advocate, Limit-Pusher

Karen is an incredible motivational speaker who brings audiences through her own personal stories of resilience and inspires with an amazing sense of positivity.

Recognized by the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards as a Nominee four times, Karen has operated successful businesses in many different industries for over 25 years. She has been a mentor to women in business throughout her career and has been mentored by some incredibly accomplished businesswomen. In 2020, she was honoured with the QueenPin Award by QueenPins Halifax for her commitment to improving her community.

Karen has published two books to date:

We Are Unbreakable: Raw, Real Stories of Resilience from Women in Nova Scotia in 2020 is a compilation book sharing inspiring stories from 22 women.

Fierce & Fabulous: A Self-Love Journal which provides readers with a daily practice to reconnect to their inner self and become even more successful.

Karen’s messages spring from a mountain of lived experience, and she is passionate about her mission to help people reboot their resilience and live their best life, personally and professionally, a purpose she lives in her own life every day.

 

Working Title: We Are Unbreakable: Raw, Real Stories of Resilience from Women in Nova Scotia in 2020

 

 

Synopsis: We Are Unbreakable: Raw, Real Stories of Resilience is a collection of authentic and inspiring stories about the unprecedented year of 2020 written by 22 incredible women who call Nova Scotia home. 

In these powerful stories, you will find examples of struggle, strength, togetherness and, mostly, of resilience as these remarkable women, from many different age groups and walks of life, share their experiences of living, working, running businesses and parenting through a global pandemic, along with a year of horrific tragedies that rocked the entire province of Nova Scotia in so many ways. 

A portion of the proceeds from this book will establish a bursary program aimed at women in rural Nova Scotia who have overcome adversity and barriers to pursue their education and who demonstrate the qualities of resiliency and strength that are captured in the pages of this book.  

Contributors to this book include: Amy Hill, Amy VanderHeide, Angela Mercer-Penny, Carley Gloade, Colleen O'Dea, Diane Muise, Emily Kierstead, Ifeoma Esonwune, Josie Ryan, Karen Dean, Lisa Drader-Murphy, Margaret Miller, Michele Tessier, Miriah Kearney, Mounfiq Abu, Nancy Regan, Nikki Porter, Robin Legge, Sam Madore, Sarah Stewart-Clark, Tanya Priske, Tracy Stuart

 

 

The Story Behind the Story: We Are Unbreakable was born as a distraction to take my mind off of the fact that my 19-year-old son was going through treatment for a rare and aggressive form of cancer.  Because he was technically considered an adult, and due to Covid restrictions, I was not permitted to go into the hospital with him for most of his appointments.  As I sat in the hospital parking lot, I contacted as many women as I could think of who might have a story to share and asked them to contribute to this book.  Forty-one days after I thought of the idea, I had my first self-published book, the day after my son turned 20, which went on to become an Amazon and a Canadian bestseller.

I think that the stories of what we all had to deal with as we lived through the pandemic are so important to share.  I hope that future generations read this book and gain a little perspective on how things were for us, and I hope that they never have to experience it as we did.

 

 

Website:  www.KarenDeanSpeaks.com

 

A question before you go, Karen:

Can you tell us about the perfect setting you have, or desire, for your writing? Music or quiet? Coffee or tequila?  Neat or notes everywhere?

 

The perfect setting for me to write would be uninterrupted on my deck overlooking the river in my backyard, or, better yet, a writing shed right on the banks of the river.  The only noise would be the sound of the river and whatever other sounds nature happened to make at the time.  My drink of choice is either ice water or Pepsi (I am not a coffee or an alcohol drinker).  And I would say that my writing style is a combination of neatness and notes everywhere.  I think that the best description would be organized notes everywhere.

 

 

 

Thanks for being our guest this week, Karen. Wishing you continued success with your projects, writing and otherwise.

 

And another BIG thank you to our visitors and readers.