Interview with Karen Mains Procopio & a Giveaway

I hope you enjoy this interview with debut author, Karen Procopio. Karen is a fellow Scrivenings Press author, and I’m thrilled for you to learn about her Women’s Fiction story, Finding Me.

Karen is offering an eBook of her novel to one winner. To enter the giveaway, comment below by October 20.

Welcome to the blog, Karen! Start off by telling us a little about yourself and your family.

I’m a retired educator, former journalist, wife, mom, Mimi, and now published author living in Arizona with my husband. I was born in Massachusetts, grew up in Michigan, and moved to Arizona when I was twenty-three.

Education and public service run through our family. My husband spent thirty years as a high school principal. My son is a detective, one daughter is a school psychologist, my second daughter is a nurse, and my youngest son is a music teacher and composer. I’m also blessed with four grandchildren.

I spent more than thirty years in education, most of them teaching computer science, but writing has always been part of my life. I’ve written for newspapers and magazines, won awards for short fiction, and sponsored a student novel-writing club for twelve years.

When I’m not writing, I love spending time with my family, reading, traveling, swimming, riding my bike, and playing the clarinet. And although I’ve lived in Arizona for many years, my Michigan roots still find their way into my stories.

Sounds like you’ve lived a full life. That’s awesome. Do you have any hobbies? Have you incorporated any of them into your books?

Absolutely. Music—especially the clarinet—has been part of my life since I was young, and it found its way directly into Finding Me. I played clarinet through school, attended music camp every summer, and for my senior concerto performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.

Cate shares that part of my background. She’s a clarinetist, she attends summer music camp, and she plays the same Mozart concerto I performed as a senior. Her best friend, Lara, was also partly inspired by a flutist friend of mine.

I recently started playing clarinet again, so music has come full circle for me. I love that something so personal from my own teenage years became part of Cate’s story.

That’s such fun, having your character share your experiences. How and when did you start writing?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a storyteller. I grew up on an apple orchard in Massachusetts. My sister and I would sit on our swing set for hours, making up stories and songs. I don’t really think of writing as an occupation or hobby; it feels like an integral part of who I am. I’m constantly viewing the world through the lens of storytelling.

Regarding the Lake Tearas Trilogy, I began what eventually became Finding Me in 2009 while sitting beside my daughter’s bed during a six-week pediatric hospital stay. I felt completely helpless, but there was one thing I could control—a story and the characters who lived inside it. Writing became a way to cope, and eventually became the foundation for the trilogy.

I started writing novels as a way of therapy, too, so I understand where you’re coming from. Do you have any pets? Do they find their way into any of your stories?

I don’t have pets in the traditional sense, but I do have a family of skunks that lives in my backyard. A mama skunk and her kits regularly wander through, gobbling up insects and grubs. I’ve gotten so used to seeing them that I sometimes leave strawberries and celery out for them.

They eventually found their way into my fiction. The skunk family in Book Two, Finding You, was inspired by the little family that visits my backyard. I love borrowing those small details from real life and weaving them into a story.

When we lived in New York many years ago, we had skunks around our apartment every night. I never thought about feeding them! LOL. What is the setting of your current novel? Is it a real location or fictional? Tell us about it.

Finding Me is set primarily in Lake Tearas, a fictional lakeside town in Michigan. Although the town itself isn’t real, it was inspired by the lakes, wooded shorelines, and small towns I knew growing up in Michigan. I wanted Lake Tearas to feel like a place readers could actually visit—a beautiful community where generations of families know one another and where, beneath the peaceful surface, plenty of secrets are waiting to be uncovered.

That sounds lovely. I’d love to know how you incorporate Christ and hope into your writing.

My faith shapes the way I see people and the world, so naturally it influences my stories. I want faith, hope, grace, forgiveness, and redemption to grow organically from my characters and their experiences rather than feel forced. My characters are imperfect. They make mistakes, hurt one another, and carry wounds from the past, but I want readers to see that healing is possible and that our worst choices do not have to define the rest of our lives.

Amen! What did God teach you through the writing of FINDING ME?

Patience! I began this story in 2009, and Finding Me is being published in 2026. There were times I prayed that God would either open the door for these stories to be published so they might help someone or take away my desire to write. The desire never left. Looking back, I can see how much I needed to learn—not only about writing, but about perseverance, timing, and trusting a path I couldn’t always see.

That’s a hard but important lesson for all of us. What do you hope your readers take away from FINDING ME?

I hope readers finish the book believing that healing is possible, even when families have made mistakes or carried secrets for years. People are complicated. Sometimes the people we love hurt us, and sometimes we hurt them. Forgiveness doesn’t erase what happened, but it can keep the past from controlling the future. More than anything, I hope readers close the book with a sense of hope.

Hope … something we all need. What’s next from you?

Finding Me is the first book in The Lake Tearas Trilogy. Book Two, Finding You, releases April 20, 2027, followed by Finding Ours on December 14, 2027. Each novel brings new central characters to the forefront while continuing the larger Lake Tearas story. Together, the three books explore three generations, three tangled legacies, and one lakeside town where the past comes home to heal.

After the trilogy, I’m also planning six companion novellas—two connected to each novel—that will revisit the main point-of-view characters and give readers a chance to see what happens next in their lives.

Thanks so much for sharing with my readers, Karen, and congratulations on your debut novel release! I wish you the best as you continue your writing and publishing journey.

Join the conversation. Does Karen’s debut novel sound like a story you’d like to read? Have you, like Karen, ever waited a long time for a dream to come true? What questions or comments do you have for her?

Be sure to comment below by October 20 for a chance to win an eBook of Karen’s debut novel!

Please share Karen’s interview on social media to help spread the word about her debut novel!

If you missed Lori DeJong’s interview about Sanctuary and Sabotage, FIND IT HERE.