Schutte, Karen: - Karen Wamhoff Schutte is the first-born daughter of Beata and the late Arnold Wamhoff of Emblem, Wyoming. She was born and raised in a German Lutheran farming community in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming. She attended the first eight grades in a two-room school house, later graduating from Greybull High School and earning a bachelor's degree in Design Marketing at the University of Wyoming. Karen and Mike Schutte were married in 1962 and are the parents of four grown sons and nine grandchildren. After raising her family, Karen owned and operated her own interior design firm as an ASID professional designer for the next twenty-five years. She is a former Soroptimist and participated in numerous community groups. Upon retirement in 2000, Karen began to think about simply documenting her knowledge of her family's immigration and all the stories she heard at the feet of her grandparents. As a first born grand-daughter and great grand-daughter she felt compelled to create a record of these family stories, not realizing she had just opened Pandora's Box. Documenting, the historical research, and the family stories consumed her as she began to write. She has 4 novels that have been published, The Ticket, Seed of the Volga, Flesh on the Bone and Tank Commander. All four have won national and/or regional and state awards. "When I write a book, a story of life, I am there, it is happening to me as I visualize the entire scene, the dialogue, the drama and conflict. I feel like I am leaving a legacy through my books as well as loving the journey of this new purpose in life. Before I begin a new novel, I go through my files and organize everything I have collected about the subject. I make a mental chronological path for the story as I immerse myself in other books of the same genre. This prepares me-gets me in the mood of the time and the scenarios about which I am about to craft. It was never my dream to become a writer, or to write a novel. The first 4 were about my mother's side of the family. Now I'm starting on my father's side and recently finished writing my 5th book, German Yankee, which will be released in September, 2018. I have two more on the back burner-just simmering. Becoming a writer means being creative enough to find time in your life for writing. It's become my passion, my purpose!