WWelcome to my online home! My name is Karen Phillips and I am a freelance writer living in Pembrokeshire. I have lived across the world, from Mexico to Turkey but born and bred here in the far west of Wales I always return home – the blood calls me back, at least for a while.
This site started nearly a decade ago when I lived in the village of Kirazli in Aegean Turkey (hence the name), it has been through various incarnations since. When, inevitably, I have to again rewrite this website I always leave this page until last because it is the hardest page to change.
I am lucky enough to live here in a beautiful peaceful valley with my partner Nick, my two Turkish rescue dogs – Shadow and Emma – and my Norwegian Forest Cat, Terror.
I write, I photograph things, I get grumpy if not regularly dipped in sea water and I love feeding people. Other obsessions come and go over time but the writing never ends.
My Writing
I write fiction with a magical realism twist and narrative non-fiction on travel, women’s health and living overseas. My personal style produces complex layered prose with an original voice. I am represented by Broo Doherty, Director at DHH Literary Agency.
I am an award-winning travel writer and a frequent contributor to online and print journals including Deeper Blue, the scuba website and New Welsh Review, Wales’ foremost literary magazine.
I am the proud recipient of a Literature Wales Bursary for 2017 and I am hugely grateful for the support and recognition that Literature Wales gives the creative arts in our homeland.
As a freelance writer working to a brief I have written everything from storylines for computer games to full-length manuscripts on business start-up.
I take on long-term projects as well as commissions for one-off articles on specialist subjects. Individual projects have ranged from newsletters on grief management to advice on foreign expansion for Japanese think tanks to summarising academic research for alternative medicine practitioners. For freelance work my style is more succinct although it still retains personality and verve.
The Life Before Now....
Just after we had finished the house my husband died, very suddenly, and I lost my best friend, the better half of me and my inspiration.
For years afterwards I stayed on in Turkey; I ran a small boutique holiday rental and I wrote, lots, from creative writing to business advice to property advice to travel articles. Have broadband, will sell words!
This is Phil, he built this site originally. He died in 2008 and he taught me pretty much all the important stuff I will ever need to know. He left this life too soon but he had so much fun during his time here.
This site is his no matter how much I hack it around now and in the future. And somewhere he is laughing himself sick over my clumsy editing attempts!
I miss him but I can still see him, laughing in the pool, laughing in the light, laughing always.
I still think I am lucky, for all we did and all we found and for being granted a life less ordinary.
