Local Novelist Publishes Second in a Trilogy
March 17th, 2013
Six months ago we brought you news that local Stoke Gifford resident Karen Jones had published and launched her first novel, Babe s Bible , which I for one thoroughly enjoyed. At that time we promised a follow-up article as Karen is such an inspiring and multi-talented lady with a great story to tell. I was therefore delighted to catch up with her again for this issue, with news that her sequel to Babe s Bible will be published this Easter.
Karen Jones has been living in Stoke Gifford for five-and-a-half years, with her husband Si Jones, the vicar of St Michael s Church. She is also ordained and works part-time as a self-supporting minister with her husband and the growing team at St Michaels. She also works as a bank chaplain at St Peter s Hospice and in the MOD. The rest of her time (hard to believe she has any!) is committed to writing and to art.
A good book has to grip you, immerse you, leave you wanting more, captivating your imagination so that you can t wait to get back to it Karen Jones.
Karen loves living in Stoke Gifford. She feels it is the perfect location, being in close proximity to Cribbs Causeway, Cabot Circus, not far from Clifton Village or even Bath. She loves the surrounding countryside, and can often be seen out and about with her beagle, Kiri.
Karen originates from Northern Ireland, but spent her first eighteen years living in Pakistan and India with her pioneering parents. Her father made radio programs in 20 different languages, building a recording studio in Delhi. She went to boarding school up in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains for seven of those years, experiencing a vast diversity of cultures, languages and world views among the international student population of the school.
Returning to Northern Ireland for university, she found it difficult to fit in, having had such a breadth of life experience at such a young age. However going to Art College was a good melting pot of the weird and the wonderful and she soon felt at home. She met her husband in 88 and together they faced the daunting prospect of his ordination and first curacy in Kent. Karen had no idea at the time what being an Anglican would entail, let alone being a vicar s wife. But she has loved serving alongside her husband in five different parishes over the last 24 years and has taken a special interest in walking alongside people when they are at their most vulnerable in life’s traumas and struggles. She has been ordained herself for the last six-and-a-half years, reading theology at Oxford and getting ordained in St Paul s Cathedral in 06. She says about the ceremony that it was better than getting married!
Karen has always loved story, and tries to utilise the art of story-telling in her sermons. She is an avid reader and movie-goer. She grew up with no TV, so it was books or the cinema for entertainment (or putting together her own play by forcing other family members and friends to take part and to be the audience!) The first film she ever saw was The Sound of Music when she was five. She thinks it must have impacted her very deeply, seeing as she has turned out pretty much like the main character Maria playing her guitar and wearing robes!
Her favorite authors are: John Grisham, James Clavell, John Masters, Wilbur Smith, Khaled Hosseini and Maeve Binchy, to name a few. She says a good book has to grip you, immerse you, leave you wanting more, captivating your imagination so that you can t wait to get back to it. She decided to try and write a novel of her own a few years ago and much to her amazement and delight, she had her first novel published in May 12. Babe s Bible Gorgeous Grace by Darton, Longman & Todd. She held the book launch in Stoke Gifford s own St Michael s Coffee Shop. She s had some excellent reviews from The Sophia Network , New Wine Magazine and the Salvation Army s War Cry , all of whom claim it is a pageturner. The book is available on Amazon (where other reviews can be found) or at WHSmith, Waterstones, Aslan Book Shop in Bristol, or on Karen s website: www.kejones.co.uk.
The first book follows the stories of four women, two in the present day and two 2,000 years ago. These stories run parallel throughout the books: In the present day Grace is a curate in the Church of England and her friend Chloe is the church youth worker. Chloe is discovered to be having an affair with the vicar and all hell breaks loose in both respective families. Grace seeks to help Chloe through this tough time as the affair goes nowhere and Chloe & Mark (her husband) seek a way forward to reconciliation. In the process Grace discovers there is a lot of stuff in her own past that she needs to deal with.
Lila and Mary are women who have encountered Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. Lila was caught in the act of adultery, a crime punishable with death by stoning. She was dragged before him for judgement, but he famously responded by saying, Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. This encounter changes the course of Lila s life. Mary becomes her best friend as they follow Jesus together. Mary is the prostitute who anointed his feet with perfume and wept over them, wiping them with her hair. They were both there at his death and Mary was one of the first to see him resurrected.
Karen s second novel in the trilogy Babe s Bible 2 – Sister Acts will be out for Easter. The second book continues to follow the four women, as Grace surprisingly becomes vicar of an Anglo-Catholic parish and Chloe trains as a psychotherapist. Grace rescues a prostitute from traffickers which leads her and Chloe to set up a safe house for traffic victims. Running parallel again, 2,000 years ago, is the account of Mary who had fallen in love with Stephen. He becomes one of the first Christian Martyrs. His death all but destroys her and causes her and Lila to part company for a time. Lila ends up accompanying the apostle Paul to Greece with her husband Jair, growing the church in people s homes across that nation as well as present day Turkey, despite hardship and persecution. Themes of struggle, temptation and light shining in darkness run through both storylines.
Karen is now working on the final novel in the trilogy, which will be out for Easter 14. She hopes that many Giffordians will read and enjoy her contributions to literature and will celebrate the fact that her literary endeavors began locally in Stoke Gifford.