Meet Karen Rice | Two-time Cancer Survivor, Writer & Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Karen Rice and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Karen, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
My end goal into my writing, which I’ve truly been working on over the years, is to continue and grow my career in writing, Whether it be more books and/or articles in general, I want to continue reaching as many as I can with my writing and perhaps someday have a pretty well-known book. Most of my writing covers the experience of being diagnosed with cancer, as well as survivor-ship, while still living my life as a regular everyday woman, mother and grandmother, who has a lot to say! Going through cancer twice or more in your life, changes you. You want to do more, see more and possibly be more than what you were previously. Start your life all over again with new and abandoned things. Survival means, You’ve awakened!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When I think of it, I never placed my writing as art, I just love to write, and during my cancer diagnoses, writing became therapy for me. You know, you write a couple of things down, expressing how you feel, never meaning for it to go anywhere, you’re just expressing your feelings. You began to write down thing that makes you angry about what you’re dealing with, your feeling through each ordeal, and you want to tell someone, but then you don’t, so you place it on paper; writing it down instead. Then one day, you noticed how much you’ve written and you think to yourself, why not share some of your experience, someone may want to hear it. May need a hold-my hand moment, may need to see if you can do it, so can they. May just need a little hope and inspiration. It wasn’t easy to get here, I was pushed here. I never thought of becoming a writer, I just became one, and I’m so hoping to carry it was far as I can. I feel that I survived cancer twice for a reason, and this just may be it. I want the world to know that, I’m an everyday kind of woman. Not seeking fame or fortune, just seeking to share my faith in what I’ve come through, and what I’ve accomplished due to it. It definitely wasn’t easy going through what I did, twice, as well as being left to live with some of the complications due to my illnesses, but I’m living, and with such an ordeal to go through, it has made me that much stronger.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well. I would have to say, my adventure maybe a little boring, I don’t usually hit the hot spots around town to visit, I’m a kind of laid back, not wanting to be in a crowd kind of person. You can’t help it, after growing up a family with 14 siblings. I love my alone/quite times. But I would love to take them somewhere, so I would love to take them first, to my favorite place to eat, Pappadeaux Seafood Restaurant. The atsomphere is great, and the food is greater. Afterwards, I would love to just drive around, especially if it’s around Christmas time. You can drive through many neighborhood to view their Christmas lights, the most beautiful thing to see. The next day. we would just drive around the city to see other beautiful sites of Houston; possibly a couple of the Museums, and possibly take them for a walk through the beautiful Galleria Mall and possibly do a little shopping while we’re there. Now this covers the first couple of days, and for the rest of the time in my town, I would rather sit at home and share stories, feast on home cooked meals, invite friends and family over to visit. I would then end the trip with another outing at another beautiful, possibly upscale restaurant and maybe even take in a movie for the rest of the night, before they leave. Those things involves my type of fun.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There’s really only one person, that I truly feel deserves a lot of credit and recognition in my story and that’s my daughter, Conti. She was there every step of the way with me. Every step with me even before I was diagnosed with both cancer, she walked me through the doors of the testing sites, and held my hand as the test/biopsies were being done. I don’t think I would have been as brave as I were during those moments, if it wasn’t for her. So all my shout-outs goes to her. I’m humbled and grateful for her presence, just being next to me. That’s one of the simplest thing a person can do for another, just being there. It goes a long way.

Website: www.karensfaithandsurvivor77.shutterfly.com
Instagram: @kmimsrice
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/karen-rice-44053335
Twitter: @KarenRi79930503