“Palpably exciting. A scientific thriller about a looming global crisis far more critical than oil. Karen Dionne is the new Michael Crichton.” — New York Times bestselling author David Morrell

“What a ripper of a story! I loved every page.” — New York Timesbestselling author Douglas Preston

“a timely, terrifying thriller . . Filled with fascinating science and thorny ethical questions, Freezing Point takes horror to a chilling new degree.” — Dame Magazine

“FREEZING POINT by Karen Dionne is an ecological thriller that reads like a disaster movie…a mysterious, speedy virus killing off researchers; madness; hordes of man-eating rats; explosions; fires; tidal waves; an executive with a murderous lust for money and power; eco-terrorists…balls-out chaos…Roland Emmerich, are you listening? Scoop this one up!” – Blog Critics Magazine

“A terrific read!” — New York Times bestselling author James Rollins

The “Pincoya” – after an 11-hour red-eye flight to Santiago and another 2-hour flight to Puerto Montt, we had a 13-hour overnight trip on this ferry. No wonder we look so happy to have arrived in Chaitén in the next photo!

Ruined high school, cut in half when the river was choked with mud and ash and cut a new path through the town.

90% of the town was destroyed by a lahar ten days after the initial eruption. Three years later, the town is just now being rebuilt.

The road north of Chaitén – destroyed by the volcano.

Karen and the volcano.

Set in Seattle, The Killing stars Mireille Enos (Big Love) as Sarah Linden, the lead homicide detective investigating the death of Rosie Larsen – a local teenager.

The show also explores local politics as it follows politicians connected to the case. As the series unfolds, it becomes clear that there are no accidents; everyone has a secret, and while the characters think they’ve moved on, their past isn’t done with them.

This brand-new orginal The Killing novel, follows detective Sarah Linden as she takes on her newest and most challenging case yet.

Praise for The Killing:

“Strikingly good.” - Entertainment Weekly

“Soaked in atmosphere and steeped in the stark realism of Scandinavian crime novelists Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson.” - Vancouver Sun

“Excellent, absorbing and addictive. When each episode ends, you long for the next — a hallmark of great dramas.” -Hollywood Reporter

Available for preorder at:

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Detroit native Karen Dionne is the internationally published author of Boiling Point, an environmental thriller about an erupting volcano, a missing researcher, and a radical scheme to end global warming.

Karen’s first science thriller, Freezing Point, was nominated by RT Book Reviews as Best First Mystery of 2008. Freezing Point has been published in Germany and the Czech Republic, and both novels are available in audio from Audible.com. Her short story, “Calling the Shots,” appears in the short story anthology First Thrills edited by Lee Child.

Karen is cofounder of the online writers community Backspace, and organizes the Backspace Writers Conferences held in New York City every year. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the International Thriller Writers, where she serves on the board of directors as Vice President, Technology.

Karen blogs at The Huffington Post, and has written about the publishing industry from an author’s perspective for DailyFinance. She also reviews for The New York Journal of Books.

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CBC Radio One on-air discussion about errors in e-books

Radio Interview with Karen Dionne and Allison Brennan

A BETWEEN THE LINES INTERVIEW with Karen Dionne

 “WHAT IT’S LIKE TO VISIT AN ACTIVE VOLCANO”

FREEZING POINT’S ONLINE BOOK LAUNCH PARTY

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Read about Karen’s research trip to Chaitén Volcano

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As Chaitén sleeps…

Two microbiologists monitor the effects of global warming in the shadow of the long-dormant volcano.

A celebrity scientist and his film crew arrive at the caldera to capture Chaitén’s spectacular scenery for a television audience.

And a Nobel Prize-winning scientist sits in his apartment in Paris, monitoring data on fifty-six volcanoes around the world—waiting for the one sign that his diabolical plan is about to be put into motion.

Soon, their destinies will converge. For the Earth has become a pawn in the biggest gamble ever played with humanity’s future…

And Chaitén is about to blow.

“Dionne hits her stride with BOILING POINT, a heart-thumping, timely thriller, one that rings with surreal authenticity.  All of the right elements — action, suspense, secrets, conspiracies — meld together, the plot built skillfully, like a master craftsman, one layer at a time.   Put simply, it’s a non-stop delight of a read.” — New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry

“Dionne’s follow-up to Freezing Point delivers more science thrills. The narrative flows well, the characters are sharp and the setting is explosive. While the chaos compels the reader to turn pages, the science reinforces a scenario this is all too real and terrifying. Readers will seek out the previous book and anxiously await the next one.” – RT Book Reviews - 4 stars.

“Fans of the late Michael Crichton will enjoy Dionne’s exciting second ecothriller . . . Crisp writing keeps the pace fast, and the tight interweaving of story lines bodes well for this author’s future efforts.” — Publishers Weekly

Karen Dionne is the internationally published author of Freezing Point, a science thriller nominated by RT Book Reviews as Best First Mystery of 2008. A second environmental thriller, Boiling Point, about an erupting volcano, a missing researcher, and a radical scheme to end global warming published from Berkley in January 2011.

Karen is cofounder of the online writers community Backspace, and organizes the Backspace Writers Conferences held in New York City every year. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers, where she serves on the board of directors as Vice President, Technology.   Photos by Robert Bruce

Long Bio

Karen Dionne is the internationally published author of Freezing Point, a science thriller nominated by RT Book Reviews as Best First Mystery of 2008. A second environmental thriller, Boiling Point, about an erupting volcano, a missing researcher, and a radical scheme to end global warming published from Berkley in January 2011.

Karen is cofounder of the online writers community Backspace (1,700 members in a dozen countries), and organizes the Backspace Writers Conferences held in New York City every year. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the International Thriller Writers, where she serves on the board of directors as Vice President, Technology and Website Chair.

Karen’s short fiction has appeared in Bathtub Gin, The Adirondack Review, Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, and Thought Magazine, as well as First Thrills (Tor; June 2010; paperback May 2011), an anthology of short stories from bestselling and newer authors edited by Lee Child.

Karen has written about the publishing industry from an author’s perspective for AOL’s DailyFinance, and blogs at The Huffington Post. Other articles and essays have been published in Writer’s Digest Magazine (January 2009), RT Book Reviews (December 2010), Guide to Literary Agents (Writers Digest Books; August 2010), and Handbook of Novel Writing (Writers Digest Books; August 2010).  She is also a book reviewer for The New York Journal of Books.

Photos by Robert Bruce

Press Release

Author Visits Active Volcano to pen Eco-thriller About Global Warming

Interviews

“Author Meets volcano” – The Detroit News

“Between the Lines with Karen Dionne” – The Big Thrill

“H20 Q&A: Thriller Novel Writer Karen Dionne Talks Water Crisis and Doom” – Sustainablog

Writer’s Digest: “Spotlight on Backspace” – Writer’s Digest Magazine

Karen Dionne: Profile of an International Author from WBRW on Vimeo.

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I used to think that audiobooks weren’t for me. I’ve always considered myself a visual person. Tell me your name when we’re introduced in a social setting, and it’s gone five seconds after I hear it. Write it down where I can see it, and I’m the elephant who never forgets.

But after my science thriller Freezing Point sold to Audible.com as part of their “Breakout Thrillers” program, suddenly, I had reason to pay attention. I listened to samples of my narrator’s reading on Audible’s website, and fell in love. His voice quality, and his wry, sardonic tone, were perfect for my novel.

Before he began recording, Mark Boyett called me to go over a few pronunciations. “I always like to have a conversation with the author if at all possible before I go in to record,” Mark says. “I like to give the author a chance to talk about his or her novel and express anything they’d like me to communicate as I narrate their book. After all, people are downloading the book to experience the author’s work first and foremost, so my work needs to serve that end.

“As I prepare the book, I’ll make margin notes, sometimes about the mood of a scene, or the subtext of a character. Or I’ll score sections with little notations that only make sense to me to remind myself to link up these words, or drive through this part, or make this paragraph start as a fresh new thought rather than a continuation of the previous one, and so on.

“Colored markers are also important. In scenes where there are multiple characters, I assign each character a color and then dot each line they speak, so I can read right through, changing the voices as needed, without having to stop and figure out who’s talking when. Luckily, in the event that a narrator needs a reminder about the voice he’s using for a particular character, the engineer can go back and replay earlier clips as a refresher.”

With that level of professionalism and attention to detail, us it any wonder I was delighted with the result? An audiobook, I discovered, isn’t just a reading. It’s a performance, like listening to a one-man play. The emotion my narrator conveys through his voice adds a whole new dimension to my written words. And the accents – Irish, Brazilian, English, Australian – until I heard my book read out loud, I had no idea I’d created such an international cast.

On Dec. 28, 2010, the print and audio versions of my second environmental thriller, Boiling Point, published simultaneously. Because Boiling Point brings back two characters from Freezing Point, Mark Boyett narrates again. I just finished listening to the book, and Mark’s reading is FANTASTIC. If you’ve never tried listening to an audiobook, you must. It’s a fabulous experience!

CLICK HERE to view Karen’s Chaitén Volcano Photos

 What It’s Like to Visit an Active Volcano

by Karen Dionne

In April 2009, I traveled to Chaitén Volcano in Northern Patagonia, Chile, the setting for my novel BOILING POINT. Chaitén Volcano came to life for the first time in 9,000 years on May 2, 2008 in a major rhyolitic eruption. The magma blasted 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) through Earth’s crust in only about four hours, giving townspeople just 30 hours’ warning. The plume ascended 12 miles (19 kilometers) into the stratosphere, covering much of Patagonia with volcanic ash and drifting as far east as the Atlantic.

The town of Chaitén lies six miles from the volcano at the mouth of the Rio Blanco. Chaitén was evacuated at the start of the eruption, with no loss of life. Heavy winter rains ten days later washed the ash that covered the denuded mountains into the river, creating a lahar that caused the banks of the Rio Blanco to overflow. 90% of the town was flooded. Over subsequent weeks, the river excavated a new course through Chaitén, destroying a significant part of the town.

When I visited, approximately 50 of the original 4,500 residents were still living in the town, even though the town was without electricity and running water. Residents got their water from clean streams, and purchased gasoline for their vehicles and generators from towns 100 miles away. Several stores were open, stocked with goods brought in by ferry. My guide arranged lodging for me in the town, where I saw the devastation first-hand.

Chaitén Town

Video of the destruction in Chaitén town.  Shot and narrated by Daniel Dionne. April 2009.

But the real objective of my research trip was to visit the volcano. The road north of Chaitén was impassable because of the destruction caused by the volcano, so we drove as close as we could, and then walked. After two miles, we came to an open area of stark dead trees, and there was the volcano.

Chaitén Volcano

Video of Chaitén Volcano taken less than one mile from the new lava dome.

Shot and narrated by Daniel Dionne. April 2009.

The trees nearest to the volcano are simply gone — incinerated during the initial eruption. Farther away, the trees have been knocked down. Where I was standing less than a mile from the lava dome, the trees were stripped of their leaves and secondary vegetation by the initial blast of debris and hot gasses and have never recovered. Ferns and mosses are beginning to reclaim the area, but aside from these, I could have been shooting my pictures in black and white.

While there, we heard explosions that sounded like gunfire – pop pop pop — pop POP pop –accompanied by a low rumbling, and felt a small earthquake. At the time, the government agency in charge of monitoring volcanic activity in that country was reporting an average of 18 earthquakes a day in the volcano’s vicinity, though most were too small to be felt.

People ask if I was afraid. I can honestly say that I was not. While I knew that due to the instability of the lava dome, another pyroclastic flow was a very real possibility, I figured the odds of such an event occurring while I happened to be there were relatively small.

Instead, I felt nothing but awe. There’s a sense of enormity in the presence of an active volcano, a keen awareness of forces unimaginable that’s difficult to convey. To be in an area of both destruction and creation and observe firsthand the forces that shaped much of our earth engenders a feeling approaching reverence. I understand now why the ancients worshiped volcanoes.

All in all, the trip to Chaitén Volcano was beyond amazing. Seeing the volcano’s steam vents, hearing the mountain crackle and rumble, watching the plume build into gigantic cumulonimbus-like clouds while standing in a valley that was devastated by a pyroclastic flow was an incredible experience that truly informs my new novel. It’s hard to imagine any research trip I might take in the future that could possibly top visiting an active volcano — unless perhaps I decide to write a thriller about a lunar landing gone wrong!

Karen’s acclaimed debut thriller, FREEZING POINT, is now available as an e-book exclusively from Amazon for just $3.99! Amazon prime members read for free.

One man’s dream of providing clean drinking water for millions, tapped from the polar ice, sparks a conflict of humanity, science, big business, and environmental extremism.

But no one can foresee the true danger hidden deep within the ice— an enemy more deadly than any could imagine, and an apocalyptic horror mankind may not survive.

“Dionne is going to be an author to be reckoned with if her debut novel is any indication. A fascinating blend of science fiction and fact, it weaves a great deal of information into a complex story of environmentalism, greed and potential Armageddon. Its ingenious plot, genuine characters, superlative writing and nail-biting suspense will change the way you look at a bottle of water.” – Romantic Times Book Review, October 2008 “Top Pick”

Reviews:

Blogcritics · Mysterious Reviews · The Environmental Blog · Edward G. Talbot · Treo Central · Kalamazoo Gazette · Science Fiction Review · Sustainablog

“A thought-provoking tale with unusual aspects of horror; it could easily be converted into a spellbinding movie.” Lansing State Journal

“A mysterious, speedy virus killing off researchers; madness; hordes of man-eating rats; explosions; fires; tidal waves; an executive with a murderous lust for money and power; and eco-terrorists . . . balls-out chaos . . . Roland Emmerich, are you listening? Scoop this one up!” Blog Critics Magazine

” a timely, terrifying thriller . . . Freezing Point takes horror to a chilling new degree.” Dame Magazine

What they’re saying:

Just for fun:

Read the review of Karen’s FIRST THRILLS short story, “Calling the Shots,” at Little Big Crimes blog: “a terrific tale, with the coldest ending line I have read since the last novel by Richard Stark. If I had read it in 2010 it would be on my best of the year list.”

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FIRST THRILLS: HIGH-OCTANE STORIES FROM THE HOTTEST THRILLER AUTHORS (June 2010) — paperback now available!

Edited by Lee Child, First Thrills includes never-before-published stories by New York Times bestselling authors including Lee Child, Stephen Coonts, Jeffrey Deaver, Heather Graham, Joan Johnston, John Lescroart, Alex Kava and Deb Carlin, Michael Palmer (with Daniel James Palmer), Karin Slaughter, and Wendi Corsi Staub.

This collection also serves as a great introduction to those whom the International Thriller Writers has christened its rising stars, including Sean Michael Bailey, Ken Bruen, Ryan Brown, Bill Cameron, Rebecca Cantrell, Karen Dionne, JT Ellison, Theo Gangi, Rip Gerber, Gregg Hurwitz, CJ Lyons, Grant Mackenzie, Marc Paoletti, Cynthia Robinson, and Kelli Stanley.

“Hands down one of the best short story collections you’re ever likely to read. A masterful collection.” — Booklist, starred review.