Down at the Depot with
Children's Writer Karen Kulinski

A Place Where History and Writing Meet Up!

HISTORY, MY WAY

I always liked history, but I fell in love with it in college when I read a book called, "The Plain People of the Confederacy."

And that's when I came to understand that history is all about stories.

In school you mostly learn about famous people, battles and events, with an occasional story thrown in along the way. For me, it's the stories that matter, not necessarily the names and dates.

I also am fascinated by the quirky, unusual and really wild stories about famous historical figures and events that you never read in history books.
Like this historical fact:

Confederate General Robert E. Lee traveled throughout the Civil War with a servant to take care of his needs. Lee also traveled with a live chicken to provide him with fresh eggs each day for breakfast.

I can't always put all the fun history stories in my books that I discovered while doing research, so I put them in my book talks and PowerPoint presentations.

Like the one I do for my Purple Heart book, One Dog, Two Horses, and .... The ending to this title changes depending on my autdience, be it adults or school students, and my presentations differ for the two groups.

Book Talks

I do two PowerPoint presentations, one for veterans and one for elementary students. Both feature stories I collected while doing research for the book, such as why is Washington shown riding two different horses and what happened to the little British dog that followed the wrong army off the battlefield.

SOME AUTHOR VISITS

I was part of the Printer's Row Litfest program, "So You Want to Write a Children's Book?" in Chicago, Illinois, on June 12, 2016.

My publisher and I launched the book at the Evansville Wartime Museuem, where I twice presented my Two Horses, One Dog, and How Washington Spent His Winters during the War.

In April, 2019, I presented my PowerPoint program to a DAR group in Munster, Indiana.

On May 16, 2019, I did a school visit with the book and my presentation to the Boswell Elementary School, in Boswell, Indiana

Click here to contact Karen about arranging school or library visits.