We lost Karen Lansdale on November 1, 2026 to Alzheimer’s Disease.

It’s taken me this long to process the idea.

I’ve been trying to think of what I wanted to say about Karen. Then I fell down the Rabbit Hole of trying to find a photo – and I can’t find one that we are both in. Hopefully someone else has one. If you’re reading this and have one, please share.

In my journal and to my mom and therapist, I call Karen a Second Writer Mom/Aunt. I met her 20 odd years ago when I started writing and con-running. She would be either selling books for Joe or hanging out with Bill and Judy Crider. Karen and Judy kind of took me in as a new writer and made me feel welcome in the community. I know I wasn’t the only one, which is what made them both so amazing.

Jimmy and I would always offer to help her load or unload boxes if we saw her packing in or out of a convention. I would check on her if she was alone at a table. After a while we just hung out some and, as Kacey reminded me at ArmadilloCon this year, we’d exchange little gifts.

Most everyone who read this blog knows the story behind my “The Astronaut Stole My Sharpie” – well, one year (and it might have been the one with Stan), I told the story to Karen and Kacey – later they gave me a package of pens that I never opened. The Fred Borrow MY PEN? set. They’re inappropriate and I love them. And I remembered where I put them (which is a miracle).

After that, if I baked before a convention, I would have something for Karen and the family. Or we would exchange other types of things. And something I will miss.

We saw Karen (as far as I remember) last at the end of October 2019 when I actually did something I almost never do. I let Joe and Karen know that we were coming through East Texas on the way home from a trip to New Orleans. And we ACTUALLY arranged to have lunch at a Salvadoran restaurant just before they left for a trip to China. Knowing what I know now? I’m so glad we did. Because the world changed after that.

Joe told us about her Alzheimer’s when we saw him in 2023 for his launch of The Donut Legion. But we still felt Karen’s presence through her recognition with Horror Writers Association renaming an award for her. Photos from Kacey’s wedding. Kacey and I talking about her at ArmadilloCon and her book launch of First Chance in September this year.

My last ENCOUNTER with Karen was on October 14, 2026 – two days before Jimmy and I left on our road trip to World Fantasy. We went to Joe’s launch of the last Hap and Leonard book at Interabang Books. Someone asked about his run as a writer. Joe launched into his story about how he started writing in East Texas and working in the rose fields. Karen gave him the opportunity to write for three months, but if he didn’t write every day she would kick his butt.

He pretty much stared at me the whole time he told this story. Then asked if I was writing when he signed our book (which is typical Joe). Even JIMMY noticed he seemed to be targeting that story to me. But now that we’re back and Karen is gone, I feel like that was her passing on one last message.

So, now – as if I didn’t need MORE encouragement to focus on my writing, I have a self-inflicted spirit of Karen Lansdale standing by to kick my butt if I don’t write every day.

So, thank you, Karen. Thank you for your support – now and forever.