Karin’s most recent work includes a memoir, 100 Days Smart, released on February 21, 2023. This true story journals her experiences teaching and living in northern Italy during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
100 Days Smart chronicles the first hundred days of the COVID-19 outbreak on an American Army base in northern Italy, the epicenter of the European crisis. Beginning on the one hundredth day of school, the last day before pandemic lockdown, this narrative journals the very different lesson plan that coronavirus had in store in 2020. The experiences of teachers, students, and parents living through the startling onset unfolds through personal accounts and communications with colleagues, family, and friends. One hundred days later, when Italy began to ease out of the most draconian lockdown in all of Europe, emerged a glimpse into the old yet new world.
This story reflects the resilience, strength, and flexibility of our military connected families. Written with a nod to classic children’s literature, 100 Days Smart explores the fears, frustrations, and lessons learned about life and family, beginning that fateful day in February 2020.
100 Days Smart was awarded the gold medal for memoir from the Military Writers Society of America.
Karin’s other works include short stories included in the anthologies, Schooling with Uncle Sam, Host Nation Hospitality, and Home, It’s Complicated (coming soon) published by the Museum of the Military Family Press.
“There’s a Cobra on the Slide” is included in Schooling with Uncle Sam.
Her additional work, “The Agriturismo Bolzano Vicentino“, details the joys and challenges of living, loving, and leaving Italy, in Host Nation Hospitality.
Karin’s short stories “La Tavola” and “Home Visits” will appear in the third anthology, Home It’s Complicated. A selection of her photographs will be showcased as well.
Karin’s photos and travel articles have been published in The Pacific Daily News, The Monterey Herald, The White Falcon, USO News, and Iceland Explorer magazine.
Karin is working on a combined project with son Ian, detailing stories from her first teaching job in Guam and his work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand.
Karin has also contributed short stories to her father’s upcoming biography, Going Fast: The Life and Times of Bob Walwork.
https://www.boatingmag.com/go-fast-blast-from-past-raveau-runabouts/