Posts by Katherine Hansen
That which we never lose…
There’s hardly a more universal theme than pondering lost love and what might have been. A Confluence of Rivers’ unique contribution arises from the paper record through which I relived its story. Only during a brief window in the late 1990s did I bother to print email messages – when the episode Rivers tells of happened to take place.
In the process of reviewing those old emails, taking copious notes on my laptop, I sought to identify and record key words and phrases I’d want to be able to find later. One day the thought struck that I wish I could make my memories themselves searchable.
I wished as well I could see the vaguely recalled screensavers that had set the story in motion. Since I still have the diskette they came on, several months ago I excitedly contacted a techie friend to see if he might still have the outdated type of disk drive for reading it. He promptly deflated my hopes by informing me the diskette’s innards, after so many years, would likely be too degraded to access the designs.
I knew it was a fanciful idea. Oh well, winsome, lose some. It’s incredibly fortunate the box of printouts itself survived – and crazy to realize what it took to get Rivers out in the world (as this essay at my other blog touches on).
Since its summer release, I’ve been a little stymied in getting to the promotional tasks that come next. That includes working with this site’s mailing list – apologies for the delay to those who’ve subscribed.
While I get on with that, I’ll leave you with this quote I’ve only recently come across which fits the whole Rivers project well:
“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose; all that we deeply love becomes a part of us.” (Helen Keller)
Come and say hello…
Meet the Author
October 11th and November 1st, 2025
It’s still a bit hard to believe that after such a long process, my first book is finally out in the world. And just as with the story it tells, I know this puts me on the other side of something huge.
It’s been a joy to share the book with family and friends. Soon, interacting with readers outside that circle will make all this even more real. As you can see above, two upcoming events will offer me an opportunity to meet readers like you in person. I can hardly wait!
A Confluence of Rivers has been such a deeply personal project – I know, what else would a memoir be? Now it’s hitting me a little funny that, after all those words, I can barely think of a few more of them to add here.
Well, there’s this… Writers strive for unity and consistency in their work. In this book though, it’s ok for you to see contradictions between its two main sections – because, as you know, the storytelling relies first on memory, and later on the old email printouts. I like to think of the conversations this could start for you and me about how we carry our memories, what gets lost, and why.
Some memoirs bring back to life an old episode rigidly trapped in amber. Not this one. This story has been almost too much alive in me all along, and instead needed to be written to be properly put to rest.
Now sharing it with you gives it a whole different kind of life, and I’m so grateful for your interest. Hope to meet you soon!
Welcome, readers!
As a newcomer to independent publishing, I’d like to thank you for visiting my author website!
A Confluence of Rivers has been quite literally a labor of love, a long time in the making. I couldn’t be more pleased to finally make it available.
My aims for this blog page include offering updates about the book and other projects as they come along. More importantly, I hope you will feel welcomed and encouraged to interact if you find something interesting or meaningful.
Contrary to popular advice, my public-facing author work won’t lean heavily on standard social media outlets. I’m no influencer, but I do love to connect! I believe this will be the best place to start.
A note about this site’s Comments policy: reader comments won’t automatically post. If you don’t see yours after a few days, you can reach me via the Contact page. Well, feel free to do that anytime – ask me anything or share what moves you. (Whether you subscribe or contact me, please check your spam folder if you don’t see a response.) It could be that a topic you raise will make it into a future post.
More soon – from you and me both, I hope.