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 < back to authors list Kären Hess:
Although she has written five texts in her own field of English, she says she finds writing about other fields, especially criminal justice, more interesting. She wrote her first criminal justice book with Henry Wrobleski, head of the law enforcement department at Normandale Community College, where Hess is an English instructor. Together they wrote For the Record: Report Writing in Law Enforcement in 1978, in its fourth edition in 1997. They also wrote For the Record: Writing for the Fire Services, in 1987, For the Record: Report Writing for Human Services in 1990, Introduction to Private Security, in its fourth edition in 1996, Introduction to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, in its fifth edition in 1997 and Police Operations, in its second edition in 1997. Along the way, she has written eight other texts with five other coauthors: Wayne Bennett, Dennis Conroy, Robert Drowns, Linda Miller and Scott Harr. She earned a doctorate in criminal justice from Pacific Western University in Los Angeles in 1994, because, she said, "there might come a time when I want to write a criminal justice text on my own without a coauthor." Her most successful text, written 20 years ago and going into its fifth edition, is Criminal Investigation with co-author Wayne Bennett. "Although it has quite a few competitors," Hess said. "It is a nice, steady, good selling text." Hess says three things set her books apart: their instructional design, their pedagogy, and the fact that they start with clear objectives and key terms at the beginning. "Readers get the key concepts a lot of times throughout the book," Hess said. Hess says that although her dream is to write a novel, she's good at textbooks. "Fiction writing takes more creativity and imagination," she said. She wrote a novel a few years ago, Death Key -- A Mystery, but hasn't had any luck selling it to a publisher. "I guess it's not good enough," she said. "I've never taken the time to write anything super. I'd have to go to a mountaintop to get anything done." Hess has always loved to write. "I'd rather write a letter than make a phone call," she said. Always a straight A student, she earned a scholarship from General Motors, which paid for her entire undergraduate studies. "I had good teachers," Hess said. One, Dr. Harold Allen, her adviser at the University of Minnesota, was, Hess said, "instrumental in keeping me interested in writing." Hess holds several awards, including Phi Beta Kappa in 1960, the Pi Lambda Theta Award in 1961, the North Star Award for outstanding leader in 1961, the Merriam Webster Award for outstanding English student in 1961 and was an American Association of University Women Fellow in 1968. She is also listed in 15 publications including 2000 Notable Women, Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors & Poets and Personalities of America. Hess currently devotes herself full-time to writing but still teaches one course per quarter at Normandale Community College. She is also president of the Institute for Professional Development, which puts on training programs for those in law enforcement, and chief executive at Information Age Communications, which holds business writing workshops. She is also vhief executive at Milestone Publishing, a company that she cofounded with a friend in 1987. Their intent was to sell corporations on writing their history. "We haven't had the time to pursue it yet, but it's something we would like to do when we have the time," Hess said. She is also a charter member of Text and Academic Authors and served as two terms as secretary from 1991 to 1994. The author of 35 textbooks, Hess gives this advice to aspiring authors of texts or fiction: "Have an idea you're excited about and find a publisher before you write." She said she learned the latter the hard way. She wrote Death Key without first finding a publisher. She also submitted it herself, without an agent. "Most publishers won't look at unagented fiction," she said. — reported by Kim Pawlak, 1998
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