Author Event: Karen Garloch

Join Page 158 as we welcome author Karen Garloch as she celebrates her debut novel, Stray Voltage. She will be in conversation with Heather Bell Adams. Hillie Schumacher has spent her life being the perfect farm wife and mother— keeping the household running, attending church, and helping work the land. But when a mysterious illness strikes the family’ s dairy herd, threatening their livelihood, Hillie discovers a possible cause that is linked to the farm’ s electrical supply. Her solution could save the farm, but her husband resists, the preacher urges her to trust God’ s plan, and the electric co-op dismisses their concerns. With the farm on the brink of foreclosure and her family’ s future at stake, Hillie must decide whether to speak out and risk everything she loves— or stay silent and lose the life she’ s worked so hard to protect. Stray Voltage is a gripping story of marriage, resilience, and the fight to hold on to home. Karen Garloch is a first-time author and an award-winning journalist. She worked for the Cincinnati Enquirer before moving to the Charlotte Observer, where she spent thirty years as the health and medical reporter and was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting. A native of Indiana, she graduated from Ball State University, where she is a member of the Journalism Hall of Fame. She and her husband, Larry, live in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Last updated October 11, 2026