K. E. Brungardt
K. E. Brungardt/Karen Kanouse is an award-winning watercolor artist and author who has always had a vivid imagination. As a child, she daydreamed of being a horse or a deer or many other creatures, leading to a fascination with shapeshifting and a love for reading science fiction and fantasy. Retiring from family practice medicine in Wyoming, she and her husband moved to Arizona, where she turned to writing and returned to painting, using her sense of humor to infuse her books and, often, her paintings as well.
K. E. Brungardt’s writing transports readers to realms of wonder and amusement. She uses her imagination to color her worlds in books and create new worlds for you to explore.
In her spare time, she enjoys teaching watercolor classes, playing bridge, painting, and having fun since retirement. A lot of her time goes into writing books, keeping her on the couch and at the table, doing author things. Karen is a cat and dog and horse and bunny lover…and the list goes on. She’s fluffy enough to be a cat but not a cat burglar.
What people are saying about the Universal Shapeshifter series...
Kim Anisi says:
Jessi, the protagonist of The Amorphan Effect by K. E. Brungardt, is an exchange student - but not the kind you'd find at any university on Earth; no, she's traveling to another planet on a starship to live among aliens, visit their university and get to know their habits and culture. While this alone would make for an interesting novel, Jessi has even more on her plate than just trying to learn as much as possible about her new life in the two weeks on the ship. During the day, she learns the language, etiquette, dances, and more with other exchange students. While, at night, she roams the ship in secret to find answers to the question of why her brother (who she never even met) had to die on exactly this starship. During these explorations, her hair plays a vital role as it's conscious, can camouflage Jessi, and do some other impressive tricks. Jessi struggles with being bullied by one other student (the only other female human) on board), but when she learns more about what exactly is going on, these issues fade into nothingness -suddenly people are in danger, and Jessi learns that even she is not who she thought she actually was.
The Amorphan Effect by K. E. Brungardt is the first part of a new series, and knowing this, it didn't come as a surprise that the end would be a cliffhanger with many questions still wanting answers! Apart from that, I found that this novel was a great way to spend some of my evenings - a couple of nights I stayed up a bit longer than planned because I had to read "just one more chapter" and we know how that goes. I enjoyed the way the characters changed a little over the course of the story, and how the relationship between Jessi and Zoe had such a dramatic twist. I'm wondering how that will continue. The idea of conscious hair and the DNA preservation project was very interesting, and I am sure there'll be some interesting, some terrifying, but also some rather amusing scenes coming up in the next book of the series.als to show that you’re trustworthy and credible.
From Denise S.
The Amorphan Effect is a coming- of- age science fiction adventure with creative premise. Young Jessi, traveling through space as an exchange student learns to cope with relationships with peers, her parents, and aliens as she tries to unravel the mystery surrounding her brother's death. Jessi discovers new abilities and strengths along the way. The author does a great job of keeping the story flowing and the reader engaged through humor and intrigue. I look forward to finding out what awaits Jessi as her adventure continues.
