About Me
Introducing Author Rita Kuehn
(From Becky Kerner Thaisen’s introduction of Author Rita Kuehn at the May 16, 2009 book launch party for her novel Peripheral View)
Rita Kuehn was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, the second oldest of 6 children. Other than a brief time spent in St. Paul, Minnesota, she lived most of her childhood in the small town of Medford, Wisconsin, which had a population of about 3500 people. Even as a young girl, it was apparent that writing was a gift. Rita’s second grade teacher told her Mom, that Rita was destined to be a writer. As a girl, she spent much of her time journaling, or writing poetry and song lyrics.
She attended the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, earning degrees in communications and business administration. While demonstrating her business and financial capabilities, and enjoying success in her business management career, Rita always knew she wanted to write.
Rita’s long corporate career includes assignments as an Asst Vice President of Management Accounting at TCF Bank, and as a management consultant at Ernst and Young accounting firm.
I had the privilege of working with Rita at American Express Tax and Business Services–where she was the manager in charge of acquisition due diligence and acquisition integration. We quickly became friends and enjoyed some good times. Rita left American Express to form her own business communications company, called Writing On Point. She worked with several companies writing brochures, advertisements, webpage content, scripts for training videos, RFPs among other writing assignments. Her passion and dream, however, was to be an author of fiction.
In 2000, Rita traveled to Kazakhstan to adopt her daughter, Lexa. Upon their return to the US Rita married her husband Rick Kuehn in 2001.
In addition to her new roles of wife and mother, Rita continued to pursue her writing career and her dreams of being published. Along with her gift of writing, Rita is known for her ability to see the big picture as well as the details and nuances of a situation, something she may have learned in the business world, but is equally critical to writing fiction. Mixing those skills with what her editor says is Rita’s knack for penning beautifully descriptive passages, developing multi-dimensional characters, and commanding smooth transitions between scenes and chapters, makes a powerful combination of writing talent.
During the period of 1998 to 2009, Rita has written three books. Two are yet to be published. We are gathering here today to celebrate the publishing of her first book. The first book, originally called Pearl, is now known to us as Peripheral View.
Rita currently lives along the Mighty Mississippi River in Champlin, MN with her husband and daughter. She is at work on her next novel.
Please make welcome, Author Rita Kuehn!
