Bella Karoli
| Bella Karoli | |
|---|---|
| Born | Carol L. Kugler Wisconsin |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| Other names | Bella Karoli (Pen name) |
| 💼 Occupation | Writer, teacher, producer, strolling accordionist |
| Notable work | Medley: Songs of life, A Couple out of Tune |
Bella Karoli (born Carol L. Kugler) is an American writer, teacher, producer and strolling accordionist.
Early life and education[edit]
Born in Wisconsin, Karoli got an early start on her education. At the age of three, she could pick out the letters of the alphabet on her mother’s typewriter; at five, she was reading “grown up” books. She also exhibited mechanical ability in that at four, she removed the wheels from her coaster wagon and put them on a large box, which she then pulled through the house with an attached clothesline. Taking clocks apart and putting them back together was also fun. So was building a model airplane and crystal radio, with her father’s help. When her first school summer break came, she rushed home, lined up all her dolls and stuffed animals, and played “school”, with herself as the “teacher”.[1]
Her family is of German heritage, so early on Karoli learned some common words and expressions. She discovered one very important fact about language and languages at the age of seven. That’s when she started taking accordion lessons. One of the songs was the tune to “Ach, du Lieber Augustin,” which had English words with the melody. Upon telling her mother and grandmother that she knew the English words to that song and sang them, they said, “That’s not the translation!” From that point on, Karoli became wary of any song that was translated from another language. As she learned more German over the years, she did her own translating and if she wanted to sing English words to a German or Italian song, she kept to the original ideas as much as possible.[1]
In third grade, she started writing. Poems were easy, so she started with that. By fifth grade, she was writing stories. By this time, she was also composing, setting poems found in her mother’s magazines to music. A portable typewriter was her mother’s gift on her thirteenth birthday. She put it to good use.[1]
In 1959, thanks in part to one of her father’s coworkers, she and her father became charter members of the Early Day Gas Engine and Tractor Association, Wisconsin Branch #2. Over the next couple of years, two small Maytag motors came to take residence on the porch and a 1919 Allis Chalmers Model B tractor became one of the fun things to drive at the annual shows. Her father found it in a field, towed it to his friend’s house, and the three of them cleaned and painted it. The original colors of green and gray could not be found, so it was painted fire engine red. It was this association with the engine that inspired a poem about steam engines, which was printed in a trade magazine when she was 13. Karoli drove the tractor at various shows during her teenage years, and about two years into college sold it to a man in another state who had a similar tractor.[2][3]
In college, Karoli took one art class to improve her drawings and started doing cartoons for herself and then on greeting cards which she made every Christmas or known birthdays and sent to friends. Her original major was English, but she switched to a German major when she discovered she couldn’t write term papers. She is a creative writer, and the efforts put forth for scholarly writing didn't meet the requirements. She graduated with a B.A. in German.[4][3]
Karoli ’s parents surprised her with a spinet organ for her 20th birthday, and five years of classical organ study at a small arts college followed. She later took singing lessons at the same place. About ten years after that, she enrolled at a local Catholic women’s college and almost got a degree in Music Therapy. A move to California in the early 1990s found her getting a full-time job, so the degree was never finished.[4][3]
Career[edit]
While still in Wisconsin, Karoli met through a mutual friend a spiritual woman who became her best friend, even though that person lived in another state at the time. She had created a spiritual development program for which Karoli and a Catholic college fellow student did a commercial, aired on a local TV channel; Karoli also learned to produce public access television programs, demonstrating through various genres how the program worked in her life. The local channel presented her with an award two years in a row. She moved to California in 1991 to be with her friend and continued to produce the programs for the public access channels there for the next four years.[2][3]
Creative writing was on hold during the two sets of college years, but after living in California for a while, she started writing again. Through the local accordion club, she met a man who fell for her and wanted to marry her. Although they never got married, they did live together as significant others for thirteen years. During this time, Karoli began writing short stories again and composing songs. She also was introduced to the bead world, as her S.O. purchased crystals and rhinestones to decorate accordions. She started learning how to make handcrafted necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. After several classes and equipment purchases, she became serious about this avocation, even taking a silversmithing class from a member of the local rock club. A jeweler in Arizona liked what she had and took some on consignment. She still creates jewelry, some customized.[1][3]
Karoli had to return to Wisconsin after her mother fell and didn’t want to live there any more. So Karoli moved her to California, where her mother lived independently until they moved to Arizona in 2008. There, Karoli got involved with a few different churches and wrote and performed music for them. She also joined a writer’s club and a couple of the stories in her new book are a result of that membership.[1]
A new theater group formed in her city in 2011, and she and her mother became members. She performed in their first production as a strolling accordionist in a “gangster’s” restaurant. That led to a real job at the Italian restaurant where it was performed. Karoli played there for the following 1-1/2 years. After her mother passed away at the end of 2012, she had a memorial celebration in the same banquet room where the musical had taken place.[5][3]
In 2013, Karoli relocated to the greater Las Vegas area and worked as a substitute special education teacher’s aide for three years. During that time, the school district offered a way for employees to get a teaching license, which led in 2016 to her starting an online Master’s program in special education. She graduated with the Master’s degree in November of 2018. During this time, she moved back to Arizona at the advice of a friend; she had gotten an unexpected strolling job as an accordionist at another Italian restaurant several months before moving, and played there just under three years, leaving in August of 2019.[5][3]
Karoli continued to write short stories during working and school. Back again in the Las Vegas area, she is currently living with her best friend, continuing to write. In the works are three short stories, one started as a student teacher, and what she thought was going to be a short story but is turning into a novel about a special lizard. The baby lizards she found in her Arizona house periodically were the inspiration for that.[3]
Books[edit]
- Medley: Songs of life, A Couple out of Tune.
- Cute and Smart.[3]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Kugler, Carol L. (December 27, 2013). "Cute and Smart". AuthorHouse – via Google Books.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Cute and Smart ebook by Carol L. Kugler". Rakuten Kobo.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 "Cute and Smart : Carol L. Kugler : 9781491843529". www.bookdepository.com.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Read Cute and Smart Online by Carol L. Kugler | Books" – via www.scribd.com.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kugler, Carol L. (December 27, 2013). "Cute and Smart". AuthorHouse – via Amazon.
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