About Me

I wear a lot of hats: editor, novelist, musician, world traveler. Above all, though, I love to write. My novel-in-progress, The Stolen Muse, is set in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Colorado. It’s about two classical musicians in different centuries, and it combines all three of my passions/obsessions.

In sixth grade, I proclaimed writing as my chosen profession, forsaking potential careers as an Egyptologist or ballerina. Luckily, as a journalist and novelist I can explore a pharaoh’s tomb without wielding a trowel, or I can watch a ballet from backstage without squeezing into a tutu.

Over the years, I’ve earned bachelor’s degrees in English and journalism and a master’s degree from the creative writing program at Syracuse University. I’m also a graduate of the Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s Book Project. In various incarnations, I’ve made money by scooping ice cream, selling department-store home furnishings, publicizing local orchestras, cleaning pools, re-enacting characters from Colorado history, and editing magazines. And writing.

Laurel Kallenbach
Akumal, Mexico ©Laurel Kallenbach

Yal-Kú lagoon near Akumal, Mexico ©Laurel Kallenbach

Other Passions

On any given day, you might find me practicing bassoon or playing in a local orchestra or with a wind quintet. I can also be spotted doing yoga, water running in a pool, or hiking in my beautiful home town of Boulder, Colorado.

Last but not least, I’ve had the great fortune to travel to many magical places where people enjoy a slower sense of time, and where ancient history and the present melt together. You can read about many of them on my blog, Laurel’s Compass.

  •  “Laurel Kallenbach has a way of painting the picture for readers, bringing them into her stories and making them feel like they’ve been part of an experience.”

    Jamie Martin Editor in Chief, Experience Life