Ignoring every career counselor she ever met, Karin's career choices to date have been nothing but elaborate excuses to get the next travel fix. After college (which she divided up between her native Sweden and the United States), she worked as a runway model. Knowing very well she was no Elle MacPherson, she stuck with it anyway for the wonderful opportunities it offered to see a little bit more of the world. Then she reached the ripe old age of 23, and had to figure out some other way to pay for those tickets.

After a couple of years in advertising at Laughlin, Marinaccio & Owens in Arlington, Virginia, working on such exciting accounts as the Army National Guard and the Consumer Information Center, she talked her way into a job as a freelance writer at The Washington Times. For three and a half years she traveled to every godforsaken corner of the world for the Times, writing and producing their international supplements (inserts into the paper about a foreign country or region). She came away with some amazing experiences. Not everybody can say they've had the president of Indonesia fall asleep on them (protocol censored her questions, she was getting bored as well), or seen members of parliament in Kyrgyzstan completely naked. 

These travels turned in to a series of travel articles for media outlets such as AdventureDivas.com, American Woman Road and Travel and Rudy Maxa's Traveler. 

Karin is a contributing editor to five Fodor's guidebooks (an imprint of Random House) and two guidebooks by Scandinavian Airlines’ media division. Her misadventures while traveling can be found in 'I Should Have Gone Home: Tripping Up Around the World' (RDR Books), 'I Should Have Stayed Home: Tantalizing Tales of Extreme Cuisine' (RDR Books) and 'The Risks of Sunbathing Topless' (Seal Press). Her love life is laid bare in 'A Cup of Comfort for Women in Love' (Adams Media).

PBS, AARP, the governments of Kazakhstan, Greece and Ukraine, the Embassy of Fiji in Washington DC, East West Communications and Zambia Hope International are some of the clients for whom Karin has developed print advertisements, graphics, logos, websites, stationary packages, newsletters, brochures and other promotional pieces.

Her photographs have been published in The Washington Post Magazine and The Washington Times and her illustrations have appeared in magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Martha Stewart Living.

To present her work, and yes, get more, Karin set herself up with a web presence (of her own design of course). She chose the name compulsivetraveler.com because traveljunkie.com was taken. And also because she thought her mother would like compulsive better than junkie. Karin can be reached by phone at 202.251.0485, and by email at karin@compulsivetraveler.com 

See samples of Karin's work in her online portfolio.