Kelly Irvin
Strong Women. Powerful Stories.
Disappointment is something we would all like to banish from our lives. However, the older I get and the more I experience disappointment, the more I see how it shapes and molds me into a more thoughtful person. Disappointment helps us grow up, no matter how old we are. I know that sounds ridiculously self-righteous, …
The other night my husband and I were watching a TV program in which a fictional medical examiner said, “I’m a doctor, I don’t believe (in miracles, in prayer, in God).” Irritated, I turned to Tim and remarked that one did not preclude the others. He rolled his eyes and said, “It’s a TV show.” …
The American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) annual national conference in Nashville is coming up on Aug. 25-28. I’m particularly excited because The Beekeeper’s Son is a finalist in the ACFW Carol Awards romance category. Whether I win or not, I know I’ll have a wonderful time with the pomp and ceremony that’s involved in being …
Sunday was my son Nicholas’s twenty-fifth birthday. He’s celebrating a quarter of a century on this earth. He’ll celebrate his first wedding anniversary in September. He and his bride closed on their first house in July. I mention all this because he recently traveled to Colorado for two weeks on business. His company sent him …
It seems as if I’m always in a hurry. Even when I’m not. I retired in February so I no longer throw myself out of bed at five-thirty a.m. to rush downtown to an office where I finagled an hour of writing before beginning my day job. I rushed home to fix supper, exercise, shower, …
Sometimes it takes an enormous, unexpected wake-up call to learn to be thankful for the many things we take for granted. I received a series of those calls beginning two years ago this July when I discovered I had trouble picking up my feet when I walked. I was on vacation at my sister and brother-in-law’s farm …
Last week I took a nostalgic look back at my Bee County series, which comes to an end with The Saddle Maker’s Son. Today, I want to look ahead with a peek at my new series, which will debut with Upon a Spring Breeze in 2017. This four-book series, entitled Every Amish Season, takes me …
The release of The Saddle Maker’s Son, the final installment of the Amish of Bee County series, has me feeling a little blue. I think this happens to many authors. We spend so much time with our characters in their homes that we get attached. Yes, I’m writing a couple of novellas set in Bee …
As a writer, you really never know what will serve as research fodder for your fiction. In 1978, as a college student I attended the University of Costa Rica, in San Jose, Costa Rica, for three semesters as an exchange student. There I met and dated a Salvadoran political refugee named Pedro. He told me …
The thing about setting out to write a novel about anything when you’re a fiction writer, is you usually—almost always—run into a topic you know nothing about. As a former newspaper reporter, I’m accustomed to this. I was expected to become an instant expert on a new topic every day. Sewer systems, zoning ordinances, AIDS, …
The youth minister of my church gave the message on Sunday. His name is Chris Baxter and the title of his talk (they don’t like to call it a sermon) was “So Easy Chris Baxter Can Do It.” Right off the top, one of the things he shared is that he is a “hot mess.” …
A study released recently says more and more children are growing up with an underdeveloped sense of empathy. In this world of social media and immediate gratification, they are frequently the subject of photos taken every day for the purposes of sharing with the world. It’s easy for them to get the sense that they are the center …
My life is a bit like the weather in Texas. If I don’t like it, I only have to wait a second and it’ll change. One thing is for certain, everything changes. Strange as it may seem, that fact gives me a certain amount of comfort. How we navigate through the seasons in our lives …
