Presentation: The Is That Was: The Perils, Peculiarities, and Pleasure of Writing Historical Fiction
Using My Loving Vigil Keeping and its sequel, One Step Enough, author Carla Kelly attempts to explain the unexplainable — how a novelist works.
A well-known veteran of the historical romance-writing field, Carla Kelly is the author of forty-two novels and three non-fiction works, as well as numerous short stories and articles for various publications. She is the recipient of two Rita Awards from Romance Writers of America for Best Regency of the Year; two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America; three Whitney Awards; and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times.
Carla’s interest in historical fiction is a byproduct of her lifelong study of history. She’s held a variety of jobs including public relation work for hospitals and hospices, feature writer and columnist for a North Dakota daily newspaper, and ranger in the National Park Service. She has worked as a contract researcher for the North Dakota Historical Society.
Interest in the Napoleonic Wars on land and sea led to numerous novels about the British Channel Fleet and the British Army. Carla has written four novels set in Wyoming in the late nineteenth/early twenty century. Her far-ranging interest in history led to a four-book series, The Spanish Brand, set in colonial New Mexico in the 1780s.
She recently revisited the scene of the Scofield Mine Disaster, May 1, 1900, near Scofield, Utah, with a sequel to the popular My Loving Vigil Keeping. The sequel, One Step Enough, continues the story of Welsh coal miner Owen Davis and teacher Della Anders.