Carla Kelly

Author profile

born

in The United States

January 01, 1947

gender

female

website

http://www.carlakellyauthor.com

genre

Romance, Historical Fiction

About this author

edit data

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Although Carla Kelly is well known among her readers as a writer of Regency romance, her main interest (and first writing success) is Western American fiction—more specifically, writing about America's Indian Wars. Although she had sold some of her work before, it was not until Carla began work in the National Park Service as a ranger/historian at Fort Laramie National Historic Site did she get serious about her writing career. (Or as she would be the first to admit, as serious as it gets.)

Carla wrote a series of what she now refers to as the "Fort Laramie stories," which are tales of the men, women and children of the Indian Wars era in Western history....more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Although Carla Kelly is well known among her readers as a writer of Regency romance, her main interest (and first writing success) is Western American fiction—more specifically, writing about America's Indian Wars. Although she had sold some of her work before, it was not until Carla began work in the National Park Service as a ranger/historian at Fort Laramie National Historic Site did she get serious about her writing career. (Or as she would be the first to admit, as serious as it gets.)

Carla wrote a series of what she now refers to as the "Fort Laramie stories," which are tales of the men, women and children of the Indian Wars era in Western history. Two of her stories, A Season for Heroes and Kathleen Flaherty's Long Winter, earned her Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America. She was the second woman to earn two Spurs from WWA (which, as everyone knows, is all you need to ride a horse). Her entire Indian Wars collection was published in 2003 as Here's to the Ladies: Stories of the Frontier Army. It remains her favorite work.

The mother of five children, Carla has always allowed her kids to earn their keep by appearing in her Regencies, most notably Marian's Christmas Wish, which is peopled by all kinds of relatives. Grown now, the Kelly kids are scattered here and there across the U.S. They continue to provide feedback, furnish fodder for stories and make frantic phone calls home during the holidays for recipes. (Carla Kelly is some cook.)

Carla's husband, Martin, is Director of Theatre at Valley City State University, in Valley City, North Dakota. Carla is currently overworked as a staff writer at the local daily newspaper. She also writes a weekly, award-winning column, "Prairie Lite."

Carla only started writing Regencies because of her interest in the Napoleonic Wars, which figures in many of her Regency novels and short stories. She specializes in writing about warfare at sea, and about the ordinary people of the British Isles who were, let's face it, far more numerous than lords and ladies.

Hobbies? She likes to crochet afghans, and read British crime fiction and history, principally military history. She's never happier than talking about the fur trade or Indian Wars with Park Service cronies. Her most recent gig with the National Park Service was at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site on the Montana/North Dakota border.

Here's another side to this somewhat prosaic woman: She recently edited the fur trade journal of Swiss artist Rudolf F. Kurz (the 1851-1852 portion), and is gratified now and then to be asked to speak on scholarly subjects. She has also worked for the State Historical Society of North Dakota as a contract researcher. This has taken her to glamorous drudgery in several national archives and military history repositories. Gray archives boxes and old documents make her salivate.

Her mantra for writing comes from the subject of her thesis, Robert Utley, that dean of Indian Wars history. He told her the secret to writing is "to put your ass in the chair and keep it there until you're done." He's right, of course.

Her three favorite fictional works have remained constant through the years, although their rankings tend to shift: War and Peace, The Lawrenceville Stories, and A Town Like Alice. Favorite historical works are One Vast Winter Count, On the Border with Mackenzie and Crossing the Line. Favorite crime fiction authors are Michael Connelly, John Harvey and Peter Robinson.

And that's all she can think of that would interest anyone. Carla Kelly is quite ordinary, except when she is sometimes prevailed upon to sing a scurrilous song about lumberjacks, or warble "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" in Latin. Then you m(less)

99 posts
Carla Kelly's Blog

Carla Kelly isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but she does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from her feed.

Whitney is becoming a favorite name

There's a point in awards ceremonies where I always ask myself, why do this? I can eat chicken and mushrooms at home, and I can avoid rolls at home. Then I ask myself, should I really just take one bite of the chocolate mousse pie and give the rest to my husband, because after all, I probably won't win a Whitney this year, since I won one last year? And gee willikers, I paid a lot for food I'm... Read more of this blog post »

View more on Carla Kelly's website »

0 comments

• like •

Published on May 15, 2013 04:55 • 7 views

View all 99 posts »

combine editions
Carla Kelly's Books

Average rating: 3.94 · 8,392 ratings · 1,496 reviews · 51 distinct works · Similar authors

	Borrowed Light 4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 791 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand 4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 avg rating — 634 ratings — published 1994 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reforming Lord Ragsdale 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 531 ratings — published 1995 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Admiral's Penniless Bride 3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 495 ratings — published 2010 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Marrying The Captain (Channel Fleet, #1) 3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 avg rating — 469 ratings — published 2008 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Enduring Light 3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 384 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Loving Vigil Keeping 4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 avg rating — 343 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Marian's Christmas Wish 4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 avg rating — 437 ratings — published 1989 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Marrying the Royal Marine (Channel Fleet, #3) 4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 349 ratings — published 2010 — 8 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Surgeon's Lady (Channel Fleet, #2) 3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 338 ratings — published 2009 — 6 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Carla Kelly…

Series by Carla Kelly

Borrowed Light (2 books)
by Carla Kelly
3.9778534923339013 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 1,174 ratings

Channel Fleet (3 books)
by Carla Kelly
3.9273356401384083 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 1,156 ratings

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Quotes by Carla Kelly

“A quote about Carla Kelly - We used to have a family saying around the dinner table. For expediency in feeding our large number of children we would sometimes forego the use of a serving dish and just put one pot or another on the table. The expression was, "It's okay - Carla Kelly isn't here today." Dinner at the Kellys, and Carla's insistence on proper dining decorum was always a bright spot in our occasional family visits. - Gene McAvoy 7-22-10”
― Carla Kelly

2 people liked it

“Oh, well, she decided as her eyes began to close, it is better to love foolishly than to hate bitterly. I hope I am wiser than I was and more kind.”
― Carla Kelly, Reforming Lord Ragsdale

tags: hate, love, wisdom

1 person liked it

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Challenge: 50 Books: Alycia's books 2009	229	567	Dec 28, 2009 12:41pm
Romance Book Polls: Category Romance (Published in 2009)	6	54	Dec 31, 2009 09:55am
Romance Readers R...: 2010 September Monthly Challenge: Participants' List Thread	650	436	Nov 02, 2010 06:28am
Romance Readers R...: Read-the-Season Challenge (AUTUMN)	680	335	Jan 10, 2011 11:58am

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Carla to Goodreads.

Carla's Fans (188)