Carla Kelly
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Carla Kelly, or Carla Sue Kelly (born 1947) is a popular and acclaimed writer in the Regency romance genre. She is the author of over forty books and short stories. Her books are "keepers" and accordingly hard to find. Renowned for what she calls "dukeless" regencies, her stories often revolve around ordinary people solving their own problems. However, her regencies only reflect a part of her writing interests. She has a strong interest in the American West which is reflected in her earliest published works and in her non-fiction.
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[edit] Biography
Born "some time after WWII" Carla Kelly calls herself a navy brat. The daughter of a Navy Officer she grew up overseas or on one coast of the United States or the other. She attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where she studied history. She then went on to complete a Masters in the same subject focussing on U.S. military history.
In her varied professional career Ms Kelly has been a ranger/historian with the National Park Service at Fort Laramie National Historic Site, a contract research historian for the State Historical Society of North Dakota and has taught history at university level. Currently, Ms Kelly is a staff features writer for the Valley City Times Record newspaper based in Valley City, North Dakota.
Ms Kelly lives in North Dakota and is married to Martin Kelly, Director of Theatre at Valley City State University, in Valley City, North Dakota. They have five grown children now located in various parts of America.
[edit] Literary Influences
When interviewed by Lola Sparks in Purple Pens, Ms Kelly identified the following writers as having influenced her:
- Louisa May Alcott
- The Hornblower novels of C. S. Forester
- R. F. Delderfield
- Joseph Conrad
- Nevil Shute
- Jack Schaefer
- Ernest Haycox
- Charles King
In her author profile on the e-Harlequin site, Ms Kelly says 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.
[edit] Writing career
Ms Kelly began writing Regency Romances because of her interest in the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). A major theme in her books is how war touches the lives of ordinary people. In surviving the effects of war and in helping other survivors her characters find in themselves qualities of strength and purpose not previously evident. They are quiet achievers influencing the world on small, personal stages, making a difference in their own lives and others ultimately by acts of kindness rather than daring. Ms Kelly goes against the norms of the genre by focusiing her attention not on the glittering world of London society and the social elite, but on the other 99.9% of the population occupying England. Her stories are distinguished by authentic, well-researched detail and lightened by a ready sense of humour.
Ms Kelly has also written an acclaimed series of short stories about the men, women and children of Fort Laramie during the Indian Wars era of American history. In 2003 her entire collection of Indian War stories was re-published in Here's to the Ladies: Stories from the Frontier Army. Two of these stories A Season for Heroes and Kathleen Flaherty's Long Winter were awarded Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America.
[edit] Awards
- 1978 Spur Award:Short Subject (Western Writers of America) - A Season for Heroes (FAR West Magazine)
- 1981 Spur Award:Short Subject (Fiction) (Western Writers of America) - Kathleen Flaherty's Long Winter (FAR West Magazine)
- 1993-1994 Romantic Times Career Achievement Award - Regency
- 1995 RITA Award: Best Regency Romance (Romance Writers of America) - Mrs Drew Plays Her Hand
- 1997 RITA Award: Best Regency Romance (Romance Writers of America) - The Lady's Companion
- 2001 All About Romance. Readers Award: Best Regency Romance - One Good Turn.
- 2001 Romance Readers Anonymous. Best Regency Romance - One Good Turn
- 2001 Romance Readers Anonymous. Best Regency Author
- 2002 All About Romance. Readers Award: Best Traditional Regency - The Wedding Journey.
- 2001 Romance Readers Anonymous. Best Regency Romance - The Wedding Journey
[edit] Bibliography
This list excludes articles written in her capacity of journalist or feature writer for various newspapers and magazines, primarily in North Dakota.
- A Season for Heroes. FAR West Magazine, 1978
- Kathleen Flaherty's Long Winter. FAR West Magazine, 1981
- Daughter of Fortune. Pocket, 1986
- Summer Campaign. (Signet Regency Romance) 1989
- Miss Chartley's Guided Tour. (Signet Regency Romance) 1989
- Marian's Christmas Wish. (Signet Regency Romance) 1989
- Mrs McVinnie's London Season. (Signet Regency Romance) 1990
- Libby's London Merchant. (Signet Regency Romance) 1991
- Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career. (Signet Regency Romance) 1992
- Miss Billings Treads the Boards. (Signet Regency Romance) 1993
- Miss Drew Plays Her Hand. (Signet Regency Romance) 1994
- Reforming Lord Ragsdale. (Signet Regency Romance) 1995
- Miss Wittier Makes a List. (Signet Regency Romance) 1994
- The Lady's Companion. (Signet Regency Romance) 1996
- Something New in Wedding Bouquet. Signet, 1996
- With This Ring. (Signet Regency Romance) 1997
- Make a Joyful Noise in A Regency Christmas Carol. Signet, 1997
- Miss Milton Speaks Her Mind (Signet Regency Romance) 1998
- The Christmas Ornament in A Regency Christmas. Signet, 1998
- An Object of Charity in A Regency Christmas Present. Signet, 1999
- The Background Man in The Grand Hotel. Signet, 2000
- The Three Kings in The Regency Christmas II. Signet, 2000
- One Good Turn. (Signet Regency Romance) 2001 -- Sequel to Libby's London Merchant
- Libby's London Merchant & Miss Chartley's Guided Tour. (Signet Regency Romance) 2001
- The Buffalo Carcass on the Company Sink: Sanitation at a Frontier Army Fort. North Dakota History: Journal of the Northern Plains. Vol. 69, 2002
- The Light Within in A Regency Valentine II. Signet, 2002
- The Wedding Journey. (Signet Regency Romance) 2002
- No Room at the Inn in The Regency Christmas IX. Signet, 2002
- Here's to the Ladies: Stories of the Frontier Army. Texas Christian University Press, 2003
- Let Nothing You Dismay in Regency Christmas Wishes. Signet, 2003
- 'To Restore these Children': Fort Totten's Preventorium, 1935-1940. Northern Great Plains History Conference (2004: Bismarck, North Dakota)
- A Hasty Marriage in Wedding Belles. Signet, 2004
- On the Upper Missouri: The Journal of Rudolph Friedrich Kurz, 1851-1852. University of Oklahoma Press, 2005 (Editor)
- Beau Crusoe. (Harlequin Historial Series) 2007
[edit] Forthcoming
March 2007 - In her interview on Risky Regencies Ms Kelly says she has two proposals for new regency novels set in Portsmouth being considered by Harlequin. If these are not taken up, she will finish a "Wyoming story set in 1910".
[edit] References
- Carla Kelly (author profile) e-Harlequin.com
- Interview with Carla Kelly (4 March 2007) Risky Regencies
- Interview with writer Carla Kelly (2/03) Purple Pens
- Regency Award Winners at Good Ton: a Resource for Readers of Regency Romance Novels
