In answer to the questions I am often asked: I grew up in Los Angeles, California – in the Midwest – in Hartsdale, New York – and a little in Arlington, Texas. I graduated from BYU, went out into the world, chickened out, and went right back to BYU for graduate school, where I did a little bit of teaching (pushing around helpless freshmen, more like).
After all that, I taught English in Salt Lake, and in Utah County, Utah. Meanwhile, I fell in love with and married a responsible guitar player (rare, I know). Now I own a recording studio, my husband produces and engineers all kinds of projects (there’s a link for the site on this home page) and we have four great kids, who are now pretty much off, making their own lives.
We have five horses, two good old dogs and one grandchild so far. Family is the most important thing to us, and frankly, in the last many years, my writing time has devolved into chaperoning choir tours and running wild with my kids and their friends. Ask me where I get my ideas, and I will point at a certain high school full of them.
I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly referred to as LDS or “Mormons”). This has given me a deep grounding in an obligation to do my honest best, both for our family and for the world around me. I believe the right choices are often tough ones, that personal comfort isn’t as important as service to other people, that truth is not a matter of personal perception.
I believe that you can’t side-step real consequences, not in real life or real storytelling—not if you want to tell the truth. And that everybody makes mistakes (you know—nobody ever lives long enough to make them all). I don’t really write about these things. But I know they must show up in my stories.
I love family, good friends, brave and honorable people, hope, leaves, clear streams, collies and aussie-shepherds, stars, glass, wood, fabric, motion and laughter. And Morgan horses. And ancestors. And chocolate. I cannot spell worth a darn.
I did not always love to write, especially not for school assignments. My own “creative process” is a haphazard, messy thing. Sometimes it’s just sheer plod, as Gerard Manley Hopkins once wrote, that makes plowdown sillion shine. But sometimes there are glorious flashes of pleasure and rightness to the work that keep me going.
And here’s the personal stuff: I was never popular. I was never beautiful. I was never rich. I was only mean once that I can remember (to a kid, not my sibling, I mean). But I can remember a couple of years of hell at the bus stop and in the halls when I went to Hartsdale junior high.
I’ve seen grand canyons and tall buildings, adolescent cruelty—and the look of angels on a high school junior’s face. Forests, plains, mountains, oceans, tours in Paris, cairnes in Wales. I’ve known friendship and I’ve known betrayal, birthday parties and nightmares.
I’ve lived through it all—and loved quite a bit of it.
So thanks for coming to my page. I probably haven’t told you a thing worth knowing. But there you are—for certainly, I’ve got Irish blood in me.
If you’d like to e-mail me, please do so:
kddr ((at))rosewoodrecording((dot))com.
Kristen,
I just have to know if you’re the same person who wrote “The Good Shepherd” song? I loved that song and all the others on that album when I was a kid. I recorded the record onto a cassette so my kids could listen to it and they like it, too.
The reason I even thought of you today is because I was visiting Melanie Hoffman’s page and read your review. I didn’t know you were a writer and I was curious about it. I’m really interested in reading your books now.
I’m the full-time, homeschooling mother of 5 (ages 14, 12, 11, 9, 5). We live in Missouri, but we’re originally from Utah and Idaho. I’d love to hear a little about how you became a writer, as I’m also interested in writing.
Thank you, Trudy Parker
Trudy – sorry it’s taken me so long to answer. My baby is getting married next week, and I’m running around like the proverbial chicken. YES I am the one who wrote “the Good Shepherd.” The very one. There were a couple of other albums, too. I’m delighted that you made that cassette – the records are rare these days. We finally found the least scratched ones we could and put them on CD for our own grandkids.
My books are Young Adult problem books. I hate to think that junior high kids read them, but evidently they do – in English class, which is so weird to me. I lived in Missouri, too, by the way, and my aunt is still there, and all the cousins on that side. My s-i-l went to dental school at UMKC. And I was a homeschooling mother of 4. the becoming part is kind of organic – I read like a fiend, and when nobody wrote the story I wanted to read, I wrote it myself. Getting published was hard fifteen years ago; it’s the devil now. I don’t know where the biz is going, but as soon as the wedding is over and I can catch up with my life, I think I’m just going to e-publish right here. You don’t make a lot of money writing books unless you are the one in a couple of hundred thousand (maybe that’s even conservative) who catch an editor by the eyes and then the attention of the audience. But I don’t write Vampires and irresponsible plots that make no real sense, so – you know – maybe I’ll just write for myself???
Why don’t you go ahead and “like” my Facebook page – that way, if I ever DO anything, you’ll know about it.
One grandbaby so far????
🙂
Oh, yeah. Maybe I better update, huh?
Gasp! Kristen! We have the same last name! And the same middle initial too! I wonder if we’re cousins?
It’d have to be close though. I think my great grandfather changed our name from Randles to Randle.
Anyway, just found that curious 🙂
Cats, Billie!! How cool is that? But Randle is my husband’s family’s name – still, we’d be cousins by a bunch of marriages anyway. This has just made my day! How’d you find your way here?
I can’t believe “The Only Alien on the Planet” is back in print!!! I LOVED this book as a teen and am SO happy that it’s back. Currently on my last semester in Library School (MLIS) and plan on adding this book to any collection I get my hands on. Great work 🙂
I am so glad you loved it. And I’m glad we could make it available to you now. Books connect us in such a good way –
Read your Davis genealogy and wanted to know if you have any info on the John Oliver Davis family of Abbeville SC? He is my great grandfather.
Sharon – so sorry. I just found your comment. I haven’t run into the John Oliver Davis line – I’m assuming it was probably closer to Abbeville itself. If you can’t find it in the database, I’m at a loss. My line, and the Chesley Davis line, as far as I can tell has no “oliver” in it. Then again, that name suggests that your John might have been much later than the lines I work. My focus has been 1810-1850. So if your John was later than that, it might be a sideline. Still, my Davis families were in Alabama, Ark, Tex past those years.
Hi Kristen, I just came across the beaded bell patterns and I have a question about them. It appears the pattern three might me missing a few instructions and I was hoping you could help with that. I have looked forever for a beaded bell pattern yours were the only ones I could find. Thanks for sharing.
Sherrie Allen
Newark, Ohio