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Carla Kelly

Born

in The United States

January 01, 1947

Website

http://www.carlakellyauthor.com

Genre

Romance, Historical Fiction

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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. 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 ...more

115 posts
Carla Kelly's Blog

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

What matters

I've found something else fascinating about Idaho Falls, where we have lived since April 30 of this year: the paper has great obituaries. What I mean is that the people who write obituaries for their loved ones are really on to something.

I don't always read obits, but I'm never disappointed when I do. What good obituaries do is melt down into a single nugget those things in life that were most im Read more of this blog post »

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Published on September 25, 2014 08:12

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Carla Kelly’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 55,617 ratings · 8,159 reviews · 141 distinct works • Similar authors

	Reforming Lord Ragsdale really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3,911 ratings — published 1995 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 avg rating — 3,129 ratings — published 1994 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 3.87 avg rating — 2,980 ratings — published 2010 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	Borrowed Light (Borrowed Light #1) 4.14 avg rating — 2,366 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career 3.92 avg rating — 2,176 ratings — published 1992 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 4.17 avg rating — 1,759 ratings — published 2012 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 (Lord Ratliffe's Daughters #1) 3.85 avg rating — 1,894 ratings — published 2008 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 Lady's Companion 4.06 avg rating — 1,753 ratings — published 1996 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	Summer Campaign 4.05 avg rating — 1,741 ratings — published 1989 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 4.11 avg rating — 1,667 ratings — published 1989 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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

Channel Fleet (3 books)
by

Carla Kelly

3.92 avg rating — 4,557 ratings

Borrowed Light (2 books)
by

Carla Kelly

4.07 avg rating — 3,494 ratings

St. Brendan (4 books)
by

Carla Kelly

4.32 avg rating — 2,270 ratings

Loving Vigil (2 books)
by

Carla Kelly

4.18 avg rating — 2,045 ratings

Benedict Nesbitt (2 books)
by

Carla Kelly

3.97 avg rating — 2,147 ratings

More series by Carla Kelly…

Quotes by Carla Kelly (?)

“What makes you so arrogant to think that Christ's Atonement is for everyone else in the history of the world except you?”
― Carla Kelly, Borrowed Light

9 likes

“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

8 likes

“Such watering pots,' Lord Ragsdale commented as he handed each of them ahandkerchief, then pressed a third to his eye. 'See here, you have set me a bad example.' He grinned at Tim. 'But I will practice economy and cry out of only one eye.”
― Carla Kelly

tags: reforming-lord-ragsdale

2 likes

See all Carla Kelly's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Challenge: 50 Books: Alycia's books 2009	224	607	Dec 28, 2009 12:41PM
Romance Readers R...: 2010 September Monthly Challenge: Participants' List Thread	641	468	Nov 02, 2010 06:28AM
Romance Readers R...: Read-the-Season Challenge (AUTUMN)	672	337	Jan 10, 2011 11:58AM
Romance Readers R...: RRRC's 1st Reading Tournament:Participants' Official Thread	234	739	Jan 30, 2011 01:09PM

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Carla Kelly’s Followers (808)

Carla Kelly

115 postsCarla Kelly's Blog

What matters

Combine EditionsCarla Kelly’s books

Series by Carla Kelly

Topics Mentioning This Author

115 posts
Carla Kelly's Blog

Combine Editions
Carla Kelly’s books