Last modified on May 30, 2020, at 00:35

Karen Kingsbury

Karen Kingsbury (born June 8, 1963) is an American author of Christian fiction.

During her career she has written nearly 90 books, mainly in general Christian fiction (which she calls "Life-Changing Fiction", a phrase she has trademarked). At least four of her novels have been made into movies, either general release or made-for television.

After graduating from California State University, Northridge, she began reporting for Los Angeles-area newspapers, covering sports and the crime beat. From her early work she wrote four fictionalized novels of actual crimes. However (as she mentioned in a letter to her readers, added to later reprints of those novels) she explained that writing those novels was having a detrimental effect on her emotions, and therefore instead chose to begin writing more generic Christian fiction.[1]

Kingsbury is married with six children, three biological (one daughter and two sons) and three adopted from Haiti (all sons; the adopted children were best friends at the orphanage).[2] Her daughter is married with two sons. All of her sons have either graduated from or attend Liberty University. In 2017 Liberty opened the Karen Kingsbury Center for Creative Writing; she has produced much of the coursework for the university's offered minor in Creative Writing.[3]

Books

Series involving the Baxter Family

Nearly one-quarter of her novels feature a fictional Midwestern family, the Baxters, consisting of an elderly couple (the wife is deceased and the husband remarried) and their six children (including one given up for adoption before they married, who later discovers and reconnects with his birth parents, and another who was killed along with her husband and all but one of their children), and their friends, the Flanigan family (consisting of a couple who's family is modeled on Kingsbury's own: one daughter and two sons of their own and three adopted sons from Haiti).

Redemption series (with Gary Smalley)

  • Redemption (2002)
  • Remember (2003)
  • Return (2003)
  • Rejoice (2004)
  • Reunion (2004)

Firstborn series

  • Fame (2005)
  • Forgiven (2005)
  • Found (2006)
  • Family (2006)
  • Forever (2007)

Sunrise series

  • Sunrise (2007)
  • Summer (2007)
  • Someday (2008)
  • Sunset (2008)

Above the Line series

  • Take One (2009)
  • Take Two (2009)
  • Take Three (2010)
  • Take Four (2010)

Bailey Flanigan series

  • Leaving (2011)
  • Learning (2011)
  • Longing (2011)
  • Loving (2012)

Coming Home, The Baxter Family (a standalone work originally planned to end the series)

  • Coming Home (2012)

Baxter Family Collection

Other Series

Angels Walking series

  • Angels Walking (2014)
  • Chasing Sunsets (2015)
  • Brush of Wings (2016)

Heart of the Story Series

  • The Family of Jesus (2014)
  • The Friends of Jesus (2015)

9/11 Series

  • One Tuesday Morning (2003)
  • Beyond Tuesday Morning (2004)
  • Remember Tuesday Morning (2008) [4]

Lost Love series

  • Even Now (2005)
  • Ever After (2006)

Red Gloves series

Forever Faithful series

  • Waiting for Morning (1999)
  • A Moment of Weakness (2000)
  • Halfway to Forever (2002)

Timeless Love series

  • A Time to Dance (2001)
  • A Time to Embrace (2002)

Cody Gunner series

  • A Thousand Tomorrows (2005)
  • Just Beyond the Clouds (2007)

Treasury of Miracles Books

  • A Treasury of Christmas Miracles (2001)
  • A Treasury of Miracles for Women (2002)
  • A Treasury of Miracles for Teens (2003)
  • A Treasury of Miracles for Friends (2004)
  • A Treasury of Adoption Miracles (2005)
  • Miracles - A 52 Week Devotional (2009)

Other Works

True crime

  • Missy's Murder (1991)
  • Final Vows (1992)
  • Deadly Pretender: The Double Life of David Miller (1993)
  • The Snake and the Spider (1995)

These four books were Kingsbury's first novels. They were re-released in 2014 and included a letter from Kingsbury to her readers, explaining how writing these types of stories became too much for her to handle emotionally due to the darkness associated with them, and thus she changed genres to writing more general fiction (which she titled, and has trademarked, as "Life-Changing Fiction").

Standalone novels [5]

  • On Every Side (2001)
  • Oceans Apart (2004)
  • Divine (2006)
  • Like Dandelion Dust (2006)
  • When Joy Came to Stay (2006)
  • Where Yesterday Lives (2006)
  • Between Sundays (2007)
  • Shades of Blue (2008)
  • This Side of Heaven (2009)
  • Unlocked (2010)
  • The Bridge (2012)
  • The Chance (2013)
  • Fifteen Minutes (2013)

Children's books

  • Let Me Hold You Longer (2004)
  • Let's Go On a Mommy Date (2008)
  • We Believe In Christmas (2008)
  • The Princess and the Three Knights (2009)
  • Let's Have a Daddy Day (2010)
  • The Brave Young Knight (2011)
  • Far Flutterby (2012)
  • Always Daddy's Princess (2013)
  • Go Ahead and Dream (with Alex Smith) (2013)
  • Whatever You Grow Up To Be (2014)

Gift books

  • Forever Young (with Pat Williams) (2005)
  • Be Safe Little Boy (2006)
  • Stay Close Little Girl (2006)
  • Forever My Little Boy (2016)
  • Forever My Little Girl (2016)

E-shorts

  • The Beginning (prequel to The Bridge) (2012)
  • I Can Only Imagine (2013)
  • Elizabeth Baxter's 10 Secrets to a Happy Marriage (2015) [6]
  • Once Upon a Campus (2016)[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ http://karenkingsburybooklist.com/karen-kingsbury-the-snake-and-the-spider/
  2. ↑ https://www.karenkingsbury.com/my-story
  3. ↑ https://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=249677
  4. ↑ Originally released under the title Every Now and Then.
  5. ↑ Although each novel is independent of the others, Kingsbury sometimes uses characters from one book in a subsequent one. For example, Ryan and Kelly from The Bridge later have key roles in The Chance, while Nolan and Ellie from The Chance make a later appearance (now as a married couple) in Fifteen Minutes.
  6. ↑ This short story features Elizabeth Baxter of the Baxter Family, though not part of the series.
  7. ↑ First in a planned series of short stories centered around Liberty University (where her sons attend and a creative writing center with her name is housed). Though not part of the Baxter Family series, she uses characters from the Flanigan family (friends of the Baxters) in the story.

External links