Carla Kelly

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.

Biography

Born in 1947, 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 later completed a master's degree at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, in American history, with a focus on the Civil War and Indian Wars.

In her varied professional career Ms Kelly has been a ranger/historian with the National Park Service at Fort Laramie National Historic Site, and a ranger at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site; a contract research historian for the State Historical Society of North Dakota and has taught history at university level. Ms Kelly is a former staff features writer for the Valley City Times Record newspaper based in Valley City, North Dakota.

Ms Kelly lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho. She is married to Martin Kelly, former Director of Theatre at Valley City State University, in Valley City, North Dakota, who is now retired. They have five grown children now located in various parts of America.

Literary influences

When interviewed by Lola Sparks in Purple Pens, Ms Kelly identified the following writers as having influenced her:

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.

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 focusing 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.

Awards

Bibliography

This list excludes articles written in her capacity of journalist or feature writer for various newspapers and magazines, primarily in North Dakota.

Forthcoming

References

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