Bio: Two-time ACFW
Carol Award finalist Kelly Irvin is the author of the critically acclaimed Amish of Bee County Texas .
They have two children, two grandchildren, and two ornery cats.
Welcome back, Kelly. Tell
us about your salvation experience.
I grew up in a small town in Kansas in the sixties and early seventies.
My parents sent my two sisters, two brothers, and I to Sunday school without
them every Sunday. We walked into town to the Methodist Church
You’re planning a
writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be
and why?
So many possibilities, it’s hard to narrow them down! I
would start by inviting Allison Pittman, who writes historicals and historical
romances. She won a Carol Award for Stealing
Home and currently has a novel, Loving
Luther, on the CBA Bestseller List. She was ACFW Mentor of the Year two
years ago, and she is a tremendous writer, teacher, mentor, and Christian. She
would add her experience, expertise, wonderful writing talent, and wicked sense
of humor to any gathering where writing fiction is the focus.
I have never met Christy and Carol Award winner Julie
Cantrell, author of The Feathered Bone,
Into the Free, and Perennials, but I admire her prose
greatly. She sets the bar high with novels that delve into delicate women’s
issues and terrible societal problems such as sex trafficking. I’d like to pick
her brain, ask her advice, and learn her secrets.
I recently signed a two-book contract for romantic suspense
novels, so I would want to invite two authors with whom I could converse about
the challenges of writing these books. I’d like to invite Dee Henderson, who
wrote the O’Malley series that led me to realize I wanted to write
inspirational fiction and showed me that could include romantic suspense. I’d
also invite internationally known forensic artist Carrie Stuart Parks, who won
both a Christy and a Carol Award for her last novel, When Death Draws Near.
I would look for writers who have honed their craft, would
work hard, and make the most of their time at a writing retreat while offering
support and honest feedback to their fellow writers.
Do you have a
speaking ministry? If so, tell us about that.
No speaking ministry currently. I’ve had some health and
mobility issues that I’m still learning to manage.
What is the most
embarrassing thing that has happened to you and how did you handle it?
I tend to be a klutz so there’s been more than a few, but
one that stands out in my mind occurred when I was working as a reporter
covering City Council meetings in Laredo, Texas, in the early eighties. Yes,
that long ago, and it still comes to mind when someone says the word
embarrassing. It’s very hot and muggy in Laredo
most of the time, but especially in the summer. I wore a sundress to the
meeting. About an hour into the session, my zipper broke and the dress gave
way. The kind county tax assessor collector behind me grabbed the two sides and
tried to hold them together. I slunk out of the meeting, raced home, changed,
and raced back. Reporters have jobs to do and being embarrassed is no excuse
for missing the story. But I’ll never forget how chagrinned I was.
People are always
telling me that they’d like to write a book someday. I’m sure they do to you,
too. What would you tell someone who came up to you and said that?
I do hear it frequently. I try to be kind and encouraging,
but realistic. Writing a book isn’t an easy task. Much blood, sweat, and tears
are involved. I share with them my advice, which was the advice given to me:
put your behind in the chair, place your fingers on the keyboard, and write.
That’s the only way to find out how much you want to write that book. Nike had
it right, when they urged, “Just do it.” Like a famous writer said, “If you can
do something else, do it.” I encourage them to go to writing workshops, read
writing books, and join a critique group, but most importantly, to get started
writing.
Tell us about the
featured book.
Beneath the Summer Sun is a story of faith, hope, and
second chances. Here’s the back-cover blurb:
Jennie Troyer knows
it’s time to remarry.
Can she overcome a
painful secret and open her heart to love?
It’s been four years since Jennie’s husband died in a
farming accident. Long enough that the elders in her Amish community think it’s
time to marry again for the sake of her seven children. What they don’t know is
that grief isn’t holding her back from a new relationship. Fear is. A terrible
secret in her past keeps her from moving forward.
Mennonite book salesman Nathan Walker stops by Jennie’s farm
whenever he’s in the area. Despite years of conversation and dinners together,
she never seems to relax around him. He knows he should move on, but something
about her keeps drawing him back.
Meanwhile, Leo Graber nurtures a decades-long love for
Jennie, but guilt plagues him—guilt for letting Jennie marry someone else and
guilt for his father’s death on a hunting trip many years ago. How could anyone
love him again—and how could he ever take a chance to love in return?
In this second book in the Every Amish Season series, three
hearts try to discern God’s plan for the future—and find peace beneath the
summer sun.
Please give us the
first page of the book.
The smack of the baseball against an aluminum bat sounded
like summer. At thirty-seven, Jennie Troyer hadn’t been a student in many
years, but the end-of-school picnic still caused her spirits to soar as if she
were ten and set free for the next few months. She might be old, but she
understood how her children felt. That curious lightheartedness for this one
afternoon on the last day of April.
Smiling at the thought, Jennie clapped as Cynthia smacked a
blooper into what served as right field and scurried to the discarded rug that
did double duty as first base. Micah hurled the ball to Celia at second base,
and the chatter from the parents seated in lawn chairs on the sidelines reached
a crescendo. Jennie’s children comprised almost half the players on the field.
Their cheeks were red, their hair sweaty, and their clothes dirty, but they
didn’t seem to mind that summer had arrived early in Missouri .
After all they’d been through—no matter how much time had
passed—they deserved a few hours of carefree, childish play. Despite the heat
Jennie shivered. She studied the rows of corn plants in nearby fields and tried
to recapture the happiness she’d felt only seconds earlier. Raising her face to
the sun, she begged it to burn away a pain that still barged into her day at
odd, unexpected moments.
“Your kinner are on fire today, aren’t they? I’m surprised
Francis isn’t out there too.” Mary Katherine Ropp plopped her dumpling-shaped
body into a sagging lawn chair next to Jennie’s. Grasshoppers sprang in all
directions in her wake. She smelled of charcoal and grilled hot dogs. “He’s Elizabeth ’s little shadow
these days.”
Afraid her perceptive friend would read her face, Jennie
sprang to her feet and did a head count with her index finger. Matthew, her
graduate and oldest son at fourteen, stood at third base, his hands on his
hips, his usual sullen look on his face. Followed at various places on and off
the field by Celia, thirteen; Micah, eleven; Cynthia, ten; Mark, seven; and
Elizabeth, six and just finishing her first year of school. No Francis. At
four, her youngest had a mind of his own, a penchant for trouble, and sturdy
little legs to carry him there.
How can readers find you on the Internet?
@Kelly_S_Irvin
Thank you, Kelly, for
sharing this new book with me and my readers. We all are eager to read it.
Readers,
here are links to the book.
Beneath the Summer Sun - Christianbook.comBeneath the Summer Sun (An Every Amish Season Novel) - Amazon paperback
Beneath the Summer Sun (An Every Amish Season Novel) - Kindle
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