Carla Kelly

Carla Kelly is a prolific and accomplished author, having written over 40 novels and short stories during her career. She is well-known for her Regency romance novels, but her primary interest lies in Western American fiction, specifically stories about America's Indian Wars.

Kelly's writing career took off while she was working as a ranger/historian at Fort Laramie National Historic Site. It was there that she wrote a series of stories, which she refers to as the "Fort Laramie stories," about 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. Kelly's entire Indian Wars collection was published in 2003 as "Here's to the Ladies: Stories of the Frontier Army," which remains her favorite work.

In addition to her Western American fiction, Kelly has also written Regency romance novels and short stories. She became interested 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. Kelly is also a talented cook and the mother of five children, who have all appeared in her Regencies.

Kelly is currently working as a staff writer at a local daily newspaper and writes a weekly, award-winning column, "Prairie Lite." She is an avid reader of British crime fiction and history, particularly military history. Kelly has a no-nonsense approach to writing and lives by the mantra, "to put your ass in the chair and keep it there until you're done." She is also a singer and enjoys performing scurrilous songs about lumberjacks and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" in Latin.

In recent years, Kelly has written Mormon-themed novels and historical fiction for Harlequin and CamelPress in Seattle. She has received three Whitney Awards from LDStorymakers, and two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America, plus a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times. Her current works available now include "The Christmas Angle" from "A Country Christmas," "A Christmas Dance with the Rancher" from Harlequin's Western Christmas Proposals, and "For This We Are Soldiers: Tales of the Frontier Army." She will soon be starting a series set at St. Edmunds School in Portsmouth, England in 1803.