Karen Kingsbury Reveals the Christian Authors Who Inspired Her Writing Career (Exclusive)
The bestselling author—who started out as a sports writer—shares her inspirations, writing advice and the faith behind her books
Key Takeaways
- Karen Kingsbury reveals how she went from crime reporter to bestselling author.
- The author shares which Christian writers inspired her, including Randy Alcorn.
- Kingsbury offers aspiring writers advice on finding their genre and outlining books.
Bestselling Christian romance author Karen Kingsbury is opening up about her writing journey. In a recent conversation with Woman’s World to promote the new Great American Family movie The Christmas Ring, based on her novel of the same name the journalist-turned-romance author revealed how she achieved success and the authors who helped her along the way. She also shared her advice for people who want to follow in her footsteps. Read on for more.
Karen Kingsbury reflects on her author journey
Kingsbury published her first book in 1991. It was titled Missy’s Murder and was a true crime novel inspired by a murder case Kingsbury covered while working as a crime reporter at the L.A. Times.
“I was a sports writer first, which was just crazy. I was not the girl who played all the sports — I ran track, that was it. Then they quickly realized I was better off being the person who did the features, so they moved me over to Sunday features, which meant whatever the biggest story in L.A. was that week, I would come back and do a longer piece. I would find the emotion and tell the deeper story. These were hard stories to tell,” Kingsbury says. “So one day, I prayed for something that would get me out of that office, even though I loved that office. And soon it became clear that the only way that was going to happen was for me to write books. So God opened the door for me to get a great deal on a true crime book.”
Kingsbury wrote four true crime books before switching over to Christian fiction. She has since become a New York Times bestselling author and has even started her own production company, Karen Kingsbury Productions, which helps turn her novels into heartfelt feature films.
“I feel like God always puts a movie in my heart, and once that movie is so clear, I turn it one way and the other, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I love these characters, I love the story.’ Once I love it, then I can outline it and write it,” the author says. “I want the movies made from my books to look like that, and I want to be sure that we’ve captured it so it doesn’t feel comical or shallow. I really want it to feel like what I was originally given as a gift from God.”
Kingsbury’s company is a family affair.
“Tyler Russell is our oldest son, and he’s a filmmaker, director, music supervisor and producer — he wears all the hats,” she explains. “My mom is 85, and she’s actually the one who writes back if someone sends an email, and she’ll sign it ‘From Anne, Karen’s mom.’ My daughter and son-in-law are also in administrative roles and marketing. It’s like a dream. I mean, we can’t believe how much fun we have working together.”
Karen Kingsbury opens up about her favorite Christian authors
Like any reader or writer, Kingsbury has several authors whose books she loves.
“One of my favorites is a throwback, and that’s Randy Alcorn. I absolutely love him, and he wrote a couple of books that truly stayed with me — Deadline and Dominion are the two,” she explains. “I also loved reading Frank Peretti’s books, and I still love Francine Rivers’ books — they’re amazing. There are so many talented Christian fiction writers out there at this point, and I’m just blessed to be a part of their world.”
Karen Kingsbury shares her best advice for writers
“I would say, read every book that you can, but only read the ones you truly love, and try to find books that are similar to the genre you want to write in,” she advises. “So if that’s Christian fiction, but maybe it’s niche—maybe it’s more Western Christian fiction, whatever—find the authors who are doing that and read those, because that’s going to be like a classroom for you. And then I would just say start with an outline. Outlining your book is a great idea.”
Be sure to catch The Christmas Ring, which follows military widow Vanessa Mayfield (Jana Kramer) on her hunt for her family’s treasured Christmas ring, on Great American Family on Saturday, November 7 at 8/7c.
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