Book description
North Dakota border. Here's another side to this somewhat prosaic
woman: She recently edited the fur trade journal of Swiss artist Rudolf
F. Kurz (the 1851-1852 portion), and is gratified now and then to be
asked to speak on scholarly subjects. She has also worked for the State
Historical Society of North Dakota as a contract researcher. This has
taken her to glamorous drudgery in several national archives and
military history repositories. Gray archives boxes and old documents
make her salivate. Her mantra for writing comes from the subject of her
thesis, Robert Utley, that dean of Indian Wars history. He told her the
secret to writing is "to put your ass in the chair and keep it
there until you're done. " He's right, of course. historian at Fort
Laramie National Historic Site did she get serious about her writing
career. (Or as she would be the first to admit, as serious as it gets.
)Carla wrote a series of what she now refers to as the "Fort
Laramie stories," which are tales of 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. She was the second woman to earn two
Spurs from WWA (which, as everyone knows, is all you need to ride a
horse). Her entire Indian Wars collection was published in 2003 as
Here's to the Ladies: Stories of the Frontier Army. It remains her
favorite work. The mother of five children, Carla has always allowed her
kids to earn their keep by appearing in her Regencies, most notably
Marian's Christmas Wish, which is peopled by all kinds of relatives.
Grown now, the Kelly kids are scattered here and there across the U. S.
They continue to provide feedback, furnish fodder for stories and make
frantic phone calls home during the holidays for recipes. (Carla Kelly
is some cook. )Carla's husband, Martin, is Director of Theatre at Valley
City State University, in Valley City, North Dakota. Carla is currently
overworked as a staff writer at the local daily newspaper. She also
writes a weekly, award-winning column, "Prairie Lite. "Carla
only started writing Regencies because of her interest 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 who were, let's face it, far more numerous
than lords and ladies. Hobbies? She likes to crochet afghans, and read
British crime fiction and history, principally military history. She's
never happier than talking about the fur trade or Indian Wars with Park
Service cronies. Her most recent gig with the National Park Service was
at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site on the MontanaAlthough
Carla Kelly is well known among her readers as a writer of Regency
romance, her main interest (and first writing success) is Western
American fiction more specifically, writing about America's Indian Wars.
Although she had sold some of her work before, it was not until Carla
began work in the National Park Service as a ranger North Dakota
border. Here's another side to this somewhat prosaic woman: She recently
edited the fur trade journal of Swiss artist Rudolf F. Kurz (the
1851-1852 portion), and is gratified now and then to be asked to speak
on scholarly subjects. She has also worked for the State Historical
Society of North Dakota as a contract researcher. This has taken her to
glamorous drudgery in several national archives and military history
repositories. Gray archives boxes and old documents make her salivate.
Her mantra for writing comes from the subject of her thesis, Robert
Utley, that dean of Indian Wars history. He told her the secret to
writing is "to put your ass in the chair and keep it there until
you're done. " He's right, of course. historian at Fort Laramie
National Historic Site did she get serious about her writing career. (Or
as she would be the first to admit, as serious as it gets. )Carla wrote
a series of what she now refers to as the "Fort Laramie
stories," which are tales of 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. She was the second woman to earn two
Spurs from WWA (which, as everyone knows, is all you need to ride a
horse). Her entire Indian Wars collection was published in 2003 as
Here's to the Ladies: Stories of the Frontier Army. It remains her
favorite work. The mother of five children, Carla has always allowed her
kids to earn their keep by appearing in her Regencies, most notably
Marian's Christmas Wish, which is peopled by all kinds of relatives.
Grown now, the Kelly kids are scattered here and there across the U. S.
They continue to provide feedback, furnish fodder for stories and make
frantic phone calls home during the holidays for recipes. (Carla Kelly
is some cook. )Carla's husband, Martin, is Director of Theatre at Valley
City State University, in Valley City, North Dakota. Carla is currently
overworked as a staff writer at the local daily newspaper. She also
writes a weekly, award-winning column, "Prairie Lite. "Carla
only started writing Regencies because of her interest 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 who were, let's face it, far more numerous
than lords and ladies. Hobbies? She likes to crochet afghans, and read
British crime fiction and history, principally military history. She's
never happier than talking about the fur trade or Indian Wars with Park
Service cronies. Her most recent gig with the National Park Service was
at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site on the MontanaAlthough
Carla Kelly is well known among her readers as a writer of Regency
romance, her main interest (and first writing success) is Western
American fiction more specifically, writing about America's Indian Wars.
Although she had sold some of her work before, it was not until Carla
began work in the National Park Service as a ranger
