Hi there! I’m Kell, and this is my less professional (and hopefully more interesting) “about me” page. I hope you enjoy it! It’s full of random facts, a more detailed “biography,” and so on.

A Brief History

I’m a native of Oregon, born and raised on a ranch owned by my family since 1953. Our family is Christian, and my siblings and I were all homeschooled.

Being homeschooled was a big deal for me because it allowed me lots of free time and was very rigorous, especially in the history and literature areas. It also taught me to work independently, consistently, and with quality.

Me and my brother, James, who featured in many of my early stories – as an actor!

It then follows that I’ve always been a bookworm and, at seven, I wrote my first story, titled “Kicky the Dolphin” which was about a dolphin named Kicky who didn’t feel like he belonged.

Even before that, I’d written many poems and made up many fun scenarios for my brother and cousin to act out in various games we played on the family property, from complex battles to relationship dramas.

I’ve always been a storyteller, heavily inspired by my family’s stories and the constant exposure to good books, movies, and TV shows.

I kept up this constant storytelling and occasional writing until I was twelve. This time, I finished a slightly longer story, Midnight & Twilight (basically, two horses have an epic death battle), and shared it with my friends. They loved it.

Which started a trend of us all writing and sending each other snippets of our stories. The four of us wrote some awesome stories, though all but me eventually decided it wasn’t their thing.

My second-favorite Austen book is Pride & Prejudice! My favorite is Emma.

I kept writing. I had started out writing about animals, but I eventually moved on to writing about humans, mostly hilarious misadventures involving animals.

Slowly, I realized that my passion was more in history and people. Particularly in people making up history in the quiet ways, like Jane Austen, Maud Hart Lovelace, Elizabeth Goudge, and especially Gene Stratton-Porter.

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that my first official historical novel was heavily inspired by Gene Stratton-Porter, right down to the character names and situations. It was basically a gender-swapped A Girl of the Limberlost set in Minneapolis because I remembered it from the Betsy-Tacy books.

I finished that book and didn’t really share it with anyone (and when I did, it wasn’t much-admired, so I tossed it). However, the sequel, once wrote, was widely-read by my friends and family, leading me to decide that I would be a published author some day. Interestingly enough, I never finished that sequel, but it was still a pretty big deal.

Why? Well, my whole series, The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy, is basically the stories developed by deciding to write about those characters’ parents and grandparents

The next big thing that happened to me was NaNoWriMo. In November 2014, I decided to join NaNoWriMo for the first time, and I wrote a little book called The Dressmaker’s Secret. Since then, I’ve done NaNoWriMo every year, and I must say, I love it!

In September 2015, I launched this blog, and in January 2016, I published The Dressmaker’s Secret.

It was a huge mistake. I didn’t know anything about publishing! Why, I barely knew anything about writing.

However, I worked hard to both perfect my writing craft AND learn the ins and outs of publishing, and as of January 2020, I started relaunching the entire series. The same goes for my smaller, completed Kees & Colliers series, which was relaunched summer 2019.

I’m so glad to have finally corrected my many errors and launched my own publishing company, Wild Blue Wonder Press, named after a special place on my family’s property.

Now I’m an independent author who does some other work in my spare time, a student of Brett Harris and Kara Swanson’s Author Conservatory, and an up-and-coming authorpreneur.

If you want to chat, try emailing me (contact@kellynrothauthor.com), commenting on my blog, or connecting on social media.

On the personal side of things, I’m married now, living with my amazing husband, Matthew, in Washington, and excited to be in my own home with my border collie, Stanley!

For more recent updates, definitely keep an eye on my newsletter, Instagram, and blog, as I try to update those most often.

And … well … that’s it! I’m excited to get to know you more, so definitely hit me up!

I do a lot of writer and author coaching on the side (free and then ongoing for a small fee), if you’re interested in that, but I also like making friends!