The Full Biography of Karen Kingsbury

USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury is America’s #1 inspirational novelist. There are more than 15 million copies of her award-winning books in print, including several million copies sold in the past year. Karen has written more than 40 novels, ten of which have hit #1 on national lists.

Karen's newest novel, Shades of Blue, hit stores on October 20th, 2009. Karen's newest series, Above The Line Series began with Take One, which released in March, 2009. The second book in this series, Take Two also released in June 2009. Look for Take Three and Take Four, the other books in this series, to hit stores in 2010.

Karen's recent title, This Side of Heaven landed in the #5 spot on the CBD Bestsellers Fiction List.
Karen's title, Sunset, the final book in the 14 book series about the Baxter Family, hit the New York Times Bestsellers List at #2. Someday, the second to last book in this same series landed #8 on the New York Times Bestsellers List.

Karen’s other recent titles, including, Summer, Sunrise and Family hit the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists and quickly broke many of her own personal sales records.

Karen won the 2007 Gold Medallion for Best Book of the Year with her novel, Ever After. She also won the 2007 Retailer's Choice Award for Found. Karen was named the 2007 Author of the Year Award from Logos Bookstores.

Karen won the “2005 Gold Medallion” and “2005 Retailer Choice” best novel awards for Oceans Apart, and the “2005 Retailer Choice” best series award for her Redemption Series. Her critical success is matched by popular acclaim and correspondence from tens of thousands of readers who have said Karen’s fiction has dramatically changed their lives. These letters and e-testimonials of improved marriages, spiritual awakening and new-found hope enabled her to formally trademark her work Life-Changing Fiction ™.

Karen’s novels have been a magnet for film and television producers. One of her earlier books, Deadly Pretender, was made into a CBS Movie-of-the-Week called, “Every Womans Dream,” which starred Kim Cattrall. Several of her recent novels, including; Like Dandelion Dust, A Thousand Tomorrows, Ever After and Gideon's Gift are currently under full-length movie production and option agreements with major motion picture production companies and will be appearing in theaters over the next several years.

Karen’s Red Gloves Collection with Warner Books has spurred community service projects across the country that Karen calls Red Gloves Projects. Karen has also created Forever in Fiction as an auction item, giving the winner a chance to name a character in one of Karen’s upcoming books. To date, Forever in Fiction has raised more than $200,000 for charities across the country.

“I always knew I wanted to be a writer,” says Karen. “It is just something I was born with. I consider it a true gift from God.”

After graduating from college in 1986 with a degree in journalism, Karen became a full-time reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Her first book, Missy’s Murder, was based on a murder story she covered in Los Angeles as a reporter. She sold a version of the story to People magazine in 1989. A New York agent read her People story and asked her for a book proposal. The book hit stores in 1992. She then wrote three more true crime novels under the pen name Kelsey Tyler. Next she wrote four collections of answered prayers and miracle stories before transitioning to inspirational fiction in 1998.

Her first novel, Where Yesterday Lives, was a real challenge for Karen to get published. Although publishing companies said they liked the story, they were not sure what to do with it since it didn’t contain foul language and had no sex scenes. Finally, the Christian publishing house Multnomah, published her novel and gave her a multi-book contract. Her books made a real connection with contemporary romance fans. Since her first novel, Karen has written more than 40 faith based novels, many of which have hit #1 on national lists. There are more than 15 million copies of her award-winning books in print.

Dubbed by Time magazine as the “queen” of Christian fiction, Karen receives tens of thousands of letters from readers who say that Karen’s fiction has dramatically changed their lives. These letters and e-testimonials of improved marriages, spiritual awakenings and new found hope have enabled her to formally trademark her work Life-Changing Fiction (TM).

A popular speaker at women’s groups around the country, Karen spends her spare time playing with her children, going on dates with her husband and writing songs with several chart-topping Nashville stars. This past Christmas, Karen wrote "Miracle's Happen", a Christmas song sung by Richie McDonald (formerly of Lonestar) which now appears on Richie's cd, If Every Day Could Be Christmas.

Karen lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Don. They were married in June, 1988 and have six children, three of whom were adopted from Haiti. You can read her Adoption story.

They celebrate their faith daily by laughing, loving and living life to the fullest. You can contact Karen at Karen@KarenKingsbury.com or through her website at www.KarenKingsbury.com.

Karen is represented by Rick Christian, president of the Colorado Springs-based literary agency, Alive Communications.