Meet Kellyn Roth // Interview

Today I’d like to welcome back author Kellyn Roth! Kellyn, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hi there! I’m Kellyn Roth, though you’re welcome to call me Kell. I’m a Christian historical women’s fiction and romance author who loves writing about the dark places where hope shines brightest—because, after all, God is a God of hope!

About me personally—I live in the Pacific Northwest with my nerdy husband, Matthew, and hopefully soon, our puppy, Stanley. (Right now, he’s staying with my parents, who own his parents, until we can figure out renting situations.) Oh, and we have a fish, but he keeps pretending to die, so … we’ll see how long Philip Harriot, The Duke of Ridgewell, services. *winces*

Anyways, I love writing and reading—I love a lil’ bit of hiking (not hardcore, but it looks like hiking if you squint)—I love getting into weird conversations with my friends—and I love Keira Knightley. Well, okay. Love may be a strong word. But I LIKE her. And I will die on the hill of … well, I won’t mention the most controversial movie adaptation ever. Let’s not start a fight today on someone else’s blog, eh? 😉

Congrats on your novel A Prayer Unanswered! May we have a brief introduction?

Of course! This is book 5 in my series, The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy, though if you want to, you can just think of it as book 3 in Alice’s series. I even have a handy graphic to illustrate this point!

The series is about two sisters, of course, named Alice and Ivy. They live in Victorian England, and throughout their lives, they experience a variety of complicated but fairly everyday situations. This series is my heart project. I love tackling tough topics in a sensitive, godly way through my characters.

The stories do feature tough themes. A Prayer Unanswered is not a safe read for those struggling with infertility or child loss (though I guess that means it’s not a safe read for me? … I guess it just depends on the individual!). But I keep praying that God will use my writing in the way He sees best, and I do my best to be sensitive and yet realistic in my portrayal of the tougher subjects.

Back in 2019, you rebooted the first two books of The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy and since then there have been three more books released. Can you tell us more about your journey with this series and future plans for it?

Well, there’s been a lot of rebooting, certainly! However, I’m finally releasing new projects, and that makes me super excited! I’m so glad to have the first five books out…

But I have five more to do, not counting spin-offs.

Thankfully, I’ve structured the series to have several entry points. You can just read the Alice stories — or just read the Ivy stories — or you can join in at book 3 and read about their adult lives — or you’ll eventually be able to hop in at any of the spin-off series and just keep going from there.

So there’s definitely a lot going on!

For now, I’ll be releasing book 6 (Ivy’s story) this autumn—and after that, I’ll be setting the main series aside for a time to work on a spin-off!

More details to come soon. 😀

What led you to write in this genre? What do you enjoy most about it?

You know, I’m never sure! My mother definitely gave me a thorough grounding in history as a child, and I definitely have always loved this type of story. However, it’s a combination of things.

Loving the old-fashioned world. Enjoying a place where all the debates about this and that (except for the bigger world matters) are largely concluded by now, leaving me to sort through opinions and thoughts of the time with a certain level of detachment. It’s also interesting for me to try to mimic, as carefully as I can, the way people actually would’ve thought back then—because in some ways it’s different, but in a lot of ways, it’s the same.

In terms of what I write once I’ve settled on the setting, I like to write about emotional and deep topics because I really need to sort through them myself. It helps me to think deeply and process the real-world applications of the things I theoretically know.

Besides, I struggle to understand people, to have empathy, to relate on a deeper level to the human beings around me. And through writing, I explore different personalities, relationships, etc. People often ask me how someone practical and no-nonsense can write romance; I say that I write it well (or decently well) because God has given me the gift of being able to break things down and analyze them. If you know how people work, you can write just about anything they do with a level of reality—and that’s ever been my goal!

If you know how people work, you can write just about anything they do with a level of reality—and that’s ever been my goal!

What is your favorite way you’ve seen God work in a seemingly ordinary moment?

God has come through for me so often in unexpected ways. Usually, He figures out my job situations for me before I have to, which is super nice. I just have to have patience and leave Him room to work!

Another thing is that He really came through for me for my launch last summer. I was getting married in a couple weeks and put so little effort into marketing … and yet somehow, my book did really well. It gave me so much faith that I am in the place I need to be, and God is going to do what He will with my gift of writing … whatever that looks like!

Thank you so much for coming!

Thank you for having me! It was so fun!

Follow Kellyn on her Blog // Instagram // Goodreads

In celebration of her newest release, Kellyn Roth is giving away (1) paperback copy of A Prayer Unanswered, (1) bracelet, and (1) locket.

ENTER HERE

(All images except header image provided by Kellyn Roth and Jen’s Author Assistance)