Karen Kingsbury (1963-) is regarded as the “queen of Christian fiction.” In her early years, she worked as a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times and later as a news reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News. Her first book, Missy’s Murder, was based on a murder story she covered in Los Angeles.
During her early years as a writer, she met Don, who, in her words, “had a driving passion to live his life for Christ.” He brought his Bible to their first date and asked if they could read Philippians together. She thought he was crazy! But then, they continued their Bible conversations over the next several months. All this was new to Karen, and one afternoon, she boiled over. She took Don’s underlined Bible and threw it on the ground, breaking the binding in half. Long story short, Don forgave her, Karen reconsidered, and she started reading. They eventually married.
Karen wrote four crime books in short order, not her preference, but that’s what her publisher wanted. She mustered the courage to write her first novel, which was filled with Christian themes. Thirty publishers turned her down. Her publisher for the crime books said they liked her novel, but without foul language and sex scenes, they didn’t know what to do with it.
She found a publisher with Christian sensibilities and has been writing Christian fiction ever since. There are now twenty-five million copies of her award-winning books in print. Her last dozen titles have topped bestseller lists.