The professional version:

At only twenty-one, Kelly Beck produced the nation’s number-one CBS-affiliate morning show from Nashville, Tennessee. A graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, she holds a B.S. in Electronic Media Journalism with a minor in Political Science, and spent five years winning the ratings game as a news producer before retiring to raise her children and write full-time. She now lives outside of Memphis, Tennessee with her husband, two kids, and a too-big labradoodle.

The “Kelly” version:

I almost didn’t become a writer. In fact, I actively fought against it for most of my life.

It makes it hard to answer the question “When did you know you wanted to write?” because the answer is both “always” and also “never.”

I remember coloring stories as young as five-years-old. By seven, my first grade teacher sent me to the Young Author’s Conference in Nashville, Tennessee where we wrote and bound our own picture books. In fourth grade (age nine), I had an essay published in a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” style book about my little brother’s birth.

Add normal middle school trauma, and I swore off writing for good. Especially as a career. That was silly. Everyone said it was “impossible.”

Fast forward a few years to college, and barely passing a simple algebra course, and reality hit me. I couldn’t cut it in a STEM career. My options were my nightmares—liberal arts, English, creative writing, and journalism. I picked journalism after a fated night working a TV news telethon with my sorority and threw myself in it full-force (we don’t do anything halfsies around here).

By twenty-seven, I was home with two babies and bored. I stumbled upon Nanowrimo and gaslit myself into thinking I could write a novel and pursue traditional publishing. After all, I used to write whole newscasts everyday, all day. How hard could it be (spoiler: very).

As they say, the rest is history. I’ve finally succumbed to my creative writing side, and I’ll never stop.