All About Kathy
In the Beginning
Imagine this scene: It’s Halloween evening, 1954. My seven-and-a-half-months pregnant mom is dressed as a hobo in baggy clothes that are comfortable on her growing belly. She takes her not quite three-year-old daughter trick or treating around the neighborhood, grateful that she has over a month left before welcoming her second child into the world.
24 hours later, Mom gets the biggest trick of her life. I arrive 6 weeks early, weighing in at all of four-and-a-half pounds. In perspective, my third child weighed over twice that amount at his birth! I spend my first month of life in a hospital incubator.
I tell people that that explains a lot about me! Impatient, determined, a fighter. But I am also shy, introverted, my feelings easily wounded. These attributes all served me well when I began to try and publish books for children but also made it tough. Yet I persisted.
I grew up in the Los Angeles Harbor town of San Pedro, California, the second of three children. I wore a red felt cowboy hat and a holster slung around my tiny waist over my saggy, cloth diapers. I also wore white Easter gloves when I rode my tricycle. My favorite childhood hero was Zorro.
My childhood was sheltered but wonderful, playing outdoors with the neighborhood kids, spending all day scouting the undeveloped acres of land around our home (now packed with houses and businesses) finding rocks and arrowheads, and searching ponds for polliwogs. At home, I talked a mile a minute but at school, I cringed at any attention from the teacher. Raise my hand in class? Never!
But books, I loved books. Some of my favorite days where when the Scholastic book orders arrived and I hurried home with my newest stack of paperbacks, eager to sink into the words and stories.
All along, I figured I’d be a teacher when I grew up. I loved children, reading, books, writing. I remembered in 6th grade our teacher turned the lights down low at the end of the school day and read us chapters of books. My favorites: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. I never imaged that I’d meet Madeleine many years later when I had the privilege and joy of interviewing her for a book I wrote on the Newbery Medal authors.
Welcome to the Church!
I didn’t grow up in a church but began attending in my freshman high school year. My older sister had found a Presbyterian church through her friends and become deeply involved. She asked if I wanted to come to their Youth Fellowship. Me? Attend a group meeting with people I didn’t know? The thought terrified me. I might have cried. I declined.
But the lure of the cute guys my sister brought home along with an ever-growing curiosity about God pushed me out the door one Sunday night. And that was that. The church became my home away from home, the congregation my second family.
I joined the choir. I became Editor-in-Chief of the youth group newsletter. I attended Christian backpacking trips and hiked the Rocky Mountains. When the senior pastor left that congregation to move to a new church, of all the people that could have been chosen, I was asked to speak at his final worship service on behalf of the youth. Why me? Because those people saw something in me I had yet to discover. My journey into ministry had begun.
At sixteen, I was baptized. I wore a lacy, turquoise dress. Mom sat in the back row.
During my first year of college at California State University Long Beach, my father was sent to the country of Iran to work with a team on microwave towers. This was in 1973. I ended up spending my second year of college in Shiraz, a beautiful city in the southern part of the country. I didn’t speak the language. I knew no one. I felt like I’d landed on another planet.
The year in Iran changed me forever. I felt as though if I could survive being dropped onto what felt like another planet with no preparation, I could do anything.
Impatient. Determined. Fighter.
Living in a Muslim country made me realize how much my Christian faith meant to me, newbie that I was. I returned to California, graduated from college with no idea of what I would do with my life. For the next two years, I worked at the local YMCA as a preschool teacher in the morning and in the office in the afternoon. I knew that I wasn’t meant to do this my whole life. But what was I supposed to do?
Two years after my college graduation, the Rev. Randy Branson, youth minister at my church, asked the question that changed my life: “Kathy, what do you want to do with the rest of your life?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “I love children and always thought I’d be a teacher but didn’t do anything to make that happen.”
“Why don’t you go to Seminary and get a degree in Christian Education and teach in a church?”
Bells went off! Lightning struck! That was it! And that was that. Almost. I had no intention of going into ministry. I could never stand in front of a crowd and preach! That would be a terrifying nightmare! But an education degree sounded perfect.
How a Super-Introvert Became a Preacher: God Opens a Door and Pushes Me Through
I ended up at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, clear across the country from San Pedro, California. I enrolled in the Master of Arts in Christian Education course. I loved the classes, the teachers, the learning. But after faithfully attending daily Chapel services and hearing other students and faculty and guest preachers preach, a little voice nudged me. “Kathy, you could do this.”
The nudge got stronger and stronger. I finished my Master of Arts in Christian Education and enrolled in the Master of Divinity program.
I fell in love with another young student, Greg Bostrom. We married in 1981. That’s how I ended up serving with my husband as Associate Pastors for 8 years and then Co-Pastors for 22 years, 23 of them at one church. Our three kids had double-pastors as parents, not always easy for them, but they were always well-loved not just by us but by our church families.
Eventually, I earned my Doctor of Ministry in Preaching at McCormick Theological Seminary. The young woman who never envisioned herself standing in front of a group, speaking, had now become a sought-after and award-winning preacher. Only God could make that happen!
How did I go from being a pastor of a church to writing full-time? I’ll share a bit more about that in another section, but the short version is this. I loved reading to my children. Our times together with books are some of my most precious memories. When my youngest was around three, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to write a book for children that other parents could share with their little ones like I’m doing right now with mine? What a joy that would be!”
And that was that.
How a Preacher Began to Write Books for Children and Adults
In my limited spare time, I learned the craft of writing for children. I went to conferences, took classes, found a critique group. I wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. I started sending out manuscripts. I got nothing but rejections. For four straight years. 250 rejections before the first book got accepted. I know I’ve accumulated at least that many more over the years.
My husband and children supported me every step of the way. One of my children even asked Santa one year if he would “please just publish my mommy’s books!”
And no thanks to Santa, I did finally get a book contract. Hallelujah!
That first book, What is God Like? sold hundreds of thousands of copies and has been translated into over twenty languages. It led to a six-book series of questions and answers about God and faith, grounded in biblical passages. The book was spurred by a little girl in church who one day, as I was about to head into the sanctuary to preach, wanted to know, “Is God a boy or a girl?”
How does one answer such a question without just saying, “Neither,” or “both” or “who knows?” I wanted to answer her question thoroughly and thoughtfully
Over the next months, I searched for Bible verses that described attributes of God. I turned the questions and answers into verse.
I can’t see you, God, so please give me a clue.
Do you look like me and do I look like you?
I wrote in the first person with God answering the questions directly:
I’m as tall as the heavens. I’m as wide as the sea.
But even your hairs are all counted by me.
In this way I could avoid using only masculine pronouns for God. In seminary, the use of inclusive language was mandatory, and that has always stayed with me and been important to me in my preaching and in my writing. Overall, the Little Blessings series sold nearly three million copies.
Just When You Think You Know Who You Are, God Opens Another Door
In 2013, due to chronic health problems over many years, I made the extremely difficult decision to step out of active church ministry and turn to writing fulltime. I felt heartbroken at leaving my church work, but there was no doubt in my mind that God was calling me to keep writing books, mostly for children. It took me a year to adapt to not serving in the church with my husband, but once we moved from Illinois to southern California in late 2014, I set up my home office and started my new vocation: fulltime writer.
I love every minute of it. Except for the continuing rejections, of course! And I’m not so adept at the social media that is required of authors these days, but I’m learning.
I also love being a mentor to young writers who reach out to me. I like to say that it isn’t being published that makes one a writer, it’s writing. The words you write may be for your eyes only. You’re still a writer. However, if you are seeking to become a published writer, learn from my story.
Patience. Determination. Fighting for what you believe you are meant to write when others don’t always recognize the worth of your words. Keep trying! Keep writing. And never lose the joy.
Writing makes my heart sing.
Thank you, God, for not only opening the doors, but leading me through them.
Imagine this scene: It’s Halloween evening, 1954. My seven-and-a-half-months pregnant mom is dressed as a hobo in baggy clothes that are comfortable on her growing belly. She takes her not quite three-year-old daughter trick or treating around the neighborhood, grateful that she has over a month left before welcoming her second child into the world.
24 hours later, Mom gets the biggest trick of her life. I arrive 6 weeks early, weighing in at all of four-and-a-half pounds. In perspective, my third child weighed over twice that amount at his birth! I spend my first month of life in a hospital incubator.
I tell people that that explains a lot about me! Impatient, determined, a fighter. But I am also shy, introverted, my feelings easily wounded. These attributes all served me well when I began to try and publish books for children but also made it tough. Yet I persisted.
I grew up in the Los Angeles Harbor town of San Pedro, California, the second of three children. I wore a red felt cowboy hat and a holster slung around my tiny waist over my saggy, cloth diapers. I also wore white Easter gloves when I rode my tricycle. My favorite childhood hero was Zorro.
My childhood was sheltered but wonderful, playing outdoors with the neighborhood kids, spending all day scouting the undeveloped acres of land around our home (now packed with houses and businesses) finding rocks and arrowheads, and searching ponds for polliwogs. At home, I talked a mile a minute but at school, I cringed at any attention from the teacher. Raise my hand in class? Never!
But books, I loved books. Some of my favorite days where when the Scholastic book orders arrived and I hurried home with my newest stack of paperbacks, eager to sink into the words and stories.
All along, I figured I’d be a teacher when I grew up. I loved children, reading, books, writing. I remembered in 6th grade our teacher turned the lights down low at the end of the school day and read us chapters of books. My favorites: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. I never imaged that I’d meet Madeleine many years later when I had the privilege and joy of interviewing her for a book I wrote on the Newbery Medal authors.
Welcome to the Church!
I didn’t grow up in a church but began attending in my freshman high school year. My older sister had found a Presbyterian church through her friends and become deeply involved. She asked if I wanted to come to their Youth Fellowship. Me? Attend a group meeting with people I didn’t know? The thought terrified me. I might have cried. I declined.
But the lure of the cute guys my sister brought home along with an ever-growing curiosity about God pushed me out the door one Sunday night. And that was that. The church became my home away from home, the congregation my second family.
I joined the choir. I became Editor-in-Chief of the youth group newsletter. I attended Christian backpacking trips and hiked the Rocky Mountains. When the senior pastor left that congregation to move to a new church, of all the people that could have been chosen, I was asked to speak at his final worship service on behalf of the youth. Why me? Because those people saw something in me I had yet to discover. My journey into ministry had begun.
At sixteen, I was baptized. I wore a lacy, turquoise dress. Mom sat in the back row.
During my first year of college at California State University Long Beach, my father was sent to the country of Iran to work with a team on microwave towers. This was in 1973. I ended up spending my second year of college in Shiraz, a beautiful city in the southern part of the country. I didn’t speak the language. I knew no one. I felt like I’d landed on another planet.
The year in Iran changed me forever. I felt as though if I could survive being dropped onto what felt like another planet with no preparation, I could do anything.
Impatient. Determined. Fighter.
Living in a Muslim country made me realize how much my Christian faith meant to me, newbie that I was. I returned to California, graduated from college with no idea of what I would do with my life. For the next two years, I worked at the local YMCA as a preschool teacher in the morning and in the office in the afternoon. I knew that I wasn’t meant to do this my whole life. But what was I supposed to do?
Two years after my college graduation, the Rev. Randy Branson, youth minister at my church, asked the question that changed my life: “Kathy, what do you want to do with the rest of your life?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “I love children and always thought I’d be a teacher but didn’t do anything to make that happen.”
“Why don’t you go to Seminary and get a degree in Christian Education and teach in a church?”
Bells went off! Lightning struck! That was it! And that was that. Almost. I had no intention of going into ministry. I could never stand in front of a crowd and preach! That would be a terrifying nightmare! But an education degree sounded perfect.
How a Super-Introvert Became a Preacher: God Opens a Door and Pushes Me Through
I ended up at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, clear across the country from San Pedro, California. I enrolled in the Master of Arts in Christian Education course. I loved the classes, the teachers, the learning. But after faithfully attending daily Chapel services and hearing other students and faculty and guest preachers preach, a little voice nudged me. “Kathy, you could do this.”
The nudge got stronger and stronger. I finished my Master of Arts in Christian Education and enrolled in the Master of Divinity program.
I fell in love with another young student, Greg Bostrom. We married in 1981. That’s how I ended up serving with my husband as Associate Pastors for 8 years and then Co-Pastors for 22 years, 23 of them at one church. Our three kids had double-pastors as parents, not always easy for them, but they were always well-loved not just by us but by our church families.
Eventually, I earned my Doctor of Ministry in Preaching at McCormick Theological Seminary. The young woman who never envisioned herself standing in front of a group, speaking, had now become a sought-after and award-winning preacher. Only God could make that happen!
How did I go from being a pastor of a church to writing full-time? I’ll share a bit more about that in another section, but the short version is this. I loved reading to my children. Our times together with books are some of my most precious memories. When my youngest was around three, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to write a book for children that other parents could share with their little ones like I’m doing right now with mine? What a joy that would be!”
And that was that.
How a Preacher Began to Write Books for Children and Adults
In my limited spare time, I learned the craft of writing for children. I went to conferences, took classes, found a critique group. I wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. I started sending out manuscripts. I got nothing but rejections. For four straight years. 250 rejections before the first book got accepted. I know I’ve accumulated at least that many more over the years.
My husband and children supported me every step of the way. One of my children even asked Santa one year if he would “please just publish my mommy’s books!”
And no thanks to Santa, I did finally get a book contract. Hallelujah!
That first book, What is God Like? sold hundreds of thousands of copies and has been translated into over twenty languages. It led to a six-book series of questions and answers about God and faith, grounded in biblical passages. The book was spurred by a little girl in church who one day, as I was about to head into the sanctuary to preach, wanted to know, “Is God a boy or a girl?”
How does one answer such a question without just saying, “Neither,” or “both” or “who knows?” I wanted to answer her question thoroughly and thoughtfully
Over the next months, I searched for Bible verses that described attributes of God. I turned the questions and answers into verse.
I can’t see you, God, so please give me a clue.
Do you look like me and do I look like you?
I wrote in the first person with God answering the questions directly:
I’m as tall as the heavens. I’m as wide as the sea.
But even your hairs are all counted by me.
In this way I could avoid using only masculine pronouns for God. In seminary, the use of inclusive language was mandatory, and that has always stayed with me and been important to me in my preaching and in my writing. Overall, the Little Blessings series sold nearly three million copies.
Just When You Think You Know Who You Are, God Opens Another Door
In 2013, due to chronic health problems over many years, I made the extremely difficult decision to step out of active church ministry and turn to writing fulltime. I felt heartbroken at leaving my church work, but there was no doubt in my mind that God was calling me to keep writing books, mostly for children. It took me a year to adapt to not serving in the church with my husband, but once we moved from Illinois to southern California in late 2014, I set up my home office and started my new vocation: fulltime writer.
I love every minute of it. Except for the continuing rejections, of course! And I’m not so adept at the social media that is required of authors these days, but I’m learning.
I also love being a mentor to young writers who reach out to me. I like to say that it isn’t being published that makes one a writer, it’s writing. The words you write may be for your eyes only. You’re still a writer. However, if you are seeking to become a published writer, learn from my story.
Patience. Determination. Fighting for what you believe you are meant to write when others don’t always recognize the worth of your words. Keep trying! Keep writing. And never lose the joy.
Writing makes my heart sing.
Thank you, God, for not only opening the doors, but leading me through them.
Additional Information
I am represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary Agency
Connect with me on social media:
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I am represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary Agency
Connect with me on social media:
