Three months passed and the tension in our “Bible” conversations grew. But he was cute and clean-cut, so I put up with the Bible reading. I didn’t know a Philippian from any other “ippian” and seriously I thought he was crazy. He brought a Bible to our first date and asked me if we could read Philippians together. If a story needed tears, my editors would give it to me.Ībout that time I met the love of my life, a blond, blue-eyed California boy named Don, a guy with one driving passion – to live his life for Jesus Christ. I covered high school sports initially, but quickly I began seeing bigger stories, deeper stories and I earned a reputation. I didn’t know anything about sports, but my dad was a good teacher and I was a quick study. I graduated from Cal State University Northridge with a degree in journalism in 1986 and immediately started work as a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times. “First, you will never ever stop writing. “Two things.” He looked over the glasses at the end of his nose. He pointed at me, real sharp-like, and said, “Are you Karen Kingsbury?” Bob was a surly old journalist with a lifetime of experience. That year I took an English class and three weeks into the semester, Professor Bob Scheibel ordered me to the front of the room. There was a point in my freshman year at Pierce College when I actually decided I was sick of writing. The beach was just thirty minutes away over Malibu Canyon, and there on the shore of the Pacific Ocean I dreamed about being a novelist.īut the practical side of writing looked like journalism, which I studied through high school and college. I loved Southern California back then and I grew up in the San Fernando Valley – a true Valley girl. When I was 10 years old we left Michigan for California, where we stayed for the next two decades.

In books I found friends I never had to leave. Maybe it was the moving that truly underlined my love for reading.

We moved often because of my dad’s computer programming job with IBM. I had the story memorized by the time I was five. Seuss from the first time my dad read me The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I was born in Fairfax, VA, the oldest of Anne and Ted Kingsbury’s five children.

Maya i know why the caged bird sings