Author Spotlight: Kit Hawthorne

 

Hey there, fellow history lover! This is Kit Hawthorne here to visit with you about my journey as a writer.

I was born in Oklahoma into a big, boisterous, fun-loving extended family. We moved away when I was just about to start first grade, but I made a lot of summer visits to the Oklahoma relatives, and the rest of the clan met up every few years in Arkansas. All those aunts and uncles, grandparents and great-aunts and great-uncles, plus legions of first, second, and third cousins of various degrees of removal, eventually made their way into my writing in one form or another. A lot of my books feature close-knit extended families.

Being the oldest of my Oklahoma cousins was a heady experience for me, since I was the youngest by far of my own siblings. The power may have gone to my head. I used to recruit my little cousins into making finger puppets and putting on shows, or acting out scenes from whatever stories I was working on at the moment. (By the age of nine, I’d decided to be a writer, and I never deviated from that goal, so I always had big plans for some book or screenplay or other.) My cousins were remarkably good-humored about all this, and their willingness to play along gave me confidence.

I grew up in Harlingen, Texas. That’s in the Rio Grande Valley, close to the border of Mexico. Often on a Saturday, my parents would drive the family across the border for a day of shopping and eating. We had our favorite restaurants at the various border towns, as well as our favorite waiters. (I imagine we were among their favorite customers. My dad was an affable man who loved good food and drink and always tipped well.) We also visited the interior of Mexico a time or two when my older brother worked at hunting camps. These up-close-and-personal experiences with a foreign country so close to my own home were very broadening, and there’s a strong cultural influence from Mexico and South Texas in my Truly Texas books.

For college, I went away to North Texas, where I met my future husband, a South Central Texas boy with strong family ties to West Texas. (Texas is big and diverse enough to be divided into a whole lot of regions with distinct geographical and cultural characteristics.) We ended up spending twenty years in North Texas before moving to my husband’s ancestral farm. Our kids were the seventh generation of his family to live there. My books are big on ancestral farms and ranches. I love the idea of multiple generations of a family living on the same land decade after decade, struggling and prevailing, respecting the past while adapting to changing times. The ranch at La Escarpa, home to the Ramirez family since before the Texas Revolution, shows up again and again in my Truly Texas books.

History and geography always take prominent roles in my stories. Even my contemporary titles always have some historical element. To me this is only natural. Everyone has ancestors, and every place has a history. The past gives the present a shape and a character.

I’m a Texan through and through, but there’s a special spot in my heart for the mountains and piney woods east of the Mississippi. I’m also deeply attached to my Scottish heritage, which has a North American echo in the Carolinas and throughout Appalachia. Scottish Americans played a vital role in the American Revolution—in our system of government, its spiritual foundations, and the actual fighting. My Cape Fear Legacy series tells of a hardworking, God-fearing family, descended from Scottish Presbyterians on one side and French Huguenots on the other, living and loving in North Carolina during the Revolutionary War.

As a Christian, I believe that by God’s design there is pattern and purpose in all things. But on a human level, that pattern is hard to see. Often things don’t work out the way we want them to, and we can’t understand why. Stories—good stories—imitate the cosmic drama on a smaller, more manageable scale, providing the closure that we long for, bringing meaning out of suffering, and enlarging our imaginations to trust and enjoy God more fully.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know me a little. If you’d like to stay in touch, you can visit my website at kithawthorne.com and sign up for my newsletter. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, BookBub, and Goodreads. I love to hear from readers! You can reach me on social media, through the form on my website, or by replying to one of my newsletters. Contact me before August 1st and mention that you read this Author Spotlight for a chance to receive a print or electronic copy of any one of my books.

Blessings to you and yours!