FIFTEEN THINGS ABOUT USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR KELLIE COATES GILBERT . . .

1. I fell for my skydive instructor (pun intended) and we’ve been married over thirty years.
2. I appeared on the popular television game show, Price is Right.
3. I made Ted Kennedy’s bed (as a maid at the Sun Valley Lodge).
4. Part of my skull was temporarily stored in a cooler during brain surgery.
5. I’ve been to a Rocky Mountain Oyster fry. (don’t ask…look it up).
6. I’ve herded sheep.
7. I’ve attended a presidential inaugural ball.
8. I know how to tell the difference between a male and a female crab.
9. My first office was in the Idaho State Capitol Building.
10. I was a popcorn ball in my fourth grade Christmas pageant.
11. My Gram called me her “precious puddin’ gift of God.” I’ve tried to get my husband to use that term of endearment, but he refuses.
12. The popular doll, Barbie, and I are nearly the same age.
13. There were sixteen students in my high school graduating class.
14. I decided to play golf because the clothes are so cute.
15. My life motto is: Prone to wander, chained to grace.

AND A LITTLE MORE . . .

I barely remember a time when I didn’t have a book in my hand. My tiny hometown of Carey, Idaho had no library, no bookstore. The bi-weekly bookmobile provided the only avenue to books . . . that, and my Gram, who spent a lot of her Social Security checks on books for her granddaughter with an insatiable appetite for stories.

I grew up on a sheep ranch in southern Idaho, a business my family had been in for generations, never dreaming I’d ever see my own name on a novel. I left home to attend Boise State University and spent most of my adult years pursuing a sensible legal career, raising two boys, and learning to be happily married.

But God heard the quiet prayers of a woman who dared to dream big. Today, I am living my fantasy. I live in Dallas with my husband. I work from home, writing novels. Often by the pool.

Can life get any better?

Kellie Coates Gilbert is a USA Today Bestselling Author who has won readers’ hearts with her compelling and highly emotional stories about women and the relationships that define their lives. A former legal investigator, she is especially known for keeping readers turning pages and creating nuanced characters who seem real.

In addition to garnering hundreds of five-star reader reviews on Amazon and other retail sites, Kellie has been described by RT Book Reviews as a “deft, crisp storyteller.” Her books were featured as Barnes & Noble Top Shelf Picks and were included on Library Journal’s Best Book List of 2014.

Born and raised near Sun Valley, Idaho, Kellie now lives with her husband of over thirty-five years in Dallas, where she spends most days by her pool drinking sweet tea and writing the stories of her heart.