Hi there! I’m Kellyn Roth, and today I’m here to talk about my novel, At Her Fingertips—and specifically, the inspiration behind my book.
To me, this is always an interesting question to answer because I have a hard time pinning down my inspirations for any given novel. Generally, my books sort of pop into my mind, mostly complete, and I’m never quite sure where they come from.
In this case, At Her Fingertips was a novel that sort of appeared in my mind over the years in various forms until I finally sat down, in November 2016, and wrote it.
Then this year, I rewrote it pretty majorly but while keeping the main threads of the story. Mostly, on the rewrite, I just added a lot of fun historical details and themes that allowed the book to feel richer. However, the bigger plotlines remained the same so not to disappoint any long time fans.
However, I digress. Let’s talk a bit about how I originally came up with the plot! It’s a bit of a convoluted story, but years and years ago in the deep dark past, while my mother was reading A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter, my favorite novel, aloud to me, I decided I wanted to write a romance novel.
So I did. But my favorite character was the wise, somewhat sarcastic author character who was the main character’s father. So, since I liked him so much, I decided to write a book about him instead.
Over the years, I slowly worked with this idea, developing more and more threads as I decided where he met his wife, how their romance went, and so on. I deepened his personality, thought through his journey to authorhood, and basically made him into the character he is today.
To eliminate spoilers, I won’t yet say who that character is. However, suffice to say he’s my favorite character, and I adore him.
Now, of course I had to develop the female portion of this romance, too! As you may know, that is Alice Knight. Alice was an interesting character because originally she was a lot more fun and playful … and she was French, not English.
Over time, Alise became Alicia which became Alice. Over time, she became serious and driven. And over time, I had to them soften her again so readers would find her relatable!
In the end, though, I’m glad that Alice went through a lot of variations because it allowed me to find the “best Alice.” That “best Alice” just happens to be a very flawed Alice who needs a lot of grace and a lot of truth in her life to become … well, you know. The best.
Overall, though, the inspiration behind this book was not miraculous. It was the steady growth of years and years of hard work, of writing and rewriting, of brainstorming, of rewriting. However, I’m so glad I was able to put that work in—even though I know it’s not perfect, I’m proud of the finished project!
Kellyn Roth is a Christian historical women’s fiction & romance author from North-Eastern Oregon who has independently published multiple novels, the most notable being The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy series. You should definitely call her Kell.
Kell lives on family-owned property outside an unmemorable but historical town with her parents, two little brothers, precious border collies, a dozen cows, and lots of chickens. She also possesses a classic, vintage aesthetic which does not at all speak to her country girl side, but such is life.
When not writing, Kell likes to blog, work as a virtual assistant for authors and other small business owners, and spend lavish amounts of money on Dairy Queen french fries. She also likes to talk about her books (and occasionally Keira Knightley) way too much. You’ve been warned.
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