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Kathleen Ernst
Middleton, WI Born: Link to Author Website Listen to Kathleen's interview on WPR promoting Mining for Justice |
Biography:
Kathleen Ernst was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Maryland, surrounded by books! Her mother was a librarian and her father an avid reader. Later, Kathleen spent several summers working in Western Maryland. She backpacked 500 miles on the Appalachian Trail, went canoeing on the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, and biking along the C & O Canal near Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Frequent tramps over Antietam National Battlefield inspired a deep fascination with Civil War history.
Ernst went to college at West Virginia University and majored in Forestry. At that time, she planned to be a park ranger. She was interested in Environmental Education, and took courses about trees, birds, plants, geology, weather, wildlife...etc., etc. While at WVU, Kathleen also took a lot of creative writing and history classes. Her first permanent job was at an outdoor living history museum in Eagle, WI called Old World Wisconsin. She started working there in 1982, and stayed for twelve years. Old World has over fifty restored buildings, beautifully situated on 576 acres within a state forest. It was the best training ground imaginable for an historical fiction writer. For most of her time at Old World Wisconsin she served as Curator of Interpretation and Collections. At the same time, she wrote historical fiction as a hobby. Kathleen wrote her first novel when sheI was about fifteen, and she didn't get a book contract until she was thirty-five. Along the way, Ernst did publish some magazine articles and essays.
Ernst spent over a decade working on her first nonfiction book, Too Afraid To Cry: Maryland Civilians in the Antietam Campaign. That project also provided inspiration for several novels, including her first published books: The Night Riders of Harpers Ferry and The Bravest Girl in Sharpsburg.
Kathleen's next "day" job took her in a new direction: helping develop and produce instructional video programs for public television. In 2001, while working with public television, she also started writing novels for American Girl in her free time. The first three of these books were for their History Mystery series. When the series ended she wrote mysteries for Kit (Danger at the Zoo and Midnight In Lonesome Hollow), Josefina (Secrets in the Hills), Kirsten (The Runaway Friend), and Molly (Clues in the Shadows).
During this period, Ernst was working on independent novels as well, such as Hearts of Stone, which was published by Dutton and won multiple awards. In 2004, Kathleen became a full time writer. She spent three years working in secret with a wonderful team at American Girl to create Caroline Abbott, one of their historical characters (now retired) and write six books about her. The first, Meet Caroline, spent three weeks on the Publishers Weekly Top 25 Best Selling Children's Books list. The seventh book, Traitor In The Shipyard: A Caroline Mystery, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Traditional Children's Mystery. The ninth and final, The Smuggler's Secrets: A Caroline Mystery, came out in 2015. In 2017 her newest American Girl book, Gunpowder And Tea Cakes: My Journey With Felicity, was released.
During those same years, Kathleen was also creating her Chloe Ellefson mystery series for adults and mature teens. These are traditional mysteries (no explicit sex, violence, or gore) about a reluctant sleuth and her police officer boyfriend Roelke McKenna. She's a curator at Old World Wisconsin; he's a cop in the nearby village of Eagle. This award-winning series is set in early 1980s—when Kathleen herself began working at Old World—and often includes historical threads set much earlier.
Kathleen and her husband Scott (aka "Mr. Ernst") reside in Middleton, Wisconsin.
(From www.kathleenernst.com/)
Works by Kathleen Ernst:
White Mane Kids Books
Kathleen Ernst was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Maryland, surrounded by books! Her mother was a librarian and her father an avid reader. Later, Kathleen spent several summers working in Western Maryland. She backpacked 500 miles on the Appalachian Trail, went canoeing on the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, and biking along the C & O Canal near Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Frequent tramps over Antietam National Battlefield inspired a deep fascination with Civil War history.
Ernst went to college at West Virginia University and majored in Forestry. At that time, she planned to be a park ranger. She was interested in Environmental Education, and took courses about trees, birds, plants, geology, weather, wildlife...etc., etc. While at WVU, Kathleen also took a lot of creative writing and history classes. Her first permanent job was at an outdoor living history museum in Eagle, WI called Old World Wisconsin. She started working there in 1982, and stayed for twelve years. Old World has over fifty restored buildings, beautifully situated on 576 acres within a state forest. It was the best training ground imaginable for an historical fiction writer. For most of her time at Old World Wisconsin she served as Curator of Interpretation and Collections. At the same time, she wrote historical fiction as a hobby. Kathleen wrote her first novel when sheI was about fifteen, and she didn't get a book contract until she was thirty-five. Along the way, Ernst did publish some magazine articles and essays.
Ernst spent over a decade working on her first nonfiction book, Too Afraid To Cry: Maryland Civilians in the Antietam Campaign. That project also provided inspiration for several novels, including her first published books: The Night Riders of Harpers Ferry and The Bravest Girl in Sharpsburg.
Kathleen's next "day" job took her in a new direction: helping develop and produce instructional video programs for public television. In 2001, while working with public television, she also started writing novels for American Girl in her free time. The first three of these books were for their History Mystery series. When the series ended she wrote mysteries for Kit (Danger at the Zoo and Midnight In Lonesome Hollow), Josefina (Secrets in the Hills), Kirsten (The Runaway Friend), and Molly (Clues in the Shadows).
During this period, Ernst was working on independent novels as well, such as Hearts of Stone, which was published by Dutton and won multiple awards. In 2004, Kathleen became a full time writer. She spent three years working in secret with a wonderful team at American Girl to create Caroline Abbott, one of their historical characters (now retired) and write six books about her. The first, Meet Caroline, spent three weeks on the Publishers Weekly Top 25 Best Selling Children's Books list. The seventh book, Traitor In The Shipyard: A Caroline Mystery, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Traditional Children's Mystery. The ninth and final, The Smuggler's Secrets: A Caroline Mystery, came out in 2015. In 2017 her newest American Girl book, Gunpowder And Tea Cakes: My Journey With Felicity, was released.
During those same years, Kathleen was also creating her Chloe Ellefson mystery series for adults and mature teens. These are traditional mysteries (no explicit sex, violence, or gore) about a reluctant sleuth and her police officer boyfriend Roelke McKenna. She's a curator at Old World Wisconsin; he's a cop in the nearby village of Eagle. This award-winning series is set in early 1980s—when Kathleen herself began working at Old World—and often includes historical threads set much earlier.
Kathleen and her husband Scott (aka "Mr. Ernst") reside in Middleton, Wisconsin.
(From www.kathleenernst.com/)
Works by Kathleen Ernst:
White Mane Kids Books
- The Night Riders of Harpers Ferry (1996)
- The Bravest Girl in Sharpsburg (1997)
- Retreat from Gettysburg (1999)
- Ghosts of Vicksburg (2000)
- Trouble at Fort La Pointe (2000)
- Whistler in the Dark (2002)
- Betrayal at Cross Creek (2004)
- Danger at the Zoo (2005)
- Secrets in the Hills (2006)
- Midnight in Lonesome Hollow (2007)
- The Runaway Friend (2008)
- Clues in the Shadows (2009)
- Old World Murder (2010)
- The Heirloom Murders (2011)
- The Lightkeeper's Legacy (2012)
- Heritage of Darkness (2013)
- Tradition of Deceit (2014)
- Death on the Prairie (2015)
- A Memory of Muskets (2016)
- Mining for Justice (2017)
- The Lacemaker's Secret (2018)
- Meet Caroline (2012)
- Caroline's Secret Message (2012)
- A Surprise for Caroline (2012)
- Caroline Take a Chance (2012)
- Caroline's Battle (2012)
- Changes for Caroline (2012)
- Traitor in the Shipyard (2013)
- Catch the Wind (2014)
- Facing the Enemy (2014)
- The Smuggler's Secrets (2015)
- Gunpowder and Tea Cakes (2017)
- Highland Fling (2006)
- Hearts of Stone (2006)
- Captain of the Ship (2014)
- Too Afraid to Cry (1999)
- A Settler's Year: Pioneer Life through the Seasons (2015)
