Kelsey Humphreys likes to say that she has lived many lives. When you learn about her storied past—talk show and podcast host in Los Angeles, journalist for Career Magazine and Huffington Post, online influencer, emcee and speaker at women’s business conferences—you might be tempted to say that she’s done it all. And that’s before you learn that she has written 12 novels under three different pen names. Humphreys is a font of creative talent, and she is always busy.
Where do her drive and creative energy come from? She speaks a lot about birth order, both in describing herself and in the plot of her books. “I am a classic youngest child—a singer and performer. I don’t think little Kelsey would be surprised that she grew up to be a comedian. But I do think that she would ask, ‘Why aren’t we also singing?’”
During 2020, when COVID shut everything down and a Facebook hacker erased all the videos and work that she had created, Humphreys and her husband returned to Oklahoma; she had begun living here in 6th grade and graduated from OU in 2006. Upon her return, she was in a bit of a slump.
“I like to call that period ‘the dark times.’ Creative people know what I am talking about. I decided not to put anything else out; I turned to reading books for comfort. But reading fiction gave me so many ideas! I kept having ideas about four sisters, and they became the inspiration for my bestselling book series, The Heartlanders, which is set in Oklahoma.”
Humphreys was afraid to tell anyone about her latest creative endeavor, but she began writing upward of 16,000 words a day. Once the books were written, she researched how to sell and market them. She released the first two Heartlander books very close together to build momentum in the indie book world, advertising to BookTokers. The attention her work received was explosive.
Her most recent book, titled Happy Christmas, came out this past December and is based on a friend of the Heartlander family, launching the Juniper Falls series. Her upcoming book, Christmas in July, will be released—fittingly—this July.
“I started doing stand-up comedy with each book signing,” she said. “I thought, after the set, the audience could buy my books if they were interested.” People have been very interested, both in her books and in her stand-up comedy.
Humphreys calls herself a clean comedian. “I am very much a girl’s girl. I write rom-com. I love talking about the differences between men and women. I love to make jokes about those of us who binge-read romance novels. My husband and I have been together since we were 16 years old, and we have been through many seasons of our lives. There are themes in my comedy of growing up in the Bible Belt. We went from a family of three to a family of eight in under a year, so I have a lot of content about that.
“My husband and I wanted a big family and we were interested in adopting a big sibling group through foster care. We matched with a group of four kids in Georgia, and two days after matching, we found out we were pregnant. Our life ever since has been chaos,” she laughs.
“If anyone is wondering, ‘How does she possibly do stand-up comedy and write novels?’ I would like to say that the kids are in school all day, or I would not be able to function. Also, we have had help come in and clean. I cannot work and take care of babies, bond, parent and clean as well.
I am very busy, and I am very tired, but this family has been the biggest blessing in my life.”
