Jenny McLeod Carlisle is well past her little girl years. She remembers them as happy, but not carefree. Playing outside with her younger sister and the other kids in the neighborhood until the lightning bugs flickered, and the street lights started their nightly watch, there was a touch of loneliness. At age 5, divorce took away her front-porch reading companion, and forced her Mom to work hard to fill both parental roles. Writing letters to her Daddy who lived a couple of hours away helped fill the void, and developed her writing voice. Even back then, when asked the standard question about what she wanted to do when she grew up, her answer was to write books.
With her childhood dreams still intact, she self- published her first book, entitled “Turn, Turn, Turn.” A compilation of short essays, it is a selection of the monthly columns written for Ouachita Life, a regional publication in her adopted home state of Arkansas. The magazine, the columns and the book have developed a small but loyal following of folks who remember their own childhoods, and perhaps have had the same goal of retaining their dreams until they “grow up”. During the pandemic of 2020, her writing took on more urgency, and less apology for the faith that sustained her. Her second non-fiction book, “To Everything a Season” is a chronological collection of everything she wrote during the year when time stood still.
Meanwhile, the fictional stories in her brain would not leave her alone. Make-believe people with problems and triumphs of their own clamored for attention. Years of attending writer’s conferences and entering contests finally paid off with connections she gained from supportive groups of Christian writers. When the owners of a young small press, Scrivenings Press accepted her proposal for her first work of fiction, “Hope Takes the Reins“, her lifelong dream was fulfilled. The contract included the second and third books in the Crossroads series, “Faith Moves Mountains” and “Love Never Fails”. Readers love the rodeo connections, and the small-town feel of these contemporary 
Christian romances.
She has collaborated with other authors twice. First, her novella Rejoicing with Joy appeared in the collection A Gift for All Time with co-authors Tonya B. Ashley and Ellen E. Withers. Then, Anchor in a Whirlwind was the final installment of Romancing the Elements, which added Delores Topliff to the mix.
Married for almost 50 years, to her soulmate and best friend, James, they are very proud of their two boys and a girl, who are all married and live in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. They thrive on staying in touch with their eight grandchildren, and enjoying adventures of all kinds together. She is a past president of the Arkansas Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers, and serves as a Journey Partner for Women Equipped, a Christian Women’s Job Corps.
This website is intended to encourage others who have the same focus, to seek God first (Matthew 6:33), to wait on Him to renew our strength (Isaiah 40:31) and humbly to walk in His way (Micah 6:8).
May you be richly blessed by whatever you glean from her musings here.
