Today we’d like to introduce you to Kendra Norman Holmes.
Hi Kendra, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born a double-PK. Both of my parents were preachers, and they raised me and my siblings in a Christian environment and taught us the ways of the Lord. My mother passed away in 2014, but my 85-year-old dad, Bishop H.H. Norman, still preaches the gospel and actively pastors. Being raised into a staunch Christian home didn’t exempt me from experiencing real life though. I know now that it all worked to develop me into the person I am today, but my life’s struggles were real.
After marrying the love of my life and expecting the two of us to grow old together, I, instead, became a widow at the age of 28 when my husband passed away from complications of HIV/AIDS. In the year 1992, there was still very little known about the causes and the treatments of the disease on a broad scale. Because of the negative stigma attached to it, Jimmy Holmes, who was not only a husband and father but also a church pastor, came under a lot of scrutiny. It was brutal at times, but I think the adversity made our bond stronger. And God made him a public testament of His grace and mercy by turning him from a victim to a victor. Upon delivering the official diagnosis in 1992, doctors at South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta, Georgia gave Jimmy three days to three weeks to live. God had other plans and shocked his team of medical professionals by extending his life for three years. And they were three healthy years. Growing up in church and knowing that God is able to work miracles, my prayer was that my husband would be one. Although he didn’t get the kind of healing I hoped for, he was unmistakably a miracle. Residents in South Georgia and beyond witnessed a man who was literally skin and bones and looked to be just minutes away from death be restored to a picture of perfect health. The disease was still on the inside, but there was no sign of it on the outside. Doctors were completely baffled. Because of the prayers of the righteous (many of which came from my dad, who would sit by his son-in-law’s “deathbed” for hours at a time praying and singing hymns), God allowed Jimmy to preach, sing, travel, and live the next three years to the fullest. Ultimately, he would pass away in October of 1995, leaving me and our two young daughters behind.
Four years would pass with me never properly mourning that major loss. I immersed myself in being some kind of supermom to my two little girls and made myself as busy as I could by diving deep into work and enrolling in college so that I wouldn’t have time to dwell on reality. Because of that, I sank into a deep, dark, and dangerous state of depression, but I was able to hide it from everyone who knew and loved me. In 1999, God infused me with the urge to return to something I developed a love for as an elementary school student – writing. By the time I’d graduated high school, I’d written dozens of poems, short stories, and plays, but somewhere along the way, I drifted away from it. Back then, it felt like a pastime, but in 1999, it became a passion. Writing became the way that I eventually began coping with the unaddressed grief. I didn’t realize it at the time, but writing became a form of divine therapy for me. I sat down to write my first full-length manuscript that year. Truth be told, I didn’t even know I was writing a manuscript. My intent was just to type out the feelings that I could never find the courage to voice. What was supposed to be a simple journal entry turned into a 30-day purging. There was a flood of tears and mounds of total transparency as I typed my thoughts onto a document using my very first desktop computer. The finished product was about 150 pages in length. I titled it, “I Shall Not Die,” which was the title of one of the last sermons that my deceased husband preached. He said if God healed him, he would live on this side, and if God chose not to heal him, he would live in heaven; so, either way, he wasn’t going to die.
What I noticed after writing those 150 pages was that my heart felt so much lighter. My mind became clear. My tears dried. To me, writing became a God-ordained mechanism of healing, and I suddenly had this desire to keep doing it. I wanted to keep writing stories that healed and empowered. So, I began writing faith-based fictional stories that were filled with romance, family drama, and a little bit of suspense. They told stories of how different circumstances could turn out when people placed their issues in God’s hands. I didn’t start out writing with the intent to publish; I was just writing because all of a sudden, a wealth of story ideas was bombarding my mind, and writing Christ-centered tales brought me joy. I’d completed several manuscripts before I ever thought about publishing. When I did, I’d just written one entitled, “For Love & Grace.” I sent it to several mainstream publishers and received rejection letters from all of them.
So, I decided to self-publish it. I accomplished that in 2002, and it became a big hit with book clubs and individual readers. At the encouragement of Vanessa Davis Griggs, a mainstream published author I met at a literary event, I mailed a copy of my self-published book to Black Entertainment Television (BET). At the time, BET had a books division wherein the Christian imprint was called, New Spirit. The editor there actually took the time to read my book, and after she’d done so, I received a totally unexpected call from her requesting that I sign a contract with BET, not only to re-release that book on a national level but also, she asked if I would turn it into a three-book series and allow BET to publish them all. (This was a complete shock because BET had been one of the companies that whom I’d submitted the original manuscript to, and it, like the other mainstream publishing houses, had responded with a rejection letter.) This, alone, confirmed that God was in total control and He was orchestrating something amazing. Because of God’s grace and favor, a company that initially rejected me became the launchpad for my career as a nationally published Christian fiction author.
But it didn’t stop there. About a month after BET contacted me, I received a call from Moody Publishers (a division of Moody Bible Institute) in Chicago, IL. I had sent one of my other manuscripts to Moody and had received a rejection letter in response from them as well. However, several weeks afterward, Moody’s editor called me and said a women’s Bible study group had read the manuscript I sent and had contacted Moody and urged them to become the publisher for the author who had written it. Having already committed to BET, I then had to reach out to BET to see if they would be willing to make my contract non-exclusive so that I could also write for Moody. This was something that was virtually unheard of at that time; however, BET agreed. And just like that, in a matter of weeks, I’d gone from being an undiscovered self-published author to be a nationally published one with two different major publishing houses. “For Love & Grace” re-released through BET in 2004, and that same year, Moody also published “A Love So Strong.”
But it didn’t stop there either. In 2006, while I was continuing to write for both these amazing houses and traveling the globe, meeting with book clubs, speaking to aspiring writers, and having book signings, I was contacted by a third mainstream publisher. The owner of Urban Books, which was widely known for its “street fiction” novels reached out to me. He told me that he was launching a new Christian fiction imprint called Urban Christian, and he wanted me to be his flagship author. He wanted me to be exclusive to his publishing house, but I told him I wasn’t willing to be restricted. I wanted to continue my relationship with Moody and BET. He agreed to my precondition, and suddenly, I was writing for three national Christian imprints. I don’t believe there was any other author doing that at the time, certainly not in the African American Christian fiction arena.
It’s been an incredible journey even up to right now. After a few years, I made the decision to take full control of my own career, and I declined the new contracts that were extended to me by the “big house” publishers. In doing so, I returned to self-publishing and began producing through my own independent publishing house, Royalty Publication. Thankfully, my broad audience of readers continues to support and follow me today. I recently released my 23rd published book, a new fiction entitled, “My Grace Is Sufficient.” Ironically, it is the fourth book in the “Grace Series” that started my national writing career with BET twenty years ago. The three books I wrote for BET were “For Love & Grace” (released 2004), “Because of Grace” (released 2005), and “More Than Grace” (released 2006). “My Grace Is Sufficient” released in December of 2023 and picks up on the lives of those same beloved characters seventeen years later. It is currently in its third printing.
Among the twenty-three titles I have released to date, three are nonfiction ministry-based books. “I Shall Not Die” became my first published nonfiction title. It unveiled in 2010.
My life as a successful writer is proof that sometimes God takes our deepest pain and turns it into our divine purpose. He took what felt like an ending of my life and turned it into a new beginning. I am an eight-time national bestselling author because of Him.
My plan is to release a new title in 2025. For the remainder of this year, I will keep my focus on marketing and promoting “My Grace Is Sufficient.” The first three books in the “Grace Series” have been out of print for a while. The rights to those books have now reverted back to me; so, in the next few weeks, I will be re-releasing them in limited quantities. Some of my newer readers who have read “My Grace Is Sufficient” but had not yet been introduced to my writing back when the series began two decades ago, want to be able to experience what happened to bring all these characters together in the first place. I’m excited to rebirth those books.
On a personal note, I was blessed to experience true love again… and although there is no relation, his lasts name is Holmes too! Dr. Michael Holmes and I will celebrate ten years of marriage on March 15th. Together, we have three adult children and nine grandchildren.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’m thankful that for the most part, it’s been a smooth road. The good has far outweighed the bad. For many writers, battling with writer’s block is a huge obstacle. While I’ve never experienced this thing called writer’s block, I know it exists. But in my personal experience, the greatest struggle has never been in coming up with fresh story ideas to right about. The ideas are plentiful, but I sometimes struggle with finding the time to write it. I wear many hats. Aside from being a published author, I’m also a newspaper publisher. The Royal Trumpet was launched in 2022, and it is a faith-based online newspaper that shares only news and features that are inspirational, motivational and/or educational in nature. It’s all about sharing good news and the message of Jesus Christ with the world. In addition, I help aspiring writers obtain their goal of becoming published.
My company, Royalty Publications, LLC, is an independent self-publishing house, and through it, I coach other writers and even publish their titles. In addition, I am the pastor of Deliverance Revival Church, the host of The W.A.R. Cry gospel radio show, and the founder and national president of Rho Alph Tau Christian Writers Fraternity & Sorority, Inc., a nationally recognized Greek letter organization specifically for Christian creatives who use their talents to produce material that glorifies God. Everything I do is ministry-related, and I enjoy it all, but it’s a lot to balance. So, my biggest struggle lies in making sure that nothing falls through the cracks, including my most cherished positions as a wife, a mom to three adult children, and a “G-ma” to nine grandchildren.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am an eight-time national bestselling author of twenty-three faith-based books.
One of the things that sets me apart from most other female authors is that the main character in all of my books is a male person. There is always a leading lady (usually a love interest), but the storyline primarily surrounds the life of a male protagonist. I didn’t set out to do this. It developed from my desire to shine a more positive light on Black men. Most novels I’d read had them being deadbeat dads, drug addicts, and abusers. That’s not the message I wanted to convey. It wasn’t my personal experience, and I knew my family and my circle weren’t the only ones that had strong, positive, godly men in them.
I think I’m proudest about the fact that I’m leaving a legacy of Christ for my children, grandchildren, and all the generations that follow. I can send them to the best schools. I can dress them in the latest fashions. I can buy them the coolest gadgets. I can even take out a life insurance policy that renders them wealthy upon my passing. But if I don’t leave them a legacy of Christ, I’ve left them nothing worth having.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
COVID-19 confirmed to me that money can’t buy everything, and status doesn’t grant immunity. That crisis didn’t discriminate on any level. During the height of it, I learned to pray harder and love deeper. Life never seemed as fragile and fleeting to me as it did during that time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.RoyaltyWriter.net
- Instagram: RoyaltyWriter
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/KendraNormanHolmes
- Twitter: @Royalty_Writer
- Other: TheRoyalTrumpet.com
