BA, Utah State University
BL.A (Bachelor of Landscape Architecture), Utah State University
MA, University of Texas at Austin
PhD. University of Utah
Kevin Krogh has spent his professional life teaching Spanish language, literature, and culture to university students and designing and building residential gardens and other outdoor spaces. In the fall of 2000, he decided that reading, analyzing, and teaching what others had written was no longer enough, and landscape design no longer fully satisfied his need to see the tangible results of his creative nature. He had always wanted to write createvely, so when circumstances and an increased desire and confidence finally combined to allow him to seriously venture an attempt, he quickly discovered his penchant for poetry. He began writing fiction shortly afterward. To date (June 2004), he has written two novels and the third is nearing completion.
Any work of art assumes an audience and anticipates a response from that audience. In literature, it is a readership, a collective consciousness, a chorus of individual voices that are both similar and unique: Unique, because each has its own tone and timbre; but similar, because all sing the same song; and they sing that song with united purpose. Their goal is a collective sound beyond that which any one voice can achieve alone. Harmony requires at least two voices, close harmony at least four; oratory—Handel’s “Messiah” comes immediately to mind—is only possible when a multitude of voices join in song.
I know my readers; we sing the same song. I understand their dreams, their struggles, their problems and challenges; and I share the legacy of their faith. Outside that readership to whom I write and from whom I anticipate a response, some of my characters may come across as too good to be true: too moral, too disciplined, too Christian; and the ideals they live by, unreasonable or unreachable, and therefore beyond reality. My characters are not without internal conflict. They struggle with doubt, discouragement, and disappointment just like everyone else. But the fact that they rise above it all makes them no less believable than if they did not. Those who spend their leisure time reading novels from the publishing industry’s list of “best sellers” or watching television sitcoms and adult-theme movies may well conclude that most people are as morally weak and unprincipled as the people these media portray. I am not interested in sugar coating or excusing immorality, nor in portraying the lives of characters who do. I prefer to search the hearts and observe the lives of those who have embraced what the apostle Paul called a “more excellent way,” characters who have risen above the world; men, women, and children who expect of themselves and of each other what God expects of them and who face life’s challenges with that advantage; characters whose way of life reflects the strength of their faith.
If this approach limits my readership, so be it. I may not sell as many books as other authors; but I am confident that my novels will find their audience, the millions of good people in the world who hold to Christ and His teachings, who demand much of themselves morally, and who believe that God intervenes in the lives of those who love Him. I continue to write because I believe that what I write will speak to my audience and inspire them in their resolve to continue singing their collective song and living their “more excellent way.”
