Growing up as a homeschooled military brat, Kelsey Renae Budd always loved stories but hated to read because of her learning disability. That didn’t stop her from being an English major, a member of the English honor society at Charleston Southern University, or from graduating at the top of her class in 2018.
When she as a kid, reading the Eragon series sparked her love of reading and worldbuilding. And when she wrote her first short story in high school, she couldn’t stop creating ever-expanding fantasy worlds. She first got into editing a friend’s middle grade fantasy series in 2014, but it wasn’t until later she discovered her true talent for the art of storycrafting. In college writing critique groups, she discovered a knack for cultivating other creators’ stories. Playing characters in skits and plays (with special skill at impressions) inspires her to write character-driven plots with immersive narratives.
After college, Kelsey joined a local division of American Christian Fiction Writers and an online proofreaders’ and editors’ group called The Christian PEN. Working her way up, she became an esteemed gold member of the Christian Editor Connection and an emcee for the PEN’s annual online conference, PENCON. For their 2025 conference, Kelsey had the honor of becoming a presenter to speak on editing YA fantasy. For the 2026 conference, she presented two sessions on deep content editing. She now serves as the conference’s Assistant Director and an instructor at their teaching division, The PEN Institute.
As a professional freelancer and soon-to-be multi-published author, Kelsey also loves all kinds of art, from painting and sketching to jewelry-making and knitting. She enjoys working part-time in her church’s bookstore, even if it tempts her to buy another Bible for her already-big collection. As a published author, she hopes to instruct others in God’s Word from her Biblical nonfiction, inspire future authors with her fiction stories, and encourage others with disabilities to follow their dreams!
Kelsey lives near the ocean in Charleston, South Carolina. But she longs to visit New Zealand where The Lord of the Rings film series was created. That’s probably more realistic than her dream of going to the moon or owning a pet dragon.
