Meet Kate WebbAbout the Author
Hi! I’m Kate Webb (she/her). I am a creative nonfiction writer and a serious, sensitive, devoted reader of books.
Life Sketch
I am the oldest of 5 children and was raised in the LDS (Mormon) faith. I spent my growing-up years in Georgia–and, even though I haven’t lived there since I was 18, I still have a bit of an accent when I say “reptile” or “agile” and such…
My love for books started young–I was always “gobbling them up” as my mom said– and has sustained me my entire life, but definitely culminated in college!
I attended BYU-Idaho in 2001, immediately declared a major in English, and never changed it. I eventually chose a creative writing emphasis, worked as a tutor for the Writing Center on campus for 3 years (my favorite job ever!), published a poem in the college literary magazine, served in leadership positions for the English Academic Society, presented my own papers at writing conferences, and took an internship writing for a newspaper insert. College was pretty dreamy! Literature and writing and learning were my entire world.
I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, no student loans, and started adulting as an independent woman: landing a full-time job with benefits and renting my own apartment (no roommates!), buying my own car (financed by me!), and setting up my own cell phone plan…And then, I met a certain Idaho boy at church.
We got married 13 months later (an unheard of eternity in Mormondom), several weeks shy of my 24th birthday. And we decided to stay here, in Idaho.
I put all career aspirations, writing, and reading aside for 12 years while I birthed and nursed and cared for our 3 kids at home.
Untethered
In 2018, my husband and I left Mormonism–together, as a couple. It will take pages to explain all of the whys and what-fors, ins and outs, ups and downs, and damage and healing that leaving the religion of your family and your community takes, but it has definitely opened my life to new experiences and friendships and an aching to explore my discarded passions!
Work Life
I do work outside the home. I found a little side-hustle cleaning houses for old ladies and babysitting, which was work I could do around the needs of my young children. I also started painting house interiors (edging by hand is so much easier than that fickle blue tape!).
A few years ago, I dropped the babysitting work, but I kept some cleaning jobs and still take on a few painting jobs here and there. I don’t love cleaning…but, I sure do love those ladies! The client I’ve had the longest (10+ years) made me swear to clean for her until the day she dies…and I promised I would. (Just don’t die, Barb! I’ll clean your house for eternity.)
Friends
I love connections, in books and in friendships! I love my friends and invest heavily in my relationships. I should probably pay for therapy…but I have a cluster of the funniest, loveliest, wisest friends, and therapy usually costs me a cup of coffee and lasts as long as we have time for!
My friends have changed my life.
Interests
I am an aspiring pastel painter–soft pastels, that is, which is a fairly unique medium. Pastels look like sticks of chalk, but are actually pure pigment pressed together with a minimal amount of binders. This maintains the shape and sparkle of the color crystals, which catch and shine on sanded paper when you rub the pastel stick across it. It is a really fun creative process, and I am definitely an amateur! I paint mostly landscapes and florals.
I also crochet doilies (yes, just like your great-grandma used to with the tiny hook and the ball of thread), and I love buying the discounted flowers at the grocery store and creating floral arrangements for my kitchen table.
I love watching birds. I love learning about people. I love learning!
I like to swim, bike, and hike–so Idaho is perfect for me in the summer! (But, my husband says I’m solar powered, because I get positively weepy and wilty in the gray winter months–it’s a trade-off, I guess.)
17 years later, my husband and I have 3 children (ages 13, 10, and 6) 2 Corgis and 2 cats. We live on an acre of old river bed disguised as a yard (some people have rocky dirt, but we have dirty rocks–and I mean that quite literally…), and Thriftbooks.com makes treks to our house on a regular basis–because, after putting books aside for so many years, I really can’t read enough!
You’ve found me at the crossroads, the reinvention of myself and the rediscovery of my passions–and, I'm so glad you’re here!
