About Josi

WARNING: This is the Long version. For the short version, see the home page

I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, number three of nine kids born to Walt and Marle Schofield.

I graduated from Olympus High School and married my high school sweetheart, Lee Kilpack, on April 1st 1993-only fools fall in love and marry when they only have lousy jobs and sub-par cooking skills, right?

We took over guardianship of Lee’s niece two months after our wedding (she was nine) and began providing 24-hour elderly care in our home so that I could stay home and Lee could go to school. Our life has never been what I would call normal-but what’s the fun in being normal when there is so much stress out there just waiting to be suffered through? In truth we learned a lot in those years and the experiences brought Lee and I closer together which is kinda the whole point of marriage in the first place.

Our first daughter was born three weeks after our first wedding anniversary and she was followed two years later with another daughter. During the bed rest associated with my third pregnancy, I read every LDS fiction title I could get my hands on and watched a lot of TV; specifically Lifetime, Television for Women. At some point the two types of story lines–LDS girl faces heartbreak and modern woman faces dark and horrible tragedy–began to gel in my mind and I decided to write a book about an LDS woman who thought she did it all right, and yet it went horribly wrong anyway. Now what does she do?

Until then I had always enjoyed writing, but I only really done it for school or writing strongly worded letters to people that ripped me off. This time was different and it changed my life. Through the writing process I felt I’d discovered something within myself I never knew existed. I loved every minute of it and feel that I unlocked a door of hidden talents and potential the day I first put my pen to paper.

I thought the story would be about 40 pages long and help pass the time. I never imagined that I would eventually have a 300-page novel .

A few months later I had the members of my neighborhood book group read the manuscript and tell me what they thought. Their responses were so positive that I sent it off for publication without considering the changes they suggested. It was rejected by three publishing houses before I came down from my pride-colored-cloud and actually read the changes suggested by my book group which happened to be the same things the third publisher had taken the time to point out. In November of 1999, Earning Eternity was accepted by Cedar Fort Inc., and the following spring I held the finished product in my hands. What a feeling!

Our fourth and final child, another girl, was born in October of 2001, two months early, and my writing took a break while we ensured she got off to a good start. I finished Surrounded by Strangers in May of 2002, and it hit shelves spring of 2003.

I went on to publish three more books with CFI, and have gone on to publish eight novels with Deseret Book. Through it all I have been encouraged and supported by my wonderful husband, who is the main reason I ever dared to dream of this in the first place. My kids are equally supportive of my obsession . . . er, talent . . . er, career. I appreciate them all making room for it in our lives.

I don’t pretend to expect anyone’s life will be changed because of my books, but my life is changed every day that I sit down to write and I do believe that a good book can be clean, uplifting, and well-written all at the same time. That’s my goal. So far, so good.

If this wasn’t more than enough information, check out my BLOG. Thanks for reading.