Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kristi Ann Hunter. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kristi Ann , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

Happiness is a fleeting dream that occasionally lights upon us like a butterfly. It can be just as easily startled into flying away. I do think, though, that prolonged contentment makes it easier for happiness to find you and contentment comes when you are doing what you were meant to do with your life. Before I started writing, I actually had a regular job. It paid well, had promotion opportunities, and sounded important when I met new people. What it didn’t have was contentment.
When life changes put me in a position to pursue a creative career instead of my old one, I took it. I had dreams of success and acclaim and renting seaside cabins to rattle off my latest best-selling novel. Anyone who has actually written and attempted to sell a book can tell you those dreams never came true.
Instead, what I found was the ability to stretch myself, to adjust my career around my life and the needs of myself and my family. Though I didn’t know it at the time, I have a handful of mental health disorders. This isn’t uncommon in the creative world as I’ve seen statistics ranging from 40% – 90% of creatives have at least one mood disorder or mental health issue, particularly among writers. The flexibility and outlets of a creative career fit my mental health needs better than the structure of an office day could ever do.
Are they days when I wish I could return to a checklist of tangible, completable goals? Absolutely. Are there days I would like the stability of a steady, known paycheck? Without question. But I can say with confidence, building a life as a creative has provided more opportunities for happiness than formatting a database ever did.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

There’s an old adage in the writing world that says when you can’t find the book you want to read, write it. Various versions of this idea have been uttered by great authors such as Toni Morrison, Beverly Cleary, and C.S. Lewis, but the concept has spurred many more authors to take up a pen or a keyboard and create a fictional world. I am one such author. My favorite books to read in my young adult years were Regency-set romances. Carriages and ballgowns, reformed rakes and daring debutantes everything about that world was my favorite place to escape. What I could never find, though, were stories told from my worldview. There weren’t characters that believed or thought like I did jumping in carriages or spying on the French.
So I started writing them. Today, there are dozens of authors writing in that vein, but when I started writing there were only two, and I didn’t even learn about them until I was deeper into the world of publishing.
I sat at my computer and created a world that contained the witty banter, social intrigues, and glamorous romance that I loved. Today, 15 Regency books later, I still love returning to that world to create fun, light-hearted books about people that love life, Jesus, and each other. I’m not writing Christian stories, but I am writing stories with Christian characters, exploring how they would make choices, grow with each other, and fall in love.
I recently expanded into the contemporary romantic-comedy world as well, because I find a good laugh and a sweet love story brighten even the dreariest of days.
When I look at my work, what I’m most proud of is the range of imperfect, relatable people I’ve created and the laughter I’ve brought to my readers. My characters may be fictional, but have a variety of flaws and challenges, including past mistakes, mental health disorders, and relationship difficulties. As serious as those things can be, though, I believe a good laugh and a gentle break from reality make everything a little easier.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I don’t know a single author that said they started out wanting to create a business. Most of them just wanted to write books and find a way to share them with the world. As much as we want everything to be about the art and creativity, at the end of the day, publishing – and any other creative endeavor you want to make money from – is a business. A few years ago, my books dipped in sales to the point that my publisher made the decision not to offer me another contract. I spoke with several industry professionals and the overall belief from all of them was that it would be difficult if not impossible to get a contract from another publisher that I would be happy working with.
The decision before me was either stop writing, accept a contract I didn’t want, or become independently published.
At least, that was what the decision appeared to be. What I actually had to decide was whether or not my creative endeavors were an outlet or a career. If I wanted to keep writing I had to stop thinking of myself as an artist and start considering myself a businesswoman.
In the end, I made the choice to become independent. It’s a learning curve that is far longer than I thought it would be, but there’s something very rewarding about it as well. The business minded things such as financials and marketing don’t come easily to me, but I’m building a team of people that make it work. In the end, this new direction will be, I believe, more rewarding – both artistically and financially – but it’s going to be a long road to get there.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Aside from assuming that having a published book means you’re raking in tens of thousands of dollars, I think non-creatives struggle with the fact that a concept or an idea isn’t enough to create a finished work. The number of hours it takes to fully flesh out an idea, bring it to life, and then smooth out the imperfections is difficult to describe. Many people don’t realize that writing is a skill. There may be a natural component to a writer’s voice or story telling, but there’s a lot of things that have to be learned. A lot of people, including some readers, struggle with the idea that a book that takes eight hours to read takes eight months (or more!) to create. For a lot of writers coming up with the idea isn’t the problem. An idea might sell a book to a reader, but it’s all the supporting conflict, interesting character depths, and filled-in plot holes that truly make a story compelling.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kristiannhunter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristiannhunter
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristiannhunter

Image Credits
Celestial Studios