Kentucky Road

Bestselling, award winning author, Stephen Bransford's work spans the genres of historical fiction, supernatural thriller, and biographical novel. He has also penned non-fiction books selling hundreds of thousands of copies in multiple languages, working as a ghost writer. The son of a Pentecostal preacher, he suffered debilitating emotional damage in his youth. The process of reversing it rewarded him with a passion for stories of impossible reconciliation. These are the stuff of his dreams and the fuel of his hope-filled fiction. He likes to say he rescues babies from dirty bathwater. In 1984, nominated by critic, Evelyn Oppenheimer, his first novel about a compromised circuit riding preacher, published by Doubleday, won the Texas Literary Festival Award for fiction. That same year, James Michener, while writing his epic novel, “Texas,” told Bransford he was the only writer he knew who found redeeming social value in the American circuit riding preacher. Given Michener's penchant for trashing religious figures in fiction, Bransford took this as a compliment. “The circuit rider was, in fact, an unsung hero of the American west,” Bransford says, “I rescued him from the bathwater of academic prejudice.” Reviewed favorably in the New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly and by other reviewers nationwide, Bransford has been praised as, “… a powerful writer.” His first novel was lauded as, “…compelling… engrossing… action-adventure, but more than just another adventure story.” “A deeply moving story, not only providing a graphic account of how the West was won, but of how the West’s spiritual formation came about.” Through blog posts, Bransford writes about exploring one’s personal story as the key to spiritual transformation― and the key to good writing. He is an accomplished public speaker, and can be found at stephenbransford.com.