(Larger format and alternate pose available below for media promotion of Not So Fast or events where I’m speaking. Permission required. Photo credit: P. Kroeker)

Here’s the official bio for formal occasions:

Speaker and author of Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families (August 2009, David C. Cook) and The Contemplative Mom (2000, Shaw Books), Ann Kroeker’s articles have appeared in a variety of publications including The Indianapolis Star newspaper, and magazines such as Decision, The Student, Christian Home and School, and Indianapolis Woman. She contributed to several books including the award-winning Experiencing the Passion of Jesus, by Lee Strobel and Garry Poole. Married for 18 years and mother of four children, Ann is committed to encouraging and inspiring families as they face the demands of daily living.

• Learn more about my creative writing work here
• Learn more about my corporate work here

If you really want to know more:

I was born into a print-loving home: my journalist-parents provided a rich literary environment, surrounding me with the printed word quite literally by lining nearly every inch of wall space with books of all types, including a big dose of classics. They taught me to read at a very young age and encouraged my ability to read newspaper headlines upside down (a skill that consistently amazed their friends). To this day the smell of bookstores and libraries, newsprint and fresh ink makes me feel very much at home.

My first major writing endeavor may have been my novel The Medallion of Kilimanjaro, inspired by “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which I scratched out on wide-ruled paper and bound together with bread-bag twist ties when I was a sophomore in high school. My dear friend Angie read every word of it and thought it was destined for the bestseller list. It’s nice when your friends believe in you. She asked me where that was a few years ago. I have no idea.

While at university, I discovered that I had some kind of innate ability to write free verse. Couldn’t do rhyme or meter, but I could tell a tight little story in the form of a poem. Many of them were about my rural upbringing, so my poems were about cows and ducks and dirt clods. This may have been what set them apart. Whatever the case may be, I won some contests with them, which is very motivating to a writer.

During those same years, I volunteered with the college ministry of a church. The college pastor mentored me as a leader and encouraged my writing even more by assigning me the role of drama director. He had me writing, editing and directing drama sketches for our weekly meetings. I loved it so much that at graduation, I joined him and a team of graduating students who started a church plant. As a full-time staff member, I continued to write dramas and other materials for the church. After a few years, I left staff and started a family, transitioning into the flexible life of freelance writing.

I love magazines, so I submitted to several and found some success. My work appeared in such publications as Decision magazine, The Student, Christian Home & School, Indianapolis Woman, and The Lookout.

Corporate writing proved to be an area I could develop my writing, as well. Over the years, I’ve worked on projects for both large corporations and smaller companies in a wide range of industries.

Meanwhile, sometime in there, I wrote a book. The Contemplative Mom: Restoring Rich Relationship with God in the Midst of Motherhood. I had three children at the time and discovered some simple truths I wanted to pass on to other moms about staying close to God in the midst of the chaos. That book came out in 2000 and since then, every new copy has sold out. It’s now out of print, so I like to think of it as a Limited Edition. Could be a collectible someday. You never know.

The book’s release led to numerous speaking engagements, which I’ve grown to love. The immediate interaction I enjoy with a live audience while speaking is quite different from the solitary work of a writer. I love to look out and connect with people, feeling–or at least hoping–that my messages are encouraging and helpful.

Blogging–so spontaneous and fluid–is an exciting medium for self-expression as I explore ideas and pass along discoveries and revelations. I’ve discovered like-minded bloggers, some of them funny and others who are philosophical (many who are both), and enjoy linking you to them.

My second book, Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families (David C. Cook), is due to be released in August 2009.