Becca Kinzer lives in Springfield, Illinois, where she works as a critical care nurse. When she’s not busy taking care of sick patients or using up all the storage on her phone with pictures of her dog, she enjoys making up lighthearted stories with serious laughs.
She is the author of multiple titles including Dear Henry, Love Edith, which won the 2024 Carol Award for debut novel. First Love, Second Draft is her third novel.
You can learn a lot of other fun facts about Becca on her website.
If someone asked you to describe yourself with one word, what word would that be?
Loyal. I like to think I have the personality of a Golden Retriever.
Mentors are important to every writer. Who are some of your mentors, including those you’ve met and those you haven’t? What did you learn from them?
When I joined My Book Therapy back around 2019, Susan May Warren, Rachel Hauck, Tari Faris, and Lisa Jordan all became mentor figures to me as I gleaned everything I could from their knowledge about story-telling and publishing. And while he doesn’t know it, I consider Allen Arnold a mentor of sorts simply because of the wisdom and guidance he provides to those with creative hearts. He signed one of his books for me at a writers conference years ago, and the message he inscribed has always been a huge source of encouragement to me on my publishing journey.
Let’s talk about First Love, Second Draft (Tyndale House, April 2025). Why did you incorporate the struggle of infertility into the story?
I needed a reason why two people head-over-heels for each other would push each other away and end a marriage. My motivation for making infertility part of Gracie and Noah’s reason stems from an awkward interaction I had running into an old friend years ago shortly after I had my first baby.
There’s a long version to that story, but the short version is my eyes were opened to the unique sort of grief and frustration that those struggling with infertility face. By putting myself in the heads of my main characters, especially Gracie, I developed even more empathy, which is the whole reason I think we need sensitive topics like this in our fiction.
Gracie and Noah are divorced. What was it like exploring the complexities of divorce in the book?
I think part of what makes divorce complex, even in fiction, is we want to choose a side. So one tricky aspect in this story was trying to make both characters equally endearing to readers despite how much these two characters hurt each other in the past. I don’t want any reader to be Team Gracie Parker or Team Noah Parker. I want readers to just be Team Parker.
How does faith play a role in the story?
The faith element goes right along with the hope element. Because Gracie’s faith in God wavered, so did her hope. When she pushed God away, she pushed away her reason to hope too. The story is about her learning to recapture both.
On a personal note, please tell us about your goldendoodle, Bonnie.
Oh, Bonnie. She is the best of times, she is the worst of times (especially when she’s chasing after every squirrel she sees during our walks). But I absolutely love her. Growing up I always assumed I’d have a dog in my life as an adult, but between my nursing schedule and then having a son with dog allergies, I resigned myself to thinking it would never happen. So when things lined up for me to be able to go part time with my nursing job right when a local litter of goldendoodle puppies were going to be born, a breed that doesn’t seem to trigger my son’s allergies, we went for it and got our Bonnie. We’ve had her for three years now, and I’m not kidding when I say my phone’s photo library is ninety-nine percent Bonnie pictures.
Thank you, Becca! It’s nice to have you back at Divine Detour.
~ ~ ~
For more information about Becca, visit her website and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
To order First Love, Second Draft, go to –
