Patricia Kathryn Helms Kidd (April 3, 1950 – December 14, 2015)Andrew Hall
"In Memoriam: Kathryn H. Kidd"
Dawning of a Brighter Day, Association of Mormon Letters, December 17, 2015. was an American author. Many of her books concern

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS Church). She co-wrote some of her works with her husband, Clark L. Kidd, and also co-wrote a novel with

Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...

Life and career

Kidd was born in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

and raised in

Mandeville, Louisiana Mandeville is a city in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. Its population was 11,560 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, and 13,192 at the 2020 United States census. Mandeville is located on the north shore of Lake Pontc ...

. She graduated from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

and was baptized in the

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

. Raised a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

, Kidd is quoted as converting because she wanted a

patriarchal blessing In the Latter Day Saint movement, a patriarchal blessing (also called an evangelist's blessing) is an ordinance administered by the laying on of hands, with accompanying words of promise, counsel, and lifelong guidance intended solely for the rec ...

, but couldn't receive one unless she was a baptized member of the LDS faith. Upon receiving her bachelor's degree, Kidd reported for the ''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

'' in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. At the same time, Orson Scott Card was an assistant editor for the popular LDS magazine '' The Ensign;'' Kidd and Card became good friends. Card was a witness at Kathryn (Kathy) and Clark Kidd's wedding. The couple worked with Card on a project for

Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET c ...

Books. Clark programmed the games in a series while Kathy wrote the directions.Card, Orson Scott. Forward. ''Paradise Vue,'' by Kathryn H. Kidd, 1989, pp. viii-xv. The couple moved to Virginia in 1987. She was subsequently associate and managing editor of ''Meridian'' magazine until 2008, after which she continued writing for it and also for ''Nauvoo Times''. She died on December 14, 2015.

Publications

Kidd wrote and co-wrote with her husband several

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

books of practical advice geared toward fellow members of the

. These include titles such as ''Ward Activities for the Clueless'', ''Food Storage for the Clueless'', ''On My Own and Clueless: An LDS Guide to Independent Life'', and ''A Parent's Survival Guide to the Internet''. The Kidds jointly authored ''A Convert's Guide to Mormon Life'', which won an Association of Mormon Letters Award for devotional literature. They also collaborated on a large number of articles for ''

Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

''. Kidd also wrote a few

comedic novel A comic novel is a novel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's literary ...

s about life among members of the church, including ''Paradise Vue'' and ''Return to Paradise'', and children's books such as ''The Innkeeper's Daughter''. Kidd was a longtime friend of Orson Scott Card. In 1989, Card started up a Mormon publishing company with his wife and brother, called "Hatrack River Publications." Card approached Kidd to provide a novel that fit the company's themes. Kidd's novel ''Paradise Vue'' became its first publication. Other collaboration with Card included co-authoring '' Lovelock'', the first part of a proposed

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...

Lovelock

''Lovelock'' is a speculative science fiction novel co-written by both Kidd and Orson Scott Card. The novel is narrated by a scientist who takes the name of real scientist

James Lovelock James Ephraim Lovelock (26 July 1919 – 26 July 2022) was an English independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating sys ...

. The novel examines the

Gaia Hypothesis The Gaia hypothesis (), also known as the Gaia theory, Gaia paradigm, or the Gaia principle, proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system that help ...

through the lens of Lovelock, who is a genetically-enhanced

capuchin monkey The capuchin monkeys () are New World monkeys of the subfamily Cebinae. They are readily identified as the " organ grinder" monkey, and have been used in many movies and television shows. The range of capuchin monkeys includes some tropical fores ...

. Lovelock the monkey is assigned to examine the lives of several humans on board the ''Mayflower'' spacecraft, and in the process becomes more humanized and rebellious. Kidd passed away before the second installment, ''Rasputin,'' could be published.

Paradise Vue

''Paradise Vue'' takes place in an LDS ward congregation. Beneath their perfectionist façade, the

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

members in Kidd's novel exhibit cruel, dark, and obsessive tendencies. The novel is a comedic

LDS fiction LDS may refer to: Organizations * LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah, US Religion * Latter Day Saint movement (LDS movement), a collection of independent church groups **The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest group within th ...

piece.

Works

Mayflower trilogy

* '' Lovelock'' (New York: TOR, 1994)

Paradise Vue series

* ''Paradise Vue'' (Hatrack River Publications, 1989) * ''Return to Paradise'' (Hatrack River, 1997)

For the Clueless series

* ''Food Storage for the Clueless'' (Bookcraft, 2002) * ''Ward Activities for the Clueless'' (Bookcraft, 2001) * ''On My Own and Clueless: an LDS Guide to Independent Life'' (Bookcraft, 2000)

Standalone fiction

* ''The Alphabet Year'' (Hatrack River, 1991) * ''The Wise Men of Bountiful: a Story for Children'' (Cedar Fort, 2005) * ''The Innkeeper's Daughter'' (Hatrack River, 1990) * ''A Convert's Guide to Mormon Life'' (Bookcraft, 1998) * ''52 Weeks of Recipes for Students, Missionaries, and Nervous Cooks'' (Deseret Book, 2007) * ''A Parent's Survival Guide to the Internet'' (Bookcraft, 1999)

Manuals

* ''Compute!'s IBM PC and PCjr Games for Kids'' (Compute! Publications, 1984) (All works were retrieved from the

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

References

External links

Planet Kathy
Kidd's website, archived at the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

on January 9, 2016 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kidd, Kathryn H. 1950 births 2015 deaths Converts to Mormonism 20th-century American novelists American Latter Day Saint writers American science fiction writers American women novelists Women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers Writers from New Orleans People from Mandeville, Louisiana Novelists from Louisiana Latter Day Saints from Louisiana Latter Day Saints from Virginia American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American women Harold B. Lee Library-related articles