Klatch Author
Lesley Barker
About Lesley Barker
Lesley is the retired Executive Director of Graceful Opportunities, a nonprofit organization that creates enterprises and transportation for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She holds a PhD from the University of Leicester (England) in Museum Studies where she concentrated on museum interpretation and particularly the interpretation of race at the American Historic House Museum. She is the former executive director of the Bolduc House Museum (now the Centre for French Colonial America) in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. She was the founder and creative agent behind the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, Kentucky with its educational walking trail and arboretum. Her eclectic background has always included writing and her heart is connected to her pen which results in poetry, prose, nonfiction and fiction for adults and children. She has seven children and eight grand-children.
Why Lesley writes
She writes- it's what the signature on her emails used to be. Writing has been her passion and calling for as long as she can remember. She writes to provoke readers to authentic faith in the God who is past knowing but who calls us to intimacy and reveals Himself to us in words and a book. She writes to interrogate and disrupt the status quo produced by an unquestioning approach to life and faith. She writes to make visions plain. She writes to nudge or blast open hearts through fiction that delights and moves readers. She writes about what is in her heart and mind. She writes to call people to know the Lord and to connect Christians to their purposes and legacies. She writes as worship. Her fiction tends to explore the juxtaposition of authentic faith in dysfunctional families and often involves issues of race and diversity in American history and in the American church. She writes because, when writing, she senses the pleasure, presence, and blessing of God, Himself. She writes because, when writing, she displays the four core values she lives by: honor, redemption, transformation, and wisdom. Lesley will always write.
Lesley's books
Stuck in the Mud by Lesley Barker
When Carli Pendleton, the young museum educator for the Bolduc House Museum in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and her colleague, Brad, are harvesting willow saplings near the burnt-out marina on the Mississippi River to make a replica wigwam at the museum’s Indian Village, Carli’s dog finds a vulture-pecked corpse, a “floater”, from St. Louis dead in the water. It was the second time in as many days that Carli has had to call the police and the coroner. Just the previous day some landscapers had accidentally unearthed a skeleton on the museum property that is probably several hundred years old, likely a Native American, so the Native American Grave Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) will guide what happens next. While Carli and Brad wait for the police to arrive at the marina, Carli’s friend, Tyrone, calls to say that her Uncle John’s best friend and neighbor has been found dead in his St. Louis apartment. The ensuing investigations complicate the 18th century French colonial museum’s operations and intrude on Carli’s personal life as well. Her mother died several years ago. She is estranged from her musician father who hasn’t even remembered to call his mother for three weeks. And then there is her grandmother, Lillian
Pastor's Ex-Wife, by Lesley Barker
Terry Soldan became the newspaper's religion editor and anonymous church critic whose pithy reviews of a different church each week takes the reader on a romp through the modern American Protestant church scene. At the same time, Terry is trying to shut the door on the wounds suffered during a long marriage to an abusive pastor.
Hear Lesley and Thomas talk about "Pastor's Ex-Wife"
Safe In The Arms of Jesus, by Lesley Barker
Set in 1896 during St. Louis' tuberculosis epidemic, this historical novel chronicles the last week of Isabel Woods Edwards' life. Only the doctor and her servant, Lizzie, are allowed to enter her bedroom. Her three year old son, Albert, visits daily from the hallway accompanied by her sister who will soon become his step-mother. Isabel's intimacy with Jesus stands in stark contrast to the religious aloofness of the rest of the family.
Mother to Mother by Lesley Barker
After 44 years in the writing, this book explains how a mother can lead and equip little children to love, receive, and follow Jesus. It is a book of spiritual formation that opens a young mother’s heart to intimately trust the Lord. First written when the author was a young woman, now, seven children and eight grandchildren later, she explores the rewards God gives to women who have mothered well. She adds the wisdom of an older woman to her original ideas throughout the book along with questions for the reader to use in doing personal inventories about their spiritual condition. She includes Bible verses to inform prayer. This book is packed with ideas and truths and makes the perfect gift for a new or newly saved mother.
Pressing Forward in Prayer, by Lesley Barker
Prayer is essential to every Christian's life and relationship with Jesus. This book provides biblical principles for prayer in a line-upon-line fashion that assists the reader to know how mature their prayer life really is. By referencing many books by people whose lives were informed by prayer and the author's testimony of a life dedicated to prayer for more than 50 years, this book models how you can press forward to greater spiritual maturity in prayer.
Called to Write? by Lesley Barker
This book is for you if God has called you to write a specific book, for a specific purpose, for a specific audience, and for a specific time in God's kingdom but you have never written a book before, and do not know how. It is a devotional approach that mentors the reader from the book's concept to its publication so that the writing is a journey of prayer and fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
Faith Wise Faith Ways, by Lesley Barker
Just what is faith, anyway? How do we get it? How does it operate? What does the Bible say about it? Have I been living by faith? How can I know? This book compiles what the Bible says about faith alongside the author's successes and failures in faith. It is a provoking narrative of her personal faith journey meant to trigger increased faith in the readers.
Hurled Rocks to Gain, Guard and Grow Ground for His Kingdom and Glory by Lesley Barker
This is a book about a particular kind of prayer that the author calls apostolic intercession. It explores how God uses this kind of prayer to initiate new things to form on earth. It is prayer that occupies new positions and creates new narratives in place of strongholds that keep division, power and compromise entrenched. It is a spiritual calling and orientation to prayer that only develops through increasing consecration and intimacy with God.
St. Louis Gateway Rail - the 1970s by Lesley Barker
Using photographs taken in the 1970s of trains in St. Louis by John F. Barker, this book introduces each railroad that ran in and through St. Louis between 1900 and 1990. It was a labor of love for the author to collaborate with John Barker on this project. It followed work to prepare and donate his comprehensive collection of customized HO-scale models to the St. Louis Mercantile Library.
Strategic Prayer Guide by Lesley Barker
This 12-week group Bible study guide is designed to prepare people to serve on teams that do on-site strategic prayer. What needs to happen within each individual to ensure that the team will be mature and unified? What are the steps to research an area for God's prayer focus? What does the Bible reveal about strategy and warfare that can be applied to prayer. The lessons include activities, biblical exegesis, discussion questions and homework.
Grandparents in Genesis by Lesley Barker
This is a Bible study workbook that can be used by a group or by an individual. It introduces each of the grandparents in Genesis to show how their lives and choices impacted their grandchildren. Written to complement the workshop, Gathering Grandparents, this is intended to be the first of several books about the grandparents in the Bible.
Living by Faith in a Time of Plagues by Lesley Barker
A few months before the COVID epidemic started, Lesley woke up with a vision of a huge wave. She asked God what it was and He answered in one work, "plague". This led Lesley to explore what the Bible reveals about plagues and how to navigate life in a time of plagues.
When I Grow Up I want to Be a Grandma by Lesley Barker
Written for her oldest granddaughter for her tenth birthday, this book is about growing up in a high rise apartment building in New York City in the 1960's. It is a stream of consciousness romp that includes adventures, challenges and memories that set Lesley on the journey to find God.
Big Bully: The Story of Simon Kenton by Lesley Barker
Keith, Ken, Kim and Kara are a team. Their school picked them to go to this year's FKCC meet. There is lots to do to get ready. Will they win first prize? It will take teamwork and Keith is a big bully. But so was Simon Kenton.
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
New Boots: The Story of Elisha Green by Lesley Barker
Sally knew what it felt like to have cold wet feet. The other kids on the team did not have holes in their shoes like Sally. But Elisha Green almost lost his new boots in a train wreck. Hopefully, their presentation about Elisha Green will win the prize at the FKCC meet.
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
Hurt Feelings: The Story of Dottie Rambo by Lesley Barker
Tim and Tom are twins. Jan and Julie are twins. The four kids are a team. They have to learn about Dottie Rambo for the FKCC meet. They want to win but it will take teamwork and the sisters do not get along.
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
Picked Last: Effie Waller Smith's Story by Lesley Barker
Kendra, Chuck and Nathan like being a team. They each were smart. They each worked hard. They always got good grades. They knew they could win the prize for presenting about Effie Waller Smith at the FKCC meet. But then the teacher picked the new girl to be on the team too.
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
Great Idea: The Story of Harry Clark Karsner by Lesley Barker
When Mr. Smith put Mark on the school's team for the FKCC meet, Linda got worried. She always has to help Mark with his work when he's not in the resource room. But Mark does know lots about airplanes and Harry Clark Karsner was a pilot.
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
Knocked Down: The Story of Carl Brashear by Lesley Barker
Ruth uses a wheelchair. Bree is deaf so Ms. Smith signs for her at school. Cody is almost blind. Ben fell off his bike and broke his leg so he can't play soccer or go out to recess. They are the school team for the FKCC meet. Why did Mrs. Green pick them to present Carl Brashear's life at the contest? Will their presentation win first prize?
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
Too Bad: The Story of Peggy Taylor by Lesley Barker
This year's FKCC meet has to be virtual because of the virus. Carmen, Margarita, Donte and Lee want their PowerPoint presentation about Peggy Taylor to win. But the kids do not understand how, if Peggy Taylor was a famous Kentucky Christian, she could have owned slaves.
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
Not Fair: The Story of Mary Britton by Lesley Barker
Hannah, Lupe, Dan and Paul are the fourth grade student council representatives. They don't think it's fair that only fourth and fifth graders get to vote on what the whole school does. They also want their presentation about Mary Britton to win at the state FKCC meet.
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
Math Nerd: The Story of William Alexander by Lesley Barker
Lucy's favorite subject is math. When she learned that William Alexander kept a math journal when he was a boy, she decided to make one too. Could a math journal help Paul, Nan, Jose, and Lucy win a contest? The prize is a huge field trip and a party.
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
Girls Rule: Nannie Helen Burrough's Story by Lesley Barker
After a sweaty game where the boys were trying to tag the girls to give them cooties and the girls were hiding behind Ms. Cohen, the teacher, Summer, Tina, Miguel and Jay are assigned to be a group. They have to learn about Nannie Helen Burroughs and represent their school with a display that they make. They must learn about segregation and Jim Crow which, they decide, was a lot like a game of cooties.
A beginning chapter book for students reading at the 2nd-4th grade levels. Each book in the series introduces a person who has been significant to Kentucky's history. Royalties go to support the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project in Paris, KY.
What Lesley is working on now
Lesley is working on finishing a young adult novel, The Curse of Kaskaskia. The Curse of Kaskaskia is the story of Auguste Chouteau, the 14-year-old boy from New Orleans who is credited with founding the City of St. Louis in 1764. This covers the trip up the Mississippi arriving at Isaac Monsanto's home and then assisting his mother's lover, Pierre Laclede to destroy the Catholic mission in Kaskaskia before being sent to prepare a city for Laclede to bring Chouteau's mother in a few months. Eighteenth century mid-Mississippi Valley was home to Native Americans, French colonists, and French African enslaved individuals all of whom are represented on the pages of this fairly short book.
As with all Lesley's fiction, this book is concerned with how authentic faith is expressed in dysfunctional families. It relies on the academic expertise Lesley has for French colonial life in the mid-Mississippi Valley developed when she was the executive director of the Bolduc House Museum (now The Centre for French Colonial America) from 2009-2016. The Curse of Kaskaskia has been in the writing for more than a decade. It has been written and rewritten thanks to the critique and suggestions of multiple readers. Now that Lesley has entered semi-retirement, she is focusing on finishing books she has begun prior to embarking on any new ones - but be sure that there are quite a few prospective books both fiction and non-fiction in the queue.
Her next novel will be another Mid-Mississippi Valley Mystery featuring Carli Pendleton, the Bolduc House Museum educator- its title will probably be Midnight Mass. Readers will be able to visit Christmas in Ste. Genevieve but another murder will complicate the festivities for everyone involved at the Bolduc House Museum. Other projects include a book of poetry - More to Be Desired - and a Bible Study guide- What the Bible Says About...- for new believers who want to understand what the Bible teaches about a variety of subjects: money, sex, heaven, hell, the occult... short form questions that lead people to open the book for themselves and to draw their own conclusions from the words of the scriptures.
Lesley is now available as a writing coach. Mentoring slots are limited. Email her for details.
Find Lesley on social media