About

Early Life and Influences

Keven Newsome was born and raised in Columbia, Mississippi, where storytelling became part of his life long before he considered becoming a writer. Some of his earliest exposure to storytelling came from his great-grandfather, Oliver King, whose name Keven has occasionally used as a pen name. Family stories, folk legends, books, music, and later video games all contributed to an early fascination with imagined worlds and the way stories shape experience.

Keven was a heavy reader from childhood. Among his earliest literary influences were Bill Wallace, particularly Trapped in Death Cave, and Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown. As his interests developed, he drew increasing inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Edgar Allan Poe, and Frank Peretti.

His first attempt at fiction came in fifth grade, when he wrote four pages of fanfiction based on the Nintendo game Dragon Warrior. Believing that characters in fantasy settings should speak like people in the King James Bible, he wrote the entire story in King James English. He says the result was terrible and he abandoned his writing career almost immediately.

A few years later, however, a gifted-program assignment challenged him to write a short story based on two folk legends—one told to him by a friend and another by his great-grandfather. He discovered that writing could be considerably more enjoyable than his first attempt had suggested.

He began producing additional short stories, many heavily influenced by Poe, and started work on his first novel while still in high school. That unfinished project was envisioned as a trilogy and marked the point when Keven first began seriously imagining publication as a future goal.

Writing Career

After college, Keven completed his first full novel, a prequel to the trilogy he had conceived in high school. He now refers to the unpublished manuscript as his “practice novel.” His next completed novel was Winter. The first draft was finished in 2007, beginning what would eventually become a four-book supernatural thriller series.

In 2009, Winter was selected as a finalist in the Marcher Lord Select Premise Contest. On the heels of the contest, Keven founded the New Authors Fellowship (NAF), a joint blog for unpublished authors written by unpublished authors. It featured several authors who have gone on to have successful careers and to become leaders in organizations such as Realm Makers and Havok Magazine. Though it had great success in the early years, the changing writing industry brought challenges, and the blog officially went dark in 2025.

Shortly after starting NAF, Winter was contracted by Splashdown Books, a small publisher who had become interested during the Marcher Lord contest and had become a fan of NAF. Splashdown Books had not previously published fiction quite like it, and so a new imprint was created, Splashdown Darkwater, for darker and more unusual speculative fiction, with Winter serving as its first release. Winter was published in 2011.

Keven later became involved with Splashdown Books beyond his work as an author. By 2014, he had been given responsibility for Splashdown Darkwater and worked as an editor for the imprint.

As Splashdown Books began moving toward closure, Keven established his own private label, Press Epic. Mantle, the final novel in the Winter series, was released through Press Epic in 2017. The first three novels were subsequently rereleased under Press Epic in 2019.

The Winter Series

The Winter series follows the supernatural story begun in Newsome’s debut novel and consists of four books:

• Winter — 2011

• Prophetess — 2012

• Acolyte — 2015

• Mantle — 2017

Across the series, the books received seven award recognitions: two wins, four finalist placements, and one nomination.

Among those recognitions were:

• Winter — finalist, 2009 Marcher Lord Select Premise Contest

• Winter — winner, April 2012 Clash of the Titles

• Winter — winner, 2012 Books in Sync Book Trailer Contest

• Winter — finalist, 2012 Grace Awards

• Winter — finalist, 2012 Compton Crook Award

• Prophetess — nominee, 2013 Clive Staples Award

• Acolyte — finalist, 2016 Grace Awards

Fanfiction and Return to Writing

Following the publication of Mantle in 2017, Keven seriously considered giving up fiction. The strain coincided with a difficult season in ministry and a growing sense that his work as a writer and his work in ministry were competing rather than complementary parts of his life. After years of investing heavily in the Winter series, he had largely stopped marketing his fiction, and Mantle released with little promotion.

In early 2018, Keven returned to the kind of writing with which he had begun. Fanfiction. Rather than approaching the project with publication goals or professional expectations, he deliberately set out to write quickly, imperfectly, and for enjoyment. He chose the world of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, part of a franchise that had become his favorite video game series. The result was The Legend of Zelda: The Tainted Blade.

What began primarily as an exercise in rediscovering the joy of writing developed into a three-season Wattpad series incorporating extensive Zelda lore and original narrative elements. In 2018, The Tainted Blade received a Watty Award. The award gave Keven his third fiction win overall and reinvigorated his writing career. The story ultimately ranked higher on Wattpad than any of his published novels had ranked on Amazon. He attributes writing fanfiction with saving his writing career. One additional season remains planned to complete the story arc.

Short Fiction and Other Writing

Keven has published a number of short stories in addition to his novels.

His work in Splashdown Books’ anthology Aquasynthesis includes:

• “Summer Snaps”

• “The Assistant”

• “Closer to Home”

“Summer Snaps” originated from a deleted scene from Winter. Keven also served as assistant editor on the anthology and contributed ghostwriting to its connecting meta-narrative.

His short story “The Angel” appeared in the micro-fiction anthology Avenir Eclectia, Vol. 1.

Writing under the name Oliver D. King, Keven has also published “Miracle’s Tree” through Havok Magazine. The story is connected to one of his current fiction projects. He has also previously published an essay related to J.R.R. Tolkien through TheOneRing.net under the name Oliver King, although the article is no longer available through the site.

Originally developed as a study in multi-generational ministry, his non-fiction book We Are One grew from demand for a resource that could accompany Keven’s teaching on generational ministry. The material has been used in multiple churches and in associational ministry settings. Though originally published and available for purchase, it is currently unavailable and awaiting an updated edition.

Education

Keven’s academic work spans music, theology, apologetics, leadership, digital ministry, and narrative theology. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education from William Carey University in 2002, specializing in instrumental music. In 2013, he completed a Master of Arts in Theology through New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, specializing in Christian apologetics with additional concentration in biblical studies. His master’s thesis examined theological questions surrounding communication with the dead and is available through ProQuest. In 2025, Keven earned a Doctor of Ministry in 21st Century Ministry from Anderson University in South Carolina. His doctoral emphasis included leadership, digital ministry, and narrative theology.

Narrative Theology and The Journey Method

A central idea connecting Keven’s fiction, theology, and ministry is his belief that human beings are naturally narrative creatures. He views the narrative patterns found throughout human cultures as part of general revelation in that people tell stories because people were designed to live stories. In his understanding, the recurring patterns identified by scholars such as Joseph Campbell reflect something deeper than literary convention. They reveal a natural human tendency to understand identity, conflict, transformation, sacrifice, purpose, and hope through narrative.

Keven’s doctoral dissertation explored how those patterns could be adapted within a Christian theological framework. The resulting Journey Method uses elements of the Hero’s Journey as a structure for helping people recognize where they are in their own spiritual story and identify their next step toward Christ, spiritual maturity, and personal calling. The method has already been used in church discipleship, including a sermon series and a ten-week small-group leadership study. Keven is developing the material into a commercial publication and supporting resources for use in discipleship, evangelism, and leadership development.

Ministry

Keven has served in vocational ministry for more than twelve years, with additional part-time ministry experience extending back to his college years. His roles have included student ministry, worship ministry, discipleship leadership, associate pastoral ministry, and senior pastoral ministry. His experience has taken him through rural, small-town, suburban, and urban church settings across Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Georgia.

A consistent theme throughout his ministry has been the integration of relationship, discipleship, creativity, leadership development, and storytelling. Keven believes that people are already somewhere on a journey with Jesus, whether they recognize it or not. Rather than beginning with condemnation or abstraction, he emphasizes relational ministry through connecting with people where they are, walking alongside them, and helping them take their next step toward Christ, healing, spiritual maturity, and the purpose for which they were created.

His ministry work has included church revitalization, discipleship-system development, leadership training, small-group ministry, worship ministry, community engagement, multi-generational ministry, digital ministry, and outreach strategy.

Music

Music predates both writing and ministry in Keven’s creative life. He learned to read music at the same time he was learning to read. He is a classically trained musician whose primary instruments are trombone and guitar. He earned his undergraduate degree in instrumental music education and previously worked as a band director and aspired to be a composer.

Although trombone is no longer a regular part of his musical work, guitar remains a consistent part of his life. He spent seven recent years leading worship and continues to play regularly as part of a church praise team. Keven claims to play approximately twelve instruments with sufficient time to practice.

Music has also been a longstanding part of his marriage. In 1999, Keven and his wife, DeAnna, were pursuing professional music opportunities together. After recording a demo and beginning to explore opportunities connected to the Christian music industry, they chose instead to step away from that path and begin a family. With their children now grown, they have begun re-exploring professional music and other collaborative creative work under the name These Creative Things.

Digital Ministry

Keven’s more recent ministry work has increasingly focused on the changing relationship between faith, community, technology, and digital culture. He is involved with DLC (Discover Life With Christ), an emerging digital ministry intended to engage people in online spaces through relationships, community, gaming, creativity, and Christian discipleship. On Twitch, he has streamed under the names LegendOfZyro and thewordcrafter. LegendOfZyro is his long-standing gamer identity, while thewordcrafter is focused primarily on writing, productivity, and co-working streams.

Keven is also developing a Discord-based community under the name These Creative Things designed to help writers, musicians, artists, and other creatives learn from one another, exchange ideas, remain motivated, and pursue creative work in community.

His broader digital presence includes Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Substack, streaming platforms, and other online communities.

Alongside his own digital work, Keven has developed a particular interest in helping churches move beyond simply broadcasting traditional ministry online. His work encourages churches to think strategically about social media, livestreaming, digital community, and the ways people increasingly form relationships and experience community through online spaces.

Current Work

After an extended period in which ministry demands, personal challenges, and doctoral studies significantly slowed his fiction output, Keven has returned to active long-form writing. His primary fiction project is an unpublished novel he informally calls The Eight Year Project, a reference to the length of time the story has remained in development.

He and his wife are developing Us Versus the World, drawing from more than twenty-five years of marriage and ministry partnership, Us Versus the World is a marriage framework synthesizing their experience, counseling, teaching, and study of marriage literature. It is currently being developed for publication.

He is also working to develop his dissertation material on The Journey Method into a discipleship and evangelism series, with small group and workbook material, all intended for publication.

Born to Create is a second planned collaboration with his wife exploring Christian creativity, creative identity, and creative worship. The project is growing out of their existing teaching curriculum on creativity and their extensive integration of the creative arts in ministry.

Personal Life

Keven has been married to DeAnna since 1999. DeAnna is a vocalist, vocal coach, and creative professional. Creativity has been a defining feature of their family life. Across the Newsome household creative output has included music, visual art, writing, photography, dance, composition, performance, crafts, gaming, and other creative pursuits. His son is a composer and music producer based out of Charlotte, NC and is known on Spotify as Kairuku. His daughter is a pre-professional ballerina, artist, and a drummer/singer inspired by Jen Ledger.