Jackie Blackerby Ricks grew up as a PK and lived many different places as she moved each time her father took a different Baptist church to pastor. The longest that Jackie lived in one place was the four years that she went to high school. She graduated from Hemphill High School and went on to the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a BA degree with a teaching certificate. After she was teaching, she furthered her education at the University of Texas at Arlington and then finally got a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Texas at Tyler. Mrs. Ricks taught English, math, and some world history for 31 years from sixth grade through junior college, with most of her time teaching algebra at the junior high level.

From the time she learned to read and write in first grade (There was no kindergarten back then!), Jackie began to “write” her own stories for her make believe friends to read. Then she used them to “teach” her students. She continued writing everything from poetry to essays, plays, and other fiction all through the years. Jackie’s parents always encouraged her to try anything that the Lord led her to do. As her father told her, “all they can do is say ‘No.’” That’s what led her to attempt publication while still in high school. It didn’t work, and she became discouraged for a while. Of course, it did not stop her from writing for the high school newspaper.

Focusing on her college work and then on lesson plans, Jackie put her creative writing on the back burner for several years. Again, her parents encouraged her to try for publication, but as many of us do, she didn’t listen. Finally, in 1991, she returned to full-time creative writing as she had left public school for a while. Then she had some short pieces published in some Christian magazines over the next several years. However, she continued to write church plays and novels. Mrs. Ricks also began to write Sunday school literature for the Baptist Publishing House and continued doing that for the next 14 years.

After attending the Christian Writers’ Conference in Glorietta during 2001, she was encouraged to send in one of her novels to an editor. However, by the time she finished the little bit she had lacked, that editor had moved on to another publishing house that did not do fiction. The new editor seemed to like the manuscript, but could not convince the house to publish since they already had several commitments and he was the “new kid on the block.” Therefore, she put it aside again and resumed her full-time teaching career and extra family commitments.

Jackie married Thomas Ricks at the age of 33 before she was officially declared an old maid school teacher by her father. With that role also came three children between the ages of 10 and 19. Jackie and Thomas added a son to the family a couple of years later. When he was still quite young, grandchildren came into the picture. For various reasons, Jackie and Thomas have raised five grandchildren and two great grandchildren at different times for varying time periods. In the long run, they adopted one of them, now adding another daughter to the family portrait. She is thirteen at this time. Jackie is also a pastor’s wife, as Thomas pastors a small country Baptist church.