I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. I graduated high school and 10 days later, I was in the US Army when joining the military was not very popular. After spending 6 years on active duty, I got out and went to college, graduating from Brigham Young University (BYU) in the field of education. Then I went back into the US Army as an officer and made a career of it. I have been reading and writing stores to and for middle grade (8-13yrs) children for many years. I also write in the genre of LDS/Christian action/adventure thrillers (That’s a mouth full!). Now that my children are grown and have families of their own, I and my wife of 50+ years are retired and live together in St. Augustine, Florida.

After several years of reading men’s novels, as they were called years ago, I got tired of trying to read books that were way too graphic in their handling of sex, language, and death in battle. At first, when I asked around, other men told me those items were necessary to attract the readers who enjoyed men’s novels. But I didn’t buy it. I decided to write men’s novels (now called action/adventure thrillers) for other Mormon readers of fiction and could include all Christian readers of fiction.

When I looked at the market for fiction that was available, involving handicapped/disable kids as the heroes and villains, it was the same thing. I was appalled at what I found. There weren’t very many. That was about the same time the How to Train a Dragon series was out. That boy lost one off his feet and had to get a metal replacement. So, with the help of my good friend, David Griffin, I started writing books I thought might be exciting reading for those children, their parents, and school teachers.

David was born in the 1960s with spina bifida. He was also the youngest of 9 children in a family which had lost the husband/father, and lived in a brownstone row-house in Baltimore City, Maryland. Despite all of that, David is the most upbeat and optimistic person I have ever met and I always feel like I am a better person after spending time with him. I based my character NJ Farnsworth on David, who is the my technical advisor for the Farnsworth series.