Rather than bore you with my life story, perhaps I can share with you a few things I've learned navigating life's bumpy road...
I've learned that discovery invigorates the soul, and that taking that first step onto unfamiliar ground shows us what it means to hope.
I've learned that dreams are better chased than left for dead, and that to give up the chase is to give up on oneself. That the shame isn't in trying and failing; the shame is in succeeding at not trying.
I've learned that a good dog and a fly rod make life more enjoyable, and that Forgiveness is a place on the spiritual map where people meet and find peace.
And I've learned that LOVE rejoices in truth, even when it hurts.
Most of all, I've learned that just one devoted friend and a supportive spouse are more valuable than Van Gogh's "Irises," and that The Maker of Heaven and Earth is for me, not against me.
What's all of this got to do with writing?
Like so many writers before me, my stories are anchored in experience - and the lessons learned along the way.
A few other things about me...
MY FAVORITE BOOK (Besides the Bible):
"A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclean - Lyrical and beautifully written. And at times elegantly funny. (I'm blessed to have found a first edition copy.)
First book I can recall reading simply because I wanted to:
"The Day of the Dolphin" (English title) by French writer Robert Merle. I read this in my teens, probably because it was about dolphins. Book reading really took root in my late twenties. I developed a love of reading and devoured books, teaching myself to write both non-fiction and fiction.
Some of authors and books I've enjoyed:
Fiction: Mike Gayle (Half a World Away, A Song of Me & You), Mark Sullivan (The Last Green Valley, Beneath the Scarlett Sky), Nicholas Evans (The Smoke Jumper, The Loop, The Horse Whisperer), CJ BOX (Joe Picket Series), Michael Connelly (The Lincoln Lawyer, The Late Show), Andrew Klaven (A Strange Habit of Mind), John Grisham (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and all the early novels), Jeffrey Archer (End Game), Lee Child (Jack Reacher series), Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds), Nicholas Sparks (Counting Miracles, Message in a Bottle, The Notebook), Patrick Taylor (An Irish Country Doctor), Charles Martin (The Keeper), Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants), Louis L'Amour (Conagher), JD Salinger (Catcher in the Rye), and many more I can't recall.
Non-Fiction: Eric Blehm (Fearless, The Darkest White, Legend), Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Where Men Win Glory, Under the Banner of Heaven), Patrick Radden Keefe (Say Nothing, Empire of Pain), Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm), Daniel James Brown (The Boys in the Boat), Hampton Sides (The Wide Wide Sea), Douglas Brunt (The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel), Tyler Hamilton & Daniel Coyle (The Secret Race), Willie Carlin (Thatcher's Spy - My Life as an MI5 Agent Inside Sinn Fein), Laura Hillenbrand (Unbroken), AW Tozer (The Knowledge of the Holy, The Pursuit of God), Donald L. Miller (Masters of the Air), Billy Graham (Just As I Am), Mathew A Rozell (The Things Our Father's Saw), CS Lewis (Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters), Stephen King (On Writing), Robert McKee (Story), Ayn Rand (The Art of Fiction), Watchman Nee (The Normal Christian Life), Peter Nichols (Sea Change, A Voyage for Madmen), Stephen Naifeh & Greggory White Smith (Van Gogh: The Life), and many more...