I carelessly picked up The Lord of the Rings when I was ten years old, having never heard of it before, and the effect it had on my thinking and my writing was cataclysmic, and it only deepened when I read The Silmarillion shortly thereafter.  For a while I was drunk with glory, if that isn't too strong of a word to use.  I consider Tolkien to be the greatest writer of fantasy who ever lived, and my awe continues undiminished to this day. 

I am a lover of truth and beauty, of the old school of Christian high fantasy that includes Tolkien, but also C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald, among others.  My work is sometimes explicity Christian in nature and sometimes not, but the flavor is always there I think.  I've published two novels and a collection of short stories through Jeremiah Press (www.jeremiahpress.org), all of which have been learning experiences for me. 

Story-seeds grow from the smallest beginnings, and they often put out the most interesting branches along the way to maturity.  I am not the type of writer who begins with a plot already worked out ahead of time before I sit down at the word processor.  More often, I begin with a single image or idea, and then grab the bit between my teeth and run with it.  From there, I might make landfall anywhere in the whole wide world.  When I begin, I haven't got the faintest idea how a story will end or what will happen along the way.  In fact, one of the greatest pleasures of writing (for me) is that I have an endless supply of new stories to tell myself.

People sometimes like to know where the particular inspiration for a story came from, and I've never minded discussing these things with those who are interested.  It's always encouraging to talk to anyone who took pleasure in my work, and reviews definitely make me feel good about what I do.

During my early adulthood there was a lengthy period during which I wrote almost nothing at all.  You might say I allowed the cares of the world to weigh me down and discourage me, so that my dream of becoming a storyteller gradually faded away.  But then when I was 32, I became very ill, and to my utter shock I was eventually diagnosed with cancer.  Suffice it to say that I very nearly died, and there are times when surgery and chemotherapy can almost make a man wish for death, to be released from the misery of living.

But it wasn't so, and I survived, miracle that it was.  God saved me for a purpose, as He always does every man, and from this experience I learned several things.  First, that I should never take a single day or anyone that I loved for granted.  Second, that I must never bury my talents in the ground and forget about them as I had done with my writing, because when God gives us gifts then He expects us to use them.  Third, and most of all, I learned how not to be afraid.

So now I write whatever God puts into my heart to say, and I've experienced in real life the truth of the Scripture that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord.  Life still isn't easy sometimes, but I take more joy in it now than I have in years, and that was a wonderful gift indeed.