Because of my love for the Old Testament and, having read it many times, I felt driven (compelled?) to retell its wonderful stories in modern English so that people could better understand and appreciate them.  I wanted to tell them for adults--not just for children as so many authors have done.

The project proved to be a great adventure and the finished product is more than I ever hoped for. With the inclusion of information from other sources, including the works of Flavius Josephus, many things just almost fell into place for the project. When I began, I thought there might be 50 or 60 great stories to tell, but the project actually produced more than 200 stories. Those wonderful stories are told in my book, I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation. 

I wanted my stories to be simple without being simplistic, and I also wanted them to be true to the Biblical accounts. I also wanted to include important explanations relating to those stories in footnotes that would be right on the same pages as the stories because I knew that most readers do not bother to look at end notes.

I also wrote another book many years ago when I was teaching genealogical research at Ricks College. At that time, there was no good textbook on American genealogical research, so I determined to write one. That book, The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, was published in 1973 by Genealogical Publishing Co. Since that time there have been three more editions, the fourth being published in October 2017. It is still the most widely used textbook on American genealogical research and is considered by many to be a classic. Through the first three editions, the book sold more than 110,000 copies, and I hope to sell many more going forward.

Reviews and sample chapters of both books are included here on Author's Den.