Narnia, Asteroid B-612, Middle Earth, and Earthsea. I’ve spent a lot of time in each of these places. I’ve also been to more than fifty countries on earth; on every continent except Antartica. But the imaginary places shaped me more than the real places. So I decided to create an imaginary place where reality could be experienced and I could share insights other people gave to me. That’s the completed five volumes of the Verduran Pentology. One day I hope to make a box for it to show off all the great art work Anna Coleman did in preparation for it. It turns out that making a box is as complicated as writing a book. Maybe by 2024….
Also, I’ve felt that our American story has not been adequately presented to millennials and following generations, so I embedded the Verdura series in 19th century America and I wrote a book on the American Revolutionary War. I didn’t expect that book to be the first of another series, but it became the Young America series; currently three published and one to go. I’m planning and researching the fourth and final book, Fire as Their Element, that will take us up to 1806––twenty-five years after the Battle of Yorktown. But you never know. Once you begin exploring history, you find there’s a lot to learn––and quite a bit to unlearn as well!
I’ve taught students from high school to retirement ages and not found any who were not spoken to by stories. And since I love stories myself, that’s what I wanted to make. Now I live at the foot of the Rockies in Colorado, and get to hike in them while scheming and dreaming up new stories about old and new worlds.
Personal Information
Okay, here’s a little more stuff my family said I had to put in.
First, I have a Ph.D. from Duke University, a Masters of Theological Studies degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a bachelors degree from Wheaton College (IL).
Second, all that was the ticket needed to teach university students for ten years, seminary and graduate students for more than thirty years, and adult students during that whole time. I estimate that the number of papers I read and graded during those years approaches a million.
Third, I got to teach in about two-dozen countries, primarily in English with translation. One of my books, To Give You a Future: God’s Side of the Story, was translated and published in Russian and Romanian.
Fourth, now I have the privilege of helping others to get into writing and publishing. You can check that out on my other site, mediaropa.org.