All About Me
I've lived most of my life in the Red River Valley of Arkansas and Texas, with a few forays elsewhere now and then. It's a land of green-topped mountains and thick woods, with a few scattered cattle ranches and truck farms. These things color my writing. . . everything from the sweet scent of the mimosa trees in June to the feel of red clay mud between my toes. All of us are very much a product of where we grew up, and I'm very much a product of sleepy little southern towns, full of churches and old cemeteries and dirt roads where I used to walk barefoot all summer long. Small wonder that I so often choose to write about people and scenes I'm familiar with.
That said, most of my work has been fantasy of one kind or another. Partly because that's what I've always loved to read, and partly because I think it offers the greatest opportunities for creativity. All creative writing is fantasy, in a sense, because even when a book deals with the normal everyday world, it still talks about people who don't really exist, saying and doing things that never really happened.
As all fantasy writers do, I owe an immense debt to J.R.R. Tolkien. Not only for his Lord of the Rings series and other books, but for his crucially important essay "On Fairy Stories", which lays down the basic rules and mechanics of fantasy writing which have been used by almost all authors in that genre ever since. Some of my other influences have included C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, William Morris, Madeleine L'Engle, and many others to a lesser extent. It's been said that an author is only as good a writer as he is a reader, and I can well believe the truth of that. If you're interested in these authors and would like to read some of their essays and articles on writing and other topics, please visit My Library to find out more.
Over the years, I've worked as a middle school and high school science teacher, as a caseworker in the foster care and social services system, as a counselor, and in various other jobs with children and young people. That's always been the kind of work I loved and felt to be most fulfilling, so it was only natural that when I chose to become an author, that I would write for that age group. I'm not sure I could imagine writing for anyone else.
Nevertheless, I do believe that any good book should be ageless. It should contain things that even a young child can enjoy, but at the same time there should also be other things in it which can still touch his heart when he's old and gray, although perhaps not the same things. That's a difficult thing to do, but well worth the effort.
It's always been my wish that my books should make my readers laugh and give them a few hours of entertainment. But beyond that, I also hope to nurture their love of bright and beautiful things, to lead
them to look up and to dream good dreams, and to remember that when all is said and done, joy is what the world was made for.
Which brings me, of course, to the Christian aspect of my work. Madeleine L'Engle once said that the purpose of Christian writers should be to show the world that Light which is so beautiful that they can never turn away from it. I immediately accepted this principle and have always tried to keep it in mind whenever I write. My purpose is not to preach, but to touch the heart. For more detail on my thoughts about the nature and purpose of writing, please see my Recent Articles.
Some people have an intrinsic problem with Christian Fantasy, as if it were something improper for a Christian author to write about. I disagree, partly because I don't believe there's any subject whatsoever which should be off-limits to Christ, and partly because I think it conceals a theological error. There are very real sorcerers, witches, and books of magic described in the Scriptures. There's nothing unchristian about writing about such things, as long as they aren't glorified. Similarly, God at times does use material objects as a method of performing miracles. One need only think of the mud Jesus used to heal the blind, or of Moses' staff, or the angel who came down to trouble the water of the Pool of Bethesda. One can even think of Balaam's talking donkey. Things like this have a rock-solid Scriptural foundation. To think otherwise is to slip dangerously close to a modernist outlook which denies the supernatural altogether. The idea that magic isn't real, or monsters don't exist, or God never works miracles; all these are the viewpoints of naturalistic atheism, not Christianity. Such are my thoughts on the matter, at least. :)
That said, most of my work has been fantasy of one kind or another. Partly because that's what I've always loved to read, and partly because I think it offers the greatest opportunities for creativity. All creative writing is fantasy, in a sense, because even when a book deals with the normal everyday world, it still talks about people who don't really exist, saying and doing things that never really happened.
As all fantasy writers do, I owe an immense debt to J.R.R. Tolkien. Not only for his Lord of the Rings series and other books, but for his crucially important essay "On Fairy Stories", which lays down the basic rules and mechanics of fantasy writing which have been used by almost all authors in that genre ever since. Some of my other influences have included C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, William Morris, Madeleine L'Engle, and many others to a lesser extent. It's been said that an author is only as good a writer as he is a reader, and I can well believe the truth of that. If you're interested in these authors and would like to read some of their essays and articles on writing and other topics, please visit My Library to find out more.
Over the years, I've worked as a middle school and high school science teacher, as a caseworker in the foster care and social services system, as a counselor, and in various other jobs with children and young people. That's always been the kind of work I loved and felt to be most fulfilling, so it was only natural that when I chose to become an author, that I would write for that age group. I'm not sure I could imagine writing for anyone else.
Nevertheless, I do believe that any good book should be ageless. It should contain things that even a young child can enjoy, but at the same time there should also be other things in it which can still touch his heart when he's old and gray, although perhaps not the same things. That's a difficult thing to do, but well worth the effort.
It's always been my wish that my books should make my readers laugh and give them a few hours of entertainment. But beyond that, I also hope to nurture their love of bright and beautiful things, to lead
them to look up and to dream good dreams, and to remember that when all is said and done, joy is what the world was made for.
Which brings me, of course, to the Christian aspect of my work. Madeleine L'Engle once said that the purpose of Christian writers should be to show the world that Light which is so beautiful that they can never turn away from it. I immediately accepted this principle and have always tried to keep it in mind whenever I write. My purpose is not to preach, but to touch the heart. For more detail on my thoughts about the nature and purpose of writing, please see my Recent Articles.
Some people have an intrinsic problem with Christian Fantasy, as if it were something improper for a Christian author to write about. I disagree, partly because I don't believe there's any subject whatsoever which should be off-limits to Christ, and partly because I think it conceals a theological error. There are very real sorcerers, witches, and books of magic described in the Scriptures. There's nothing unchristian about writing about such things, as long as they aren't glorified. Similarly, God at times does use material objects as a method of performing miracles. One need only think of the mud Jesus used to heal the blind, or of Moses' staff, or the angel who came down to trouble the water of the Pool of Bethesda. One can even think of Balaam's talking donkey. Things like this have a rock-solid Scriptural foundation. To think otherwise is to slip dangerously close to a modernist outlook which denies the supernatural altogether. The idea that magic isn't real, or monsters don't exist, or God never works miracles; all these are the viewpoints of naturalistic atheism, not Christianity. Such are my thoughts on the matter, at least. :)