We were poor, I guess. But it didn’t seem so to me. What I remember are the kids in the neighborhood; the long Utah summers; and the timeless days in the vacant lot we called “the field.” Dirt and sweat. Baseball. Tackle football with no pads. Those are my childhood memories. Plus embroidery.

One summer when I was restless for something to do, my mom taught me to embroider. I would sit with my legs inside a pillowcase and stitch a fancy trim around the edge-as the poor pillowcase got filthy dirty. If some guy had called me a sissy, I’m sure I would have had it out with him. But I don’t remember feeling any contradiction. Why couldn’t a rough-and-tumble kid create flowers out of French knots? To me, it was just one more pleasure in life.

I also read a great deal when I was growing up in Ogden, Utah, and I took creative writing classes in high school. I even started my first novel during my senior year (a novel that was never published). And by then I had developed a secret image of myself as sensitive and rather deep. But I was also on the football team.

After high school, I attended Weber State University, left to serve as a Mormon missionary in Germany for two-and-a-half years, then returned to finish a degree in English. I went on for a Masters in Creative Writing and a PhD in literature at the University of Washington, in Seattle, and then became a professor of English at Central Missouri State University. But I only lasted eight years. I wanted to be a writer. I took a leave of absence for a year and that year stretched out to a career. I published my first book in 1979, and now have published more than eighty. (I’d say exactly how many, but I can’t remember. I have the same problem with my age sometimes, but I do know I was born in 1943. You can do the math.) .

I suppose I am a collection of contradictions. I may write fiction all day, but I’m a practical man. I’m steady and systematic about my writing--and disciplined. I don’t leap off into some dream world and “see what happens.” I brainstorm to develop my idea and characters; I do a thorough outline; I draft and re-draft many times. And I don’t miss deadlines.

I have a PhD in literature, and I spent eight years of my life as an English professor, but I write books called Go to the Hoop! and Nutty’s Ghost.

I write mostly children’s and young adult books, but my most successful project to date-Children of the Promise-has been a series of novels, written for an adult audience, that deals with the harsh realities and painful emotions of war. About two-thirds of my books have been for a national audience, but the others have been published by Deseret Book and involve Mormon characters, and often, Mormon history. (Excuse me. I mean, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints history.) .

I often write about sports, but I’m concerned that our culture over-emphasizes athletics. Those concerns come out in my Angel Park books, my Scrappers series, and even in my beginning reader book, Brad and Butter Play Ball! .

I’m gregarious. I love to talk. In school, I always got my worst report-card marks in “works independently without disturbing others.” So how do I spend my life? Alone. Looking into a computer. Thinking. (Of course, in the last few years I’ve been teaching Creative Writing at Brigham Young University, and that does put me back in touch with the real world-or at least a sort of real world.) .

I have written everything from nonsense verse for preschoolers to an adult true crime book. I do sports, but I also do humor, mysteries, historical fiction, and serious young adult novels. I get so many ideas that I can’t settle down to one thing.

I play golf. I ski. I run. (I once ran a marathon, although right after, I set a goal never to run another one, and so far I’ve achieved my goal). I can turn on ESPN and watch anything from water polo to rugby. But I will gladly pass up any sports event for an evening of good music. My wife and I get seasons tickets to the Utah Symphony every year.

My wife, Kathleen, is something of a contradiction herself. She likes security, but when I told her I wanted to give up my tenured teaching position to write full-time, she agreed to take the leap with me, and she trusted that we would land somewhere.

Where we have landed, most recently, is Midway, Utah. We live in a house with many windows, and a whole lot to see when we look out. It's a beautiful valley, 6000 feet in altitude, with lots of deer and elk around all the time, golf in our back yard, and skiing just fifteen minutes away. I know that sounds perfect, but I spend most of my life in front of my computer, and probably find as much pleasure in that as I do in the golf or the skiing. One of my great pleasures is serving as Sunday School teacher in a large class of adults. I find myself studying most evenings, just to be ready for the class.

There is one more huge contradiction in my life. My dad could read a little, but only a little. I don't think he ever read a book in his whole life. So how did I become a writer?

I'm not sure.

But back in my childhood days I somehow developed a sense that I was going to do something interesting with my life. My teachers told me I was smart—and I was a good student (in spite of talking too much). But it was really my mother who made me feel I could do whatever I set my mind to. She read to me and created my first love for books, and even more importantly, she welcomed me in from catching grasshoppers and taught me to embroider. Somehow, along with the desire to do something well, she also gave me the feeling that the range of joys in this life is very wide.

I certainly do have a full life.