About Stephen

Me in my studio in San Antonio, Texas; a good place for good people to live.

   When I can't get somebody to do something the way that I know it should be done, I usually do it myself. There is no glory in being a one-man band, but when I want to dance and there isn’t any music, I will pull out my kazoo and start humming.

   I was born and raised in the Northwest (Metaline Falls and Kennewick, Washington and Burley and Boise, Idaho). After graduating from Borah High School in Boise, Idaho, I received one of the first male scholarships to Stephen's College for Women in Columbia, Missouri. I had other opportunities at other colleges, but if you were eighteen what would have you done? I went east to Missouri. During this time I had a passion for writing and storytelling but never held any hope that a career would ensue. In fact, the only creative writing class began and ended with an argument of sorts. . It seems that I had a theory that you couldn't teach creativity, you could simply guide others in expressing it. This theory was not shared by the professor and I was politely asked to withdraw from the class. In 1973 while working as a vice-president of a leasing company I went to a bookstore to buy my, then, three year-old daughter, Jennifer, a book. What I was looking for was a fun-to-read story that contained a subtle message of some sort. What I found instead was a plethora of expensive hardcover books that had little of the content that I was looking for. I got out my ‘kazoo’ and wrote his first stories. I really didn't have much of a thought in mind as I wrote my first book, but my instincts were keen and I had been influenced as a child by Aesop's Fables. My first story and the all the books that followed reflected a sense of value in the plot and their natural positive resolutions. Teaming with Seattle illustrator, Robin James, I went on to create four titles that became the foundation of the Serendipity series: "The Dream Tree," "Serendipity," "Wheedle on the Needle," and "the Muffin Dragon." I designed them as original paperback books -- books that people could easily afford to buy. For two years I sent the books on to a variety of publishers only to have them rejected oddly enough because of the moral reflections in the stories. In 1974 I was offered a wonderful contract with a major New York publisher; a contract with a significant dollar advance and a guarantee of much, much more to come. All I had to do was to remove the value-based issues from the stories. I was so frustrated that I began to hum. Within 3 months Serendipity Press was born with me acting as publisher, editor, shipping clerk, and janitor. I have to admit I was a better janitor than an editor, but in time I learned how to deal with my only author, me.

   In 1978, after selling well-over 3 million books, I merged my fledgling publishing company with Penguin/Putnam and focused my efforts as a writer and creator of multi-media events for children.

   I now live in San Antonio, Texas, where I continue development of web-enhanced stories wherein the edges of reality can be easily blurred, VirtuaLiterature™. Most importantly, in a partnership with PCI we are creating a unique curriculum wherein students are wrapped in wonderful stories as they are taught basic human values. Look for the Buggs™ in 2004.

Note: All in all I have written 325 books or so, from picture books to young adult thrillers. Many have been published under my own name, many have not. All of them have at their heart a sense of value. Books not in print will eventually show up as web-enhanced VirtuaLiterature.

The internet is a wonderfully designed box, no more no less. Unless that box is filled with content, it is just that, a wonderfully designed box." If you have the opportunity, visit www.bookpop.com Listen carefully. In the background you will hear me humming.