I am a Des Moines, Iowa Southsider. When I graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School, the faculty sang "It Took A Miracle." My mother and uncles were business people. I began waiting tables and washing dishes in Mom's restaurant at age 12. I pumped gas at my uncle's service station in my teens. That experience of interaction with customers was instructive.

One of my great mistakes was cheating in high school English classes. I really did cheat and I didn't pay attention. After all, I reasoned, who would know? When I began pastoring, I wrote my sermons in manuscript form after making a strict outline. I preached at least two sermons on Sunday, so I hammered out a communication style. My wife did take English classes seriously, so she has helped me as have editors and friends who read letters with blue pens in hand to circle and return corrected grammar, which on a grumpy day can be irritating. But helpful.

There really were mockingbirds. My communication style changed when I mixed my "preaching" with singing. I had a short time to introduce a song or to make a point. I told stories. Everything I saw, read or interpreted became fodder. I needed to do serious Bible study. These are stories that helped me interact with the Letter to the Ephesians, most of which I told dozens of times in concerts and seminars.

We were on the road 200-300 days a year with opportunity to sell product at the back of the room. We had albums and books to supplement our work. I was motivated by John Wesley who not only preached, but sent written tracts with listeners to reinforce the message. If we were teaching on anger management, our books gave the seminar participants something to read later.

Smashwords has given us a potential audience far beyond anything we have at the back of the room.

I have an agenda. My mission is to develop distinctive people and that begins by dealing with what could be their blockage. I can write stuff people will read anonymously and contemplate privately at their convenience. One of my mentors was a great communicator and scholar. I traveled with him and studied his techniques. He told stories. I like to tell stories that will hang in people's memories and stimulate them to change or act. Jesus was good at that!

Robert Benson, Anne Lamott, church researcher Ed Stetzer. I think J. F. Penn is a good mystery writer. My reading tends to go to topics rather than to writers. I read everything Myles Munroe, Andy Stanley, Malcom Gladwell, Leonard Sweet write. Jon Acuff, Seth Godin and Brene Brown have recently captured my attention. And who can not list Rick Bragg!

Glad you asked. I've been working on a series of novels centered on the work and staff people at a mythical conference center named Southwood. The "Carafe Conspiracy," "The Suite Spot," "It is Today" and "Seizin' Your Season" are in various places of completion.

I don't think of my readers or hearers as fans. The last time we had a fan club meeting, we met in a Cleveland phone booth. I have tribe members. They are resources, friends and tribe members.

Explaining to my wife why I can't help her clean the garage because I must think what I'm going to write today. I am a Chicago Cub fan, Iowa Hawkeyes and Cyclone fan. I really am interested in finding ways to stimulate my tribe and to resource my family's talents and gifts.

I like coffee. My morning regimen is inflexible. Coffee, reading from my current stack, Bible reading and praying for my tribe, family, the hurting and then exercising. Those are positive addictions that pull me out of bed. My purpose is to share healing and spell out specific resources and habits for those who find their lives built on sand--those who have not yet found their purpose, gifts and place. To establish The community you've always wanted."

News releases. Mostly from reading professional journals, blogs and listening to what my heroes and tribe members are reading.

When I went through a mid-life crisis, I wrote about the process. When I was depressed, I studied the subject and told my stories. Sometimes I see someone struggling and know there are solutions and try to describe solutions and strategies. I wrestle with the issue, read everything I can to make sure I understand and then build a seminar which grows into a book. The Southwood Series grew out of my hunger for a colony to belong to and to work with. People just keep showing up at Southwood with a story that they want me to tell. Bernie showed up yesterday.

My son is a commercial photographer. He showed me a picture of a hand holding a baseball and I instantly had a book: "Seams to Me." We are wrestling with a cover concept right now. Having marketing people in the family is helpful. I run ideas and potential covers past my creative team. I have learned to trust them. They see things that I do not. I trust my wife's inclinations. My adult children have creative skills. I have a couple of friends who are the fresh eyes.

The aftermath of an E-4 tornado.