Who is J Washburn? I was born in Page, Arizona, practically on the Navajo Reservation, and raised in Idaho with my several siblings. I began writing stories when I was about three. I spent most of my childhood living the adventures described in my books. I earned a Bachelor's of English from Brigham Young University-Idaho and a Master's of English from Brigham Young University. Aspiring to be a renaissance man, I've worked as a lawn mower, a concrete pourer, a street preacher, a meta-physicist, a typographer, a graphic designer, a usability designer, a warrior poet, and even an English teacher. I also suffer from chronic somnia. What kind of a name is J? No, I'm not trying to copy J.R.

R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling. J really is my first name--my whole first name. Nope, not J-A-Y. Not J with a period. (Abbreviating it makes it longer.

) It starts and ends with J. Just J. In fact, if you throw a pen at a paper from at least five feet away, it nearly always spells my name. "But what kind of a name is J?"--you're still asking. Well, I'll tell you. There was once a man named Melvin J. Ballard (whose middle name was Joseph, but he liked to abbreviate it). My grandpa was named J Ballard Washburn in honor of this man.

But he just got the J (without the period). I was named after my grandpa, and I just got his J. Which is nice. After all, brevity is the soul of wit.