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PETER LEAVELL

AWARD WINNING AUTHOR

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Official Bio: 


Peter Leavell, a 2007 graduate of Boise State University with a degree in history, was the 2011 winner of Christian Writers Guild's Operation First Novel contest, and 2013 Christian Retailing's Best award for First-Time Author. Peter and his family live in Boise, Idaho. For entertainment, he reads historical books, where he finds ideas for new novels. Whenever he has a chance, he takes his wife and two homeschooled children on crazy but fun research trips.

Unofficial Bio NOT approved by the publicist:

I reigned supreme over two younger brothers (I'm very much a candidate for older brother syndrome) while our father pastored in a farming-community church in the middle of South Dakota, where my brothers and I learned a healthy trade in fun and relatively harmless misbehavior—the line was somewhere between bringing frogs into church and climbing over the pews during the service. When we moved to Walla Walla, Washington as I entered high school, I discovered friends, especially Brandon Bowman, who loved history and Star Wars as much as I did. I remember drinking Mountain Dew, eating pepperoni and cheese, and watching history movies and playing history games (Axis and Allies) all night. I found Jules Verne at our local library in Walla Walla, and after reading everything he wrote, all I wanted to be was a writer. So I packed my bags and rushed off to a Bible College to be a preacher. 

Dreams of being a fiction writer and preaching are a terrible combination. My messages were heretical and entertaining and after a few psych tests, it was time to leave college. I managed to convince a lovely woman, Tonya, to come with me, and after twenty years of marriage, we're still finding out the many ways we're opposites—i.e. I tested in Bible college that I would make a great pastor's wife, and she a great pastor. I like her. A lot. And I like our two kids. They're my joy and reasons and I misbehave vicariously through them.

When I was 25, I told my wife I was going to write a novel. I did, and it was so terrible I was tempted to write another. But knowing how to write was one thing—knowing what to write quite another. I rushed off to Boise State University, graduated with a degree in history, wrote a manuscript, sent it off to a contest put on by Jerry B. Jenkins, won a publishing contract with Worthy and $20,000, and kept writing. I think I'll die with my fingers on my keyboard, writing stories.

I love all great literature, specifically English Lit, especially Frankenstein, The Last Battle, The Seafarer, and Kubla Khan by Coleridge.

My faith, my family, my friends, and my fiction are my passions! Add bacon, and it's the perfect life!

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