“I spent my early years on a small farm in the Oregon Coast Range where my grandparents once claimed an eighty-acre homestead. My parents had built a warm and welcoming home there, and we often had dinner guests. I heard enough stories of family adventures and misadventures to fill any author’s story-starter file. But the story I most wanted to tell is how each generation of my family claimed free land and slowly moved toward the west. After retiring from a satisfying career as a teacher I began writing that story, and continue to write from my home near my alma Marter, the University of Oregon.”