For David, that produces a broad spectrum of books because his education, work careers, and interests gave him a variety of perspectives. The result has been books on animals, food, love, traditions, and his many lists. He has also written for future books on stepdads, church finance, fathers, child development, and a historical family novel.
What genre is his audience? That’s broad too. It started with no audience as he only wrote for his own pleasure. But, after telling his daughter a story foundational to who he had become and having her respond with “I’ve never heard that before”, he wrote for an audience of one. Always the storyteller, his audience grew as people asked “Do you have that written down?”
At the core of all his work and writing is helping things grow. It started with himself and later extended to animals, plants, people and organizations. Growing up on a small Kentucky farm there were always animals around and crops to raise. In high school the told everyone he was going to be a veterinarian. That continued until he met organic chemistry in college and failed it twice before finally getting an A. Completing his undergraduate degree in agriculture, he went to seminary to prepare for being an agricultural missionary. That changed too when he was offered a position as campus minister at Wayne State University in Detroit. There weren’t any animals in his life during college, seminary, or Detroit, not even a goldfish.
The next twenty years he served as a campus minister in Indiana and as a national consultant for colleges and churches in organizational development. While working for a religious publisher he found himself making more business decisions than using his theology education and went back to school to get an MBA at Vanderbilt. This gave him opportunity broaden his consulting work and helping organizations grow to include strategic planning for nonprofits, churches, and independent schools.
The last twenty-five years of his career came after buying a twenty-one-bedroom country inn, one-hundred seat fine dining restaurant, conference center, and three-hundred-acre farm. He later built a wedding chapel for his daughter’s wedding. Several constants in all of his years have been animals, church life, and a priority for family life. They continue to nourish his life and writing as he and his wife, Claudia, live in Normandy, Tennessee with their Golden Retriever, Lane III, thirty cows, three hens, and a goose under a pear tree.
