Jack Scheffler Innis

The impulse to write hit Jack early in life. At age 10, Jack authored sketch comedy routines for the amusement of his family—with the possible exception of his younger brother Steven, who was shoehorned into becoming a co-star. Despite his penchant for writing, Jack did not excel in school and, in fact, dropped out of high school at age 15 following his parents’ divorce. Jack returned to school the following year, graduated in 1969, and was drafted into the Army. Rather than participate as a foot soldier in a land war in Southeast Asia, Jack enlisted in the Navy and served two tours of Viet Nam aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise. During his spare time aboard ship, Jack read (most of the ship’s small library), drew cartoons, and wrote satirical works, none of which were published.

After the war Jack worked a variety of jobs and attended community college — as an author, these were his dark years — until he began freelance writing in 1990. Finally finding his calling, Jack continued writing and returned to college. In 1994 he took his bachelor’s degree in Literature and Writing from California State University, San Marcos, and soon became well regarded as a freelance writer and editor with bylines in numerous national and local newspapers and magazines.

In 1999, Jack’s career as a Legend Hunter began when a magazine publisher gave him free rein — and every column inch in one entire publication — to tell history his way. Eschewing convention, Jack opted to hunt the annals of history to uncover legends, stories, and myths that were simply too fascinating to find in typical history books. The small magazine sold 10,000 copies and spawned subsequent books and articles about stories once only told around campfires in the days before history — stories that to this day help give roots to our tribes and make us feel more human.

In 2000, Jack won the San Diego Press Club's First Place Journalism Award for News Writing for his story, "City Makes Island Grow Under Light of Moon: Project Just Subterfuge to Create Land Mass, Critics Claim."

Jack’s life as a Storyteller began in 2004 when a publisher shoehorned him (what goes around, comes around) into a guest appearance on a live PBS radio show, which he describes as “a terrifying event for a first-time author with no public speaking experience.”

More than 100 radio, television, and live presentations later, the twitch in Jack’s left eye from that first appearance has nearly gone away.

Today, Jack uses history as raw material for newspaper and magazine articles, books, mini-books, short fiction, and a soon-to-be-completed first novel. He hopes that you'll enjoy the stories posted on his web site www.jackinnis.com.

Jack appreciates each and every one of his readers and enjoys reading comments and answering questions.