Michael Shaughnessy

I am originally from Minnesota and know how to dress in -40 degree temperatures. I have been doing Christian youth-work since I was 19 and was one of the first Catholics to work as Area Director for Young Life.

I write a monthly newsletter on youth culture (http://kairos-na.org/YouthCulture_News) and am the founder of Grandly: The Strategic Grandparents Club (www.grandly.org).

Home, for me, has been: Orono, Collegeville, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ann Arbor, Michigan, London, England, Belfast N.I. and Lansing, Michigan.

I began writing The Red Madonna in 1998 and had more or less finished it by 2002. I will soon be followed by the follow-up novel, The White Judas.

I am also the author of A Concise Catholic Catechism, a contributor to How to be Ecumenical Today, and the creator of iPray -- an aid to daily prayer.

I am a leader in the Servants of the Word, an ecumenical brotherhood of men who live the vows of celibacy, simplicity and obedience.

My vices are golf, pistachios, chocolate, and single malt scotch. Someday I will repent of them.