Mark Sawyer

Mark Sawyer's life turned out "crazy" compared to what he expected. As he grew up, once he realized life as a cowboy or in pro football wasn't going to happen, he thought he'd end up married, with kids, in a small town, teaching history and coaching baseball and football.

Instead, he ended up living and working around the world--Europe (first in the US Army), Japan, South Korea, and to Thailand, India, Indonesia, Australia, East Africa, and ... "If you'd told me I'd be riding elephants up mountains in the Burma Triangle, trekking in Nepal, kayaking in Berowra, bouncing on a camel up King Solomon's Road where the Negev meets the Sinai above the Red Sea, or any of that, I would have said, 'You're nuts.'" Except that is how it turned out.

He ended up living a "writer's life," traveling to many places, meeting unforgettable people, and hearing stories too strange to be fiction. That things took a spiritual turn was perhaps the biggest surprise of all.

One thing, though. To be spiritual does not mean one is not of the world, too. To Mark, there is not contradiction in writing about sharers of spiritual truths and detectives tracking down horrible murderers. "It's all part of this world."