Tim Garrison

Though, as a kid, my family teetered on the brink of constant poverty, my childhood was rich indeed. My three brothers and I grew up on a 76-acre cattle ranch in Modesto, California. Our milk and butter came from the Jersey cows we milked. We seldom had store-bought meat because our beef and pork were provided by the cattle and hogs we raised. And in the summer our huge garden sustained us. It was a lot of work but it was also a heck of a lot of fun. We built hay forts, tree houses, even forts inside giant blackberry bushes. We rammed around in the dirt and mud, played sports in the cow pastures, and learned how to weld, hammer, and saw. Our swimming hole was the irrigation canal. My first car was a beat up ’65 Mustang that I rebuilt myself. Too bad I totaled it before my seventeenth birthday.

The ring-leader for all of this was my dad, who should have been a cripple, but wasn’t. He lost his left arm to gangrene at age-8 and never used a prosthesis. So my brothers and I were the kids with the one-armed-dad. Cripple? My dad? The thought never entered my mind. He coached my little league teams, and led us in every work task. He could out-hoe, out-split (firewood), just plain out-work any man around. And as I write this in ’08, he’s still doing it, though at a slower pace and on only 10-acres instead of 76. On a good day, he can still whup me in golf. My dad is the source of my tenacity and willpower. He is an inspiration.

You can’t talk about my dad without speaking of my mom. Married 50 years, she has literally been Pop’s right (okay, left) hand. She held the nails while he pounded them, carried the other end of the railroad tie, milked the cows and slopped the hogs. But most importantly, mom was the nurturing element in my life.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I value family above all else. Thank you, mom and dad, for that all-important life lesson.

My professional life started with a few degrees in engineering. Writing couldn’t have been further from my mind. I worked in the public sector first then became a business owner at the tender age of 32. After about eight years of being owned by my consulting business, I reckoned there had to be a better way. So I started a software company. To help market software, I created a few seminars. In about 2000, I was struck with the writing bug and started the Collin Chronicles.

My current hobby is coaching my two son's sports teams. I played sports growing up and have an affection for, particularly, basketball, baseball and golf.

I enjoy traveling and learning about local history and people. It turns my crank understanding what causes an area to prosper, and also what causes it to wither. I can spend more time in a museum than is humanly tolerable by any wife or kid.

My current reading interests involve intriguing people. I just finished books on Shakespeare, Will Rogers, Milton Hershey, and Mark Twain. I also enjoyed Satchel Paige's life story, and the Aerosmith book, "Walk This Way". I thoroughly enjoy Tolkien and Patrick McManus. But perhaps my favorite book of all time is “The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus” (Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox stories) by Joel Chandler Harris. Is that eclectic enough?

If I had more time, I’d putt around more on my trials motorcycle. Trials riding is slow, over difficult terrain. I’d also spend more time with my gal, Cindy, in our garden. On rainy days, I’d pick up my guitar and play. Electric guitar. I was a child of Van Halen and Led Zeppelin and still enjoy banging my head to that genre. However, because I’m slipping into old-fartdom, the music that plays most frequently in our house is classical, with jazz coming in a close second. My sons (ages 13 and 15) aren’t cool with that.

Regarding what I watch on the tube, well, put it this way, if I entered a TV trivia contest, I’d come in last place.

Becoming an author is a lonely, hungry, verrrrry long road. But it is my passion and regardless of my success or lack thereof, I foresee many more years in front of my laptop, happily plicking, plicking, away.