Dear Jeff: Candid Advice from an Older Brother on Preparing to Enter the Temple
-- WHO IS J WASHBURN? -- J is the author of ECKSDOT, INKLINGS, and DEAR JEFF (with several more on the way). Born in Page, Arizona, practically on the Navajo Reservation, and raised in Idaho with his several siblings, J began writing stories when he was about three. When he wasn't writing, he spent his childhood living the adventures described in his books. He earned a Bachelor's of English from Brigham Young University-Idaho and a Master's of English from Brigham Young University. Aspiring to be a renaissance man, he has worked as a lawn mower, a concrete pourer, a street preacher, a meta-physicist, a typographer, a graphic designer, a usability designer, a warrior poet, and even an English teacher. He suffers from chronic somnia. -- WHAT KIND OF A NAME IS J? -- (Okay, moving to first-person now.) No, I'm not trying to copy J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling. J really is my first name--my whole first name. Nope, not J-A-Y. Not J with a period (abbreviating it makes it longer). It starts and ends with J. Just J. It's also true that if you throw a pen at a paper from at least five feet away, it nearly always spells my name. "But what kind of a name is J?"--you're still asking. Well, I'll tell you. There was once a man named Melvin J. Ballard (whose middle name was Joseph, but he liked to abbreviate it). My grandpa was named J Ballard Washburn in honor of this man. But he just got the J (without the period). I was named after my grandpa, and I just got his J. Which is nice. After all, brevity is the soul of wit. -- HOW CAN SOMEONE CONTACT J? -- If you want to contact me, circle me on Google+.