Why I am the way I am
My biography
1960s
Brought into the world and gifted with wonderful parents. Made a decision to become a Christian as a six year old.
1980s
Employed as government security in the defense industry. Worked a short time as a private investigator and as an executive bodyguard before starting my own interactive training company. Met and married the love of my life. Started my several unfinished novels. Very involved in several churches over two decades.
2000s
Sold training company and started working for global consulting company running their training business. Spoke at numerous tradeshows, conferences and corporations and wrote numerous articles. Published non-fiction as an contributing author. Started writing fiction seriously.
2017
Having a ball with four grown children, the fetching Mrs. Jacobsen and a career I love. Publishing my first novel, "Urim" after four joyful and painful years of writing and editing. My dad says it best, "Sometimes it's more fun to have written, than to write."
What I do
...as an author
- My favorite thing in the world is to travel internationally with my wife. Our travels inform and influence the settings in my writing. Most of the settings in Urim including Rome, Israel, Portugal come from places we visited - including the amazing setting for the Urim's climax. It's a real place!
- The best advice I received was from my wife's best friend. "Stop editing and just write." Without that advice I would still be re-editing the first chapter of another unfinished novel. Thanks, Judy-Jude!
- My desire is to tell a great story with mystery, action and a strong supernatural influence. I also want to show that despite the fact that we're all imperfect, Christians are mostly good people and marriages can still be romantic after 20 years. Finally, I'm tired of the neo-Christian anti-hero that's so flawed they don't reflect Christ at all.
- The result of all this, is "Urim"
Recognition from the industry
awards
Semi-finalist 2016 Genesis Awards
My first novel made the top seven in this national contest for unpublished authors. Oh yeah!
Here's hoping
...that someday I'll have something to put here too.
Fill 'er up
And it would be great to fill this page up! Ah, one can always dream...
Links
Advice & Resources
Advice
Who am I, an unpublished author, to dispense writing advice? I've only progressed to being consciously incompetent... Still interested? OK, here's my best advice. Just start writing. Learning about writing — without any practice — simply leads to better-educated incompetence. In the training industry we know you only get good at something by practice. To get really good it takes 10,000 hours. So start writing.
If you're writing already, then learning about how to write better is really valuable. In Minneapolis we have great resources like The Loft. It's a literary center where you can take classes, get feedback and even win local recogntion and awards. I'm also a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association where there are tons of resources as well as local chapters throughout the country.
I also try and read (or listen to) at least one helpful book a month. I recommend that you choose a book that's appropriate to the weakest part of your writing game.
Resources
Best web marketing group ever! Hill Web Marketing is tight with Google and level 2 certified. Jeannie Hill really knows her stuff.
So excited about my professional editor. Ashley Schwartz edits for best-selling author Steven James and just landed her own agent. Congrats Ashley! And thanks for being brutal with your red pen...
