Stephen Lloyd-Davies

Stephen Lloyd-Davies was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he attended primary, middle, and high school. After high school graduation, he worked seasonally for the US Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest as a firefighter, including 7 seasons as a smokejumper. He attended college during the winters and graduated from the University of Idaho with a BS in Zoology, and from the University of Washington School of Medicine with an MD. He completed a residency in Family Practice in Grand Junction, CO, in 1989. He practiced medicine, mainly as an Urgent Care physician, in the Inland Northwest until he retired in 2016 due to Parkinson's Disease.

Steve has been an avid outdoorsman, with interests including hunting, fishing, boating, river rafting, lake kayaking, technical climbing, mountaineering, snow skiing, gardening, photography, journaling, snorkeling, camping and hiking. Many of these activities have been curtailed due to the Parkinson's. Like many of us, he talked for years that he was "gonna write a book about this someday....". He previously authored 2 short stories about humorous experiences as a smokejumper.

He met his co-author, Nancy Myers, in the summer of 2014, shortly after she had been given a little black puppy she named "Raven". They raised Raven together through many hilarious adventures and mishaps. Raven is Steve's first dog and Nancy's second, and they have discovered that no matter how many books you read about dogs or how many DVD's you watch, or how many training classes you attend, there is always another twist to the journey. Raven has brought a tremendous amount of adventure, humor, and joy to their lives. Their children's book is an attempt to share that with the world.

Parkinson's presents a unique challenge for a writer, especially when, as in Steve's case, it affects his dominant left side. It is amazing how fast that tremor can put twenty "a's" on a page. He is very grateful for modern word processing software, and especially for the "Delete" and "Backspace" keys!