Jon Christensen

I have been writing since I was about 14 years old. To begin with, it was only for my own amusement and that of a few select friends. Then, many years later, my wife read some of my squirreled away material and, as is said: unrest was born.

Being an inveterate minimalist, short stories seem to be my forte. I have written a novel length book, but even that is only about 170 pages. Hey, The Thirty-nine Steps was about the same length, so I am in decent company.

The genre I write short stories in is fairly varied: fantasy, mystery, and others that seem to defy the usual genre classifications.

I am also an essayist and poet, and my book, Flights into Fear and other tidbits contain an eclectic mixture.

Although war stories have never been a favourite of mine, I was so inundated by constant news stories of the Middle East wars of several years ago, that a germ of an idea was planted. That germ developed into the novel: Flight into Folly. The almost two years of research was fascinating and gave me a clearer view of all aspects of wars and the people they impact the most. I tried to put more of a human face to the story than merely to write about man's greatest inhumanity to man. I believe I was successful.

Mentioning my first book last: Flights of Fancy, is a short book of some of my first short stories. I felt it was a good type of book to take on a trip, because it isn't cumbersome in size or in content. Although not pocket sized, it can easily be tucked away for a mid-trip nap ~ if you can sleep after reading some of those stories!