Jay Henry Peterson grew up as a farm kid on the northern Great Plains. He milked cows, handled beef cattle, hogs and chickens and spent many hours on tractors and other equipment planting and harvesting small grains, corn and soybeans.

He began writing as a teenager, creating whimsical poems and stories to amuse his high school classmates. Most of that unpublished writing has been lost. After being passed around by his classmates, much of it was wadded up and tossed in the trash basket in some classroom.

He often wrote sports and feature articles for his high school and college newspapers. His college years were interrupted when he was called to serve in the United States Army, a time that included a year in combat operations in the swamps and jungles of South Vietnam. He returned to college after the service and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism.

During a professional career of more than four decades as a printing and publications executive his writing was largely confined to business projects.

Jay Henry Peterson is retired. He recently returned to writing for pleasure, this time concentrating on short stories and novels. He and his wife live in Arizona.