Hello everyone! Alycia here. This is the first edition of a series of posts that, quite honestly, are some of my favorite to share with you. Last year, we called them Friday Faculty Five posts. This year, we’re calling them Saturday Six.

These are posts that will help you get to know our 2018 BRMCWC faculty on a whole new level. We’ve asked our faculty to share six things you may find fun or interesting to know about them. If you’re worried about what to talk about when you sit down for a 15-minute appointment, worry no more. We’ve got some ice breaking information for you!

Without further ado, let’s get the introductions going! This week, for our first edition, we have Steven James, Alton Gansky, Bob Hostetler, James Watkins, and agents Steve Laube and Jim Hart.

Steven James

1 – I write standing up with a cup of coffee on my right side. If it’s on the left side, it throws me off!
2 – For more than a decade, I only set my alarm clock to a prime number.
3 – The most challenging thing I’ve ever done was running a 50K trail race. I was sooooo tired!
4 – I hope there will be chocolate in heaven. That and coffee—I can’t stand the thought of eternity without them.
5 – I love social media as much as I think clowns are funny.
6 – I write myself to tears maybe once a year—and that is usually the part of the book readers connect with the most.

Alton Gansky

1 – I’m a grate editar.
2 – I collect typewriters. I have about 50 of them. I’ve made videos of many of them. No, it’s not an addiction. It’s not, it’s not, it’s NOT!
3 – Every night I have hyper-real dreams and am often surprised that I was in bed the whole night. At least I think I was. The muddy footprints on the carpet are still a mystery.
4 – I have written over 50 books. Two of them are good.
5 – I used to be a firefighter. I also used to work at McDonalds, at a bank, as a campus cop, spent a decade in architecture, was a pastor for 22 years, and still think I’m thirty-five.
6 – I turned 65 last February, and as I feared, my youthful self no longer shows up for work.

Bob Hostetler

1 – I graduated in the top ten of my high school class. There were nine of us.
2 – My grandchildren call me “Crappaw.” My kids think it’s totally appropriate.
3 – I sang in the Cincinnati Boychoir, back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
4 – I know all the words to The Beatles’s “Rocky Raccoon.” And the Eagles’s “Hotel California.” And Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Auld Lang Syne.”
5 – I can still fit into the hat I wore in high school.
6 – My first “byline” was in Highlights for Children. When I was eight years old. Actually, it wasn’t a byline, but it was my name in print. And it was for a joke. A joke I plagiarized.

James “Jim” Watkins

1 – I sang on a Christian television program during high school and college.
2 – I’ve spent time in jail and the closed sections of psychiatric wards.
3 – I lived in a girls dorm for six years.
4 – My wife and I traveled the United States for two years with our muppet, magic, and music program, “The Platypus Players.”
5 – I’ve worked as a hair model at beautician conventions.
6 – I’ve spoken around the world, from a circus tent to a theater that featured me during the morning and adult films in the evening.

Steve Laube

1 – As a kid, I skated to elementary school in my hockey skates to save time when I arrived (the streets and sidewalks were often iced over). Just stepped onto the rink to play hockey before the bell rang. (in Alaska)
2 – I swam in the “Toilet Bowl” many times in Hanauma Bay, Hawaii. (click here to understand) Now closed to the public.
3 – Favorite comfort food: Popcorn
4 – Was caught in Typhoon Rita (Category 5) in Hong Kong in 1978
5 – My first official paying job was stuffing envelopes at my Dad’s office for a week. Paid $1.89 an hour. (I was rich!)
6 – Have traveled to 36 of the 50 States.

Jim Hart

1 – I’m a musician with a small home recording studio. And I’m obsessed with reverb and delay pedals. I’ve been thinking of changing my name to JimJimJimJimJim.
2 – One of my favorite series is Frank Herbert’s Dune books. When I first read them in the 1980s, I made my co-workers call me Muad’Dib.
3 – I love fish tacos.
4 – I’ve lived in California, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Colorado, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
5 – I prefer the Oxford Comma.
6 – I’m afraid of riding the Megabus.