Author's Bio

     Jan was born in Portland, Oregon.  At age seventeen, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy.  He spent twenty-five years in the Navy working in Naval Intelligence, where he honed his writing skills writing intelligence reports.  Jan retired from the Navy as a Chief Intelligence Specialist. During his Naval career he served on three different cruisers, and fourteen different aircraft carriers, ususally on Admiral's staffs.  During the Vietnam War he saw duty in the war zone several times and received various citations and awards.  Jan graduated from the University of North Florida in 1979, with a BA in History, and from the University of San Diego, School of Law, in 1984, with a JD degree. After practicing law for a few years, he quit the law business and entered into business in Mexico.  He now devotes his full time to writing.
     To date Jan has written five novels, four pre-teen chapter books, and three picture books for small children, as well as a book of original bedtime stories. One of his books, "The Legend of the Lost Tiki," won the Military Writer's Society of America's award as the best children's book of 2006, and another "Oliver, The Frog That Couldn't Croak," won the Silver Quill Award in 2009 from the American Author's Association. 
     Jan's hobby is collecting daggers and swords.   He has also written two reference books, one on Chinese Military Daggers and the other on Chinese Military Swords (in three volumes).  Jan is married to the former Teresa de Jesus Villela of Mazatlan, Mexico, and has six children and seven grandchildren.