Thomas: Book Three of the St. Nicholas Chronicles (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781986879774)

Randy Adamson grew up at the corner of Fifth Street and Ninth Avenue on the north side of Greeley, Colorado. During his years growing up, the north side of Greeley housed a large portion of the city's Hispanic population. With a Greek mamma, his skin coloring allowed him to fit in well with many of his neighbors. There were not a lot of Greeks in Greeley then, but he found out that Hispanics, though separated by an ocean, had much in common with his mother's ancestors. Both cultures had a love of family and taught their children that their culture was the best in the world. Randy learned early on that when he embellished a story, it had more appeal to his listeners. When he began to write, he discovered that he got himself in a lot less trouble writing fiction than in trying to enhance a true story's weak plot. At one point he considered being a newspaper journalist. After two classes of journalism in college, he realized reporting the truth would not be something he could do with integrity, nor would he have as much fun as when he created his own reality. Little did he know then that that ability would become the mark of all of the nation's major newspapers reporters-inventing stories was the wave of the future in journalism. In his senior year in high school, Randy became aware of the reality that God did indeed exist, and if He existed, needed to be worshiped. His Bible reading helped him discover that he was intrigued by the Bible's backstories. Other possibilities were presented by his reading of Scripture. He became curious about the stones that would have sung out if the people around Jesus had not cried out, "Hosanna." What was life like for blind Bartimaeus and his buddy before and after they asked Jesus to heal them? There are only twelve verses about the wise men in Matthew. What prompted them to travel seven hundred miles to visit the baby Jesus, while the Jewish spiritual leaders who were three miles away in Jerusalem did nothing? Many of his books and short stories are the result of his musings about Biblical "What ifs?" Making up stories for his daughters, nephews, and nieces along with his years as a missionary to teenagers with Youth For Christ and even more years as a high school teacher, fueled his thinking and imagination for his writing in later life.