75 ratings | 2 reviews | avg rating:4.60

Stephen Edward Paper’s Followers (19)

Stephen’s Bookshelves

to-read (1)
currently-reading (1)
read (76)

Stephen’s Friends (36)

Peggy Geiger

20,763 books | 1,068 friends

Sam

10,797 books | 802 friends

Robert Enzenauer

3,855 books | 80 friends

Melissa Arbiter

405 books | 77 friends

Ari Cohen

72 books | 100 friends

Ali Harris-Turk

21 books | 45 friends

Louise Silverman

192 books | 27 friends

Debby Merickel

0 books | 13 friends

More friends…

Stephen Edward Paper

Goodreads Author

Born

Wadena, Minnesota, The United States

Website

http://www.stephenedwardpaper.com

Genre

Historical Fiction, Humor and Comedy, Horror

Member Since

October 2015

edit data

I was born in Wadena, a small town in northern Minnesota, where I spent a lot of my early years tying bowlines and trimming deer hides for my dad, reading comic books, shoveling snow, canoeing, scouting and driving my mom crazy while fighting with my two brothers.

My parents fostered a love of reading in my brothers and I at a very early age–most likely to get some peace and quiet. From regular Superman and Batman type comic books we graduated to classic comic books. Around the age of thirteen, I began to read the actual books that the classic comic books condensed. When I read Lord Jim, Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn I knew I had to write something. I still think the beginning of Lord Jim and the beginning of Moby Dick are the best two open I was born in Wadena, a small town in northern Minnesota, where I spent a lot of my early years tying bowlines and trimming deer hides for my dad, reading comic books, shoveling snow, canoeing, scouting and driving my mom crazy while fighting with my two brothers.

My parents fostered a love of reading in my brothers and I at a very early age–most likely to get some peace and quiet. From regular Superman and Batman type comic books we graduated to classic comic books. Around the age of thirteen, I began to read the actual books that the classic comic books condensed. When I read Lord Jim, Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn I knew I had to write something. I still think the beginning of Lord Jim and the beginning of Moby Dick are the best two openings of any books I’ve come across; they hook the reader. If I could write one opening page even approaching them I’d be happy. Of course, then I’d have to get that second page, and the next…

If you aim low, the highest level you’ll get to is pedestrian, so you might as well aim for perfection. Even if you fall miserably short you still could be better than mediocre. I don’t know if that makes me an optimist or pessimist. My parents always said I liked to have it both ways.

Much later came a love of sports. I started late and gradually came to tennis; it was then that I began the search for that perfect down the line backhand. Growing up I liked to see the world through books, and those books inspired me to want to see everything I read about, from Thermopylae and the legendary site of Troy to the Galapagos Islands and "The End Of The World" in Sri Lanka and a few places in between. What better way to explore this world than to coach and play tennis all over it? Picture playing tennis at an old colonial hill station in southern India where if you chased a ball into the brush you might meet up with a cobra or playing at a Peruvian city on the Amazon and hoping your opponent from Sendero Luminoso doesn’t show. After studying English, History and Classics at the University of Minnesota, I trained and worked three different jobs to make enough money to travel and play tennis in the “minor leagues.” With a short detour hitchhiking around Mexico after a car accident, I went to India and began to compete. You might be thinking you never heard of me and that makes sense. I never made the limelight though I still maintain I could have won Wimbledon if I’d gotten enough defaults. The good thing is I’ll probably have two books on account of those travels, one about Mexico and the other about India.

I currently live in Encino, California and divide my time between writing and running a tennis program at a country club. But enough about me. Enjoy the books. ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Stephen Edward Paper questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Stephen Edward Paper’s books

Average rating: 4.13 · 31 ratings · 9 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	An Army Lost (The Fallen Timbers Series, #1) 3.79 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2014 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Highgate: The Last Knight of St. John 3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Waiting On Fidel: or How I Almost Hitchhiked To Mexico City 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hostages (The Fallen Timbers Series #2) 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fallen Timbers 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tripoli 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars