Tim ChamplinTIM CHAMPLIN was born in Fargo, North Dakota, only 80 miles from Jamestown, where Louis L'Amour was born twenty-nine years earlier. Similarities in their histories don't end there. Both have French/Irish ancestry and the fathers of both writers were arge-animal veterinarians€”a fact that may explain their mutual love of horses, buffalo, and other wild and domestic critters. Champlin grew up on the fringes of the old frontier in Nebraska, Missouri, and Arizona before moving to Tennessee. After earning a degree in English from Middle Tennessee State College, he went on to finish his master's at Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University). Living in the West fostered Champlin's lifelong interest in the Old West, which eventually led him to write historical fiction. After he sold magazine articles and short stories for ten years, Ballantine published his first Western novel in 1981. Today, with more than thirty novels to his credit, he is highly regarded for his well-researched stories that touch on almost every aspect of frontier America. Read More Read Less