About frank peretti biography book

Canadian-American author

Frank Edward Peretti (born January 13, 1951) is a New York Timesbest-selling author of Christian fiction, whose novels primarily focus on the supernatural and spiritual warfare. As of 2012, his works have sold over 15 million copies worldwide. He has been described by TheNew York Times as creating the Christian thriller genre. Peretti is best known for his novels This Present Darkness (1986) and Piercing the Darkness (1989). Peretti has held ministry credentials with the Assemblies of God, and formerly played the banjo in a bluegrass band called Northern Cross. He now lives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, with his wife, Barbara.

Biography

Frank E. Peretti was born in Lethbridge in southern Alberta, Canada, but raised in Seattle, Washington, for most of his life. As a child, he had a cystic hygroma, a facial tumor which affected his ability to speak until later receiving surgery and speech therapy. He became a natural storyteller who regularly told monster stories to neighborhood children. After graduating from high school, he began playing banjo with a local bluegrass group. He married his wife, Barbara, in 1972. Later, he studied English, screen writing and film at UCLA, and assisted his father in pastoring a small Assembly of God church on Vashon Island from 1978 to 1983, also taking construction jobs to make ends meet. While working as a pastor, teaching children at church camps "rekindled his interest in storytelling".

Writing

Early work

After leaving pastoring and while working at a ski factory, Peretti wrote and published a well-received adventure story for children, The Door in the Dragon's Throat (1985). A year later, he published This Present Darkness (1986), his most famous and popular novel to date. It was initially rejected by fourteen publishers before being picked up by Crosswa

PERSONAL: Born January 13, 1951, in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada; son of Gene E. (a minister) and Joyce E. (a homemaker; maiden name, Schneider) Peretti; married Barbara Jean Ammon (a homemaker), June 24, 1972. Education: Attended University of California—Los Angeles, 1976–78. Politics: Conservative. Religion: Christian. Hobbies and other interests: Carpentry, sculpturing, bicycling, hiking, music, aviation.

ADDRESSES: Home—ID. Agent—c/o Blanton/Harrell, Inc., 2910 Poston Ave., Nashville, TN 37203.

CAREER: Licensed minister; associate pastor of community church in Washington state, 1978–84; K-2 Ski Factory, Washington state, production worker (ski maker), 1985–88; writer and public speaker, 1986–. Has worked as a musician and storyteller.

AWARDS, HONORS: Gold Medallion Award, Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, and Readers' and Editors' Choice awards, Christianity Today, all for Piercing the Darkness.

WRITINGS:

"COOPER KIDS ADVENTURES" SERIES

The Door in the Dragon's Throat, Crossway (Westchester, IL), 1986.

Escape from the Island of Aquarius, Crossway (Westchester, IL), 1986.

The Tombs of Anak, Crossway (Westchester, IL), 1987.

Trapped at the Bottom of the Sea, Crossway (Westchester, IL), 1988.

The Secret of the Desert Stone, Word Publications (Nashville, TN), 1996.

The Legend of Annie Murphy, Word Publications (Nashville, TN), 1997.

The Deadly Curse of Toco-Rey, Word Publications (Nashville, TN), 1996.

Flying Blind, Tommy Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1997.

THE VERITAS PROJECT

Hangman's Curse, Tommy Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2001.

Nightmare Academy, Tommy Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2002.

OTHER

This Present Darkness (novel), Crossway (Westchester, IL), 1986.

Tilly (novel; based on his radio play), Crossway (Westchester, IL), 1988.

Piercing the Darkness (also see below), Crossway Books (Westchester, IL), 1989.

All Is Well, illustrated by Robert Sauber, Word (Dallas, TX)

For a writer who’s sold more than 12 million books, Frank Peretti is a bit at loose creative ends at the moment. The novelist, who recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Christian Fiction Writers, is working on a nonfiction book, and he doesn’t have a contract or publisher for it.

“God’s talking to me about a nonfiction book,” Peretti says. “That’s where the sparks are firing. I want to go where he wants me to go.”

In the 1980s, the sparks fired for a novel of spiritual warfare, This Present Darkness, in which demons and angels battled in a small town. Peretti’s supernatural thriller sold more than 2.7 million copies and spawned a generation of writers. “I hear a lot of ‘I’m a writer because of you,’ ” Peretti, who is 62, said at the ACFW conference where he received his award, held Sept. 13-15 in Indianapolis. “It’s not a bad feeling, but it sneaks up on you. You don’t ask for it.”

What’s currently sneaking up on him is what he calls, invoking biblical stories and metaphors, a dry season. He’s reading material about the critical issues facing evangelical Christian churches, taking an empirical bullet so that others don’t have to wade through studies and analyses. “I’m trying to write a book that’s an easy read,” he says. “The Lord’s bringing his church into a new season.”

His most recent novel, Illusion (2012), deals with a longtime husband-and-wife magic act whose partnership is not ended but altered when the wife, Mandy, dies in a car wreck. After finishing the novel, “there was a kind of postpartum depression,” Peretti says. Illusion also met a market expecting something other than a love story from someone who made his mark as a super