The Seventh Birthday Wish

Bruce Arrington authored 16 books (36 if you count the foreign languages), including children’s illustrated Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Birthday Wish books. He wrote the Josh Anvil series, about a teenage boy who gets overcharged by unique abilities. And then there’s the Phalanx Blood Series about a guy named Bernard (not his real name) whose blood is the envy of the pharmaceutical world. The Legend of Skaluni and The Legend of Kalaj take you to another world with tribes, superstitions, and monsters. His first book of the Fallen Powers series is about a prince lost in a world of goblins and shapeshifters. He also wrote a futuristic screenplay about an Amish youth who has visions of himself saving the President of the United States from assassination while trying to dodge the draft. Bruce likes to take average, everyday characters, and upend their lives through unusual and powerful circumstances. He remembers having a vivid imagination and using a typewriter to start putting short stories together when he was young.

Bruce graduated from Oregon State University in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in wildlife science. From there, he worked in wildlife biology in North Dakota, Oregon, and Florida for about 15 years. After that, he taught in a small charter school for 16 years, and during that time his first published writings were published. He went on to earn his master’s degree in physical education and currently teaches PE to elementary school students.

His latest thrill includes ziplining in the tropics of Costa Rica and Mexico. 

Florence Jayne (1940-2021) graduated from Moore Institute of Art, Science and Industry (known today as Moore College of Art & Design), earning a BS degree in Art Education. She taught art and mechanical drawing in Pennsylvania until she moved to the Pacific Northwest, where she taught part-time and excelled in painting landscapes. Her favorite media was watercolor. In her later years she loved volunteering her time teaching art to children at a local school.