STEPHAN L. Butler
I was born in Illinois during March of 1963, and am the oldest of five siblings. My mother was a bunny at the Playboy Sport club in Chicago. She married a school teacher and we moved to the Los Angeles area of California. We lived about a mile from the pier at Redondo Beach. After the Watts riots and other notable events we moved to the outskirts of Denver, Colorado. My passion as a kid was playing soccer, and building carts to race down our street from the scrap materials of nearby housing construction. After high-school I joined the Air Force and spent five years in northern Japan before returning to California, where I’ve been for over twenty years. I currently live in Napa Valley with my wife, son, and our dog.
WORK
Like most kids, I started with a paper route, moved on to several fast food and restaurant positions, and even cleared trees from the mountains for new roads. In the Air Force I was a firefighter, and spent most of my time on the Rescue truck. During my off days I taught skiing and raced. One of my students was from Japan, so I instructed her in Japanese and she offered me a job in the computer game industry. It led to positions with Lucasfilm and Disney where I produced entertainment software, and eventually to my own company in Tahoe. Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned, so I transitioned to the internet during the dot-com boom in San Francisco. At the same time I began working in construction. After the dot-com crash I obtained my California contractor’s license, and have been working the trades since (www.CallMyGuy.net).
FAITH
My mother was Jewish, but we grew up secular. I remember attending church by myself when we lived in L.A., but I didn’t go when we lived in Colorado. I was surrounded by several faiths while in the Air Force, and although I believed in God, I rarely attended any services. I started earnestly looking for a church to attend. I found one I liked, but ended up moving to Tahoe where I settled in and found a church I could call home.
After moving to San Francisco I found a church on television that made it clear a lot of the traditions and teachings of the church I was so endeared to were not as presented. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and set out to prove I had not been misled, but the deeper I dug the more it validated what I was confronting. This was the first time I started to see tangible differences between the denominations, and because I was in my 30s I was able to look at it without influence from family or friends.
Today I am a non-denominational Christian. I attend the same church I found on television in 1996, and our classes are Monday-Friday for an hour each day.
WRITING
Writing spawned as a natural result of my work and play. My gaming background helped me polish creative storytelling. My technology positions gave me the tools and know how to present my stories. My faith gave me the inspiration to communicate what I feel most compelled to share.
I started writing short essays on topics like the rapture, tongues, and the afterlife. Later I took on more challenging issues like human sexuality, or reconciliation of Genesis with the previous era of the dinosaurs. After the World Trade Center fell on September 11, I wrote an in-depth commentary on the positions brought forth by the attackers. From that point on I was hooked on developing my ability to write.
I’m a free thinker, but also a disciplinarian. I am a believer, but I don’t agree with the denominations. I write to present the reason we are here, and what is in store for us according to the scriptures. In doing so it becomes clear to the reader where biblical context departs from mainstream theology, and the reader is better prepared to make up their own mind about what to believe.
I continue to polish my commentaries, but have spent the past few years dedicated to writing fiction.