BIOGRAPHY
I was born in Columbus, Georgia and raised in the Atlanta area by two wonderful parents. My mom and dad made their four boys their top priority and celebrated the quirkiness of their third son who, as they said, "marched to the beat of a different drummer."
As a young child, I loved drawing and creating my own comic strips and newspapers. Even as an adult, I often found myself looking for excuses to dabble in writing and drawing to make others laugh through things like hand drawn Birthday and Valentine's Day Cards. My "Family Update" Christmas Letters often gravitated toward the bizarre. Even on a holiday occasion, I could not resist the chance to make others laugh. I simply could not help myself. While enjoying theme parks like Disney or Universal and finding myself surrounded by all of the characters and creativity, I always experienced a stirring in my soul — a feeling that I was created to be involved in a similar venture.
In the fall of 2001, I volunteered to read to my daughter's second grade class. I began by reading some of my favorites: Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein and Robert Munsch. Next, I started taking my guitar along with me to lead the children in sing-alongs that exalted the virtues of reading.
In my third month of volunteering, I wrote the first episode of The Adventures of Uncle Stinky, a tale originally intended only for the eyes and ears of that small class of second graders. It did not occur to me that there would be any kind of mass appeal, much less a book deal from a publisher.
Meanwhile, word about the "Reading Guitar Man" (a name my daughter gave me) got out at the school. I began going from classroom to classroom, then from school to school.
In March of 2003, I was blessed with the fulfillment of a childhood dream — an opportunity to be an author and illustrator of children's books. I signed a two-book deal with Tricycle Press (Berkeley, California) for The Adventures of Uncle Stinky.
Book 1, The Good, the Bad and the Smelly, was selected as one of Tricycle's top three selections for their spring 2004 catalog. Book 2, Stink Trek was released in the fall of 2004. Book 3, Moby Stink. Book 3 was released in the fall of 2005.
Becoming an author opened more doors to more schools. First, to schools in various counties in Georgia and then to schools across the southeastern United States. Over the past five years, I have made author visits to over 250 different schools and libraries in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and North Carolina. It is my dream to encourage children in schools in all fifty states and on all seven continents.
I have spoken to over 100,000 students over the last several years and have loved every minute of it. The "rest of the story" is that I struggled with a severe speech impediment of stuttering until the age of twenty-four. I went through a massive transformation during that year of my young adulthood. Though speech therapists were never really able to help me, I discovered that I could overcome and even choose fluency, if I so desired. The transformation did not happen overnight, but it did happen, and the process was almost overwhelmingly rewarding.
Even greater than my longstanding desire to speak freely, has been a passion for encouraging young people. I have worked with children, teens and their parents in various capacities over the last twenty-five years. It is my desire to spend the second half of my life investing in and encouraging the next generation to grow to be all that they were created to be.
I am husband to Cathy (a realtor dealing in Mountain Property) and father to Zachary (18) and Kara (14), two of the greatest kids on the planet (absolutely no exaggeration, you can ask my wife). Both Zachary and Kara are musicians and scholars.
I love the outdoors and grabbing bits of peace and quiet at my home in the North Georgia Mountains. I also find a euphoric release by running the hills of our mountain community.
I hope one day to have the luxury of enough time away from the desk to explore more deeply the arts of painting, sculpture and music.
For more insight into my adventures, visit me on the web at www.chrisrumble.com.
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