Greg Roesberry

A Ranch in Othello

Greg Roesberry was born in Boise, Idaho, but spent most of his growing-up years in Othello, Washington, where his family had an irrigated cattle ranch. They raised alfalfa, sugar beets, and beans, but cattle was the main cash crop. Greg loved working with the cattle, and he often dreamed of owning a cattle ranch someday.

The Runaway and the Dog

When he was ten years old, he had a terrible fight with his older brother Jack. He eventually gave up, but he was still mad at Jack, so he decided to run away to work on a horse ranch. He knew that Ellensburg, Washington, had some beautiful horse ranches, so he took his dog Skip and his good sense of direction and started cross country toward Ellensburg.

He could have gotten hurt, or frozen in the cold night air. But luckily for him, his older brother Charles was driving in from Seattle that day to see the family. Charles recognized Skip on the roadside and started slowing down. Then he saw Greg, and stopped the car. He brought them both home.

Reading Half the Night

Greg's other love — besides cattle and being outdoors — was reading. Sometimes he would stay up all night with a book. His first ones were about animals: Call of the Wild, White Fang. He read a lot of Westerns, too.

Then, when he was sixteen, his brother handed him The Lord of the Rings. From that day on he was a fan of fantasy. He loved reading about dragons, elves, wizards, and other magical creatures, and those books opened his mind to a great many imaginary things.

Thirty Days and a Very Vivid Dream

Greg wrote his first book, Yuri, the Legend of the Gifted, in 2012, out of a very vivid dream he had one night. When he started telling his wife Jan about it, she told him to write it down — it was a very good story.

He wrote every day, as fast as he could, for thirty days, and finished the rough draft. At first he was only going to give it to the grandchildren. Jan convinced him it should be published. Two more books have likewise flowed out of him since, completing the adventures of Yuri.

Greg lives with Jan, still keeps a fondness for cattle and open country, and writes the kind of book he would have stayed up all night to read at thirteen.