Jerry B. Jenkins was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on September 23, 1949. He is the author of more than 175 books including the Left Behind series, Riven, Matthew's Story, The Last Operative, and The Brotherhood. He is also the former editor of Moody Magazine, and his writing has appeared in Reader's Digest, Parade, Guideposts, and dozens of Christian periodicals. He wrote the nationally syndicated sports story comic strip, Gil Thorp, from 1996-2004. He owns Jenkins Entertainment, a filmmaking company in Los Angeles, which produced the critically-acclaimed movie Hometown Legend, based on his book of the same name. He also owns the Christian Writers Guild, which trains professional Christian… writers. As a marriage and family author and speaker, he has been a frequent guest on Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program.