I am a lot of things. You can call me Dr. Peterson

I grew up in a dusty desert town in Utah, completed a liberal arts degree in Salt Lake City, studied and worked in journalism, then did a PhD in linguistics in Indiana. Now I am an English Professor in Finland, where I have worked and lived for 25 years.

I have written and edited a few anthologies on the English language and linguistics. This kind of work and writing requires my scientist brain. I have always been a writer, but for a long time the more personal kind of writing has been shut off, or at least set to a low volume. It turns out that countryside life released the creative side of my brain again, or perhaps it is more accurate to say that this move coincided with life events such as aging, therapy, and the death of my mother. Sometimes there are stories that need to come out. I am finally free enough to tell them.

I am the youngest of eight children. I am married. I have a child, a step-child, and a dog. I live in Helsinki and work in the Finnish city of Jyväskylä. My happy place is our cottage, which we were lucky enough to buy four years ago. We swim in the sea, bathe in the sauna, grow flowers, pick mushrooms and berries, and watch the sunsets.