Hi Kevin, thank you for taking time to answer a few questions. Incredibly, you are an author of best-selling children's books, a music composer with over a million streams on Pandora alone AND an award winning game inventor. Let's start with why and how did you get into the toy and game industry?

Well, let me first share that I grew up watching my mom and dad have friends over and play games. Dad loved Monopoly. They also played Password, Scrabble and Pit. Some of my aunts and uncles also played games. And my cousin and I spent hours playing Mancala and some card games. So, I was kind of hooked early on.

Both my mom and dad were teachers in the public school system. Dad taught 4th grade then went to Jr. High, then back to 3rd grade. He got into magic and used magic as a tool for teaching. He also did number of learning games in his classroom. His favorite was a dictionary game called STUMPERS. My mom started teaching 5th grade then went to Jr. High as a counselor - at MY Jr. High! She then moved to the High School as a biology teacher - at MY High School! When I got ready to go to college and choose my major, they gave me some advice - “don’t go into education! There’s no money - there’s no jobs.”

So, I listened to them and started pursuing a business degree. Two years of that and I changed to education. And, like my mom, I started teaching 5th grade. Back then, the classroom was a very open and creative place. So I was creating and using as many learning games as I could ‘cause it was pretty obvious that students would stick with a learning game much longer than a worksheet. Then it wasn’t too long into teaching when I heard about a local guy, I was in the Seattle area, that was pushing a game and low and behold some friends brought it over and we played it - Pictionary. Come to find out Rob Angel and I had been at Western Washington University at the same time as me. Anyway, I started thinking that maybe there was a game that could be played outside of the classroom. I shared an idea with a friend and we started developing it. We followed Rob’s model and produced some and hit the road.

Well, I was teaching and my buddy was working so we couldn't hit the road too hard. But Parents’ Choice got a hold of it and gave it the GOLD Award that year. We got it into a lot of the local stores and got a few TV spots and newspaper write-ups but the name and packaging really hindered it. Then came kids, so I didn’t pursue any outside-of-the-classroom projects for awhile. Eventually I developed two other games. I took them to the Seattle gift show and found a rep. company. It wasn’t but a week later that she called and said that she had an order from Barnes and Noble for 50,000 units. But, once again, I was teaching. I didn’t see how I could possibly fulfill that order. She suggested that I license the games off and gave me a contact. So I got the games licensed and sub-licensed to company in England. Unfortunately the company is no longer around but it was fun!

You are also an author. When did your books come about?

Well, I go back to my mom, again. At most every birthday, or other gathering we had, she would read a little poem she had written. So, that was instilled in me. It was in college when I started taking my education classes that I started writing beyond just poems for girls that I wanted to date. One of the guys in my dorm was an artist and he did some illustrations for a few of my early stories. But it was while teaching 5th grade that I wrote my first children’s book that would be published.

Before it was illustrated, I would read it to my students and they would draw pictures for it. I, of course, read it to my daughters every year, too. And I was always looking for someone to illustrate it. Well, low and behold, my youngest daughter graduated from Cornish School of the Arts and said, “Dad, do want me to illustrate Reindolphins?”

So, is Reindolphins your best seller and how did that story develop?

Yeah, as far as Children’s books, it is my best seller. Surprisingly strong community of dolphin lovers out there. But it has lots of animals in it so it appeals to all kids. The school I was teaching at was Lake Dolloff Elementary and we were the Lake Dolloff...Dolphins. One year the PTA president did up this newsletter with a picture of some dolphins wearing antlers. Yep, that did it. I also have series of brain teaser books called, Thinklers! Overall, they have been my biggest seller.

Do you have other children’s books?

Yes, I was able to get my daughter to illustrate one other book: How the Candy Cane Got Its Stripes. Then she had twin boys. Soon after they were born, I sat with her and we looked at the books she had already gathered for them - the classics. As we looked at the classics and read through them she said, “Dad, I think you should re-do these”. So, yeah, I kept the gist of the stories - put them into verse and changed a few things. The wolf from the 3 pigs does not get boiled - Chicken little does not get eaten by the fox. Nor does the Gingerbread man! And artist Jessica Warrick did fantastic job bringing the stories to life.

And I think I recently saw something about you and music?

Well, back to my dad. He got me a guitar in high school and I’ve had one ever since. Used it a fair amount while teaching 5th grade. Growing up I also had a friend that I met at my church and we would sneak away to a piano in the basement. He showed me how to play some Elton John songs. My grandparents had a baby grand that I would spend hours tinkering around on. Then electronics came about and I got into synthesizers and midi-sequencers.

So do you have a band and perform and what is the genre?

Nope. Nothing live. I only compose and arrange. Putting it all together - adding all the layers etc. that has always intrigued me. As far as genre, hmm, Pandora has labeled it New Age and Chill. I call it background music, as there are no vocals in it. And I always say that it is great music to have on for game nights! Nothing too, distracting. Haha.

So it is on Pandora?

Yes, it is now. I have been composing since the 80’s. And, while I was teaching, I had a few Cd’s produced. A local newspaper got word of this (okay, I called them). But they did a little write up on me and the local Borders Book store carried them. And one day I was in a new dentist office and the hygienist asked if I wanted to listen to something while she worked on me and in their collection was one of my CD’s.

Then about a 2 years ago we had some friends over to play test some games and the gal said; "Hey, this is nice music." I said, “ Oh, well that is me.” She then went on to tell me how to get a distributor. It is now distributed to over 12 streaming services. And, I just recently hit a million streams on Pandora. The other services don’t give me a breakdown of streams.

Are there other interests you have?

Well, nothing else marketable. But since moving to Arizona, from the Seattle area, I have definitely spent more time playing tennis, POP tennis, and pickleball.

My wife and I walk the dogs, bike, hike, play ping-pong and shoot pool. And we have LOTS of game nights.

What are you spending most of your time on?

That depends on when you ask me. I go in phases. There will be weeks that my wife has to pull the headphones off me while I am composing to get me to walk the dogs. Then there are weeks of asking her every couple of hours, “can we test this game new out, now?” Lately, with grandkids that are 7 (twin boys), a 4 year old and a 1 year old, I am spending a lot  me finishing some games that I want to make sure they play. Most of these will not even get pitched but, they will get played.

Will we be seeing you again at the POP conference in Chicago?

For sure! It is such a wonderful event - love everything about it. There is nothing like real face to face time with other industry colleagues and friends. And the TAGIE’s night is always a good  me and memorable.