Lawn Griffiths was a columnist, reporter and editor for 40 years in daily newspapers including 12 years with the Waterloo (Iowa) Courier where he was farm editor and Rural at Random columnist, which inspired this book. His last 28 years were with Arizona dailies. He earned a journalism degree from Iowa State University and master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. He served in the Peace Corps and U.S. Army. Lawn earned 80 writing or community leadership awards. His blog is Lawn Cares: Someone Has to Say It (Tempelawn.wordpress. com). He edits manuscripts, is a community volunteer and lives in Tempe, Arizona.