About Author R.W. Holmen

RW "Obie" Holmen has deep midwestern roots in Scandinavian Lutheranism.  He received his K-12 education in a small town called Upsala, Minnesota, in the heart of Lake Wobegon country, playing the sport that was in season and participating in a wide variety of extracurricular activities that was only possible in a small high school.

In the fall of '66, Holmen matriculated at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.  After an interruption for a Viet Nam tour of duty as the triple-canopy-jungle equivalent of a cavalry scout (twice awarded a bronze star for valor in combat), he returned to Dartmouth to receive his bachelor's degree in history in 1972, earning summa cum laude honors his senior year. By then, he was married to Lynn, and they returned to Minnesota where Holmen enrolled in the University Law School, earning a juris doctor degree in 1975. He entered the private practice of law in St. Cloud, Minnesota, working as a civil trial attorney for the next twenty-four years, retiring in '99 to pursue a business opportunity in Caribbean tourism (which boomed before going bust).  In the early 90's, he spent a couple of years, part-time, as a graduate student with the Benedictines of St John's School of Theology in nearby Collegeville, Minnesota.  It was then that Holmen first considered a novel about Paul, and the idea festered until he finally put pen to paper a few years ago.

Obie has been married to Lynn for nearly forty years, and they have three adult children and one recent grandchild.  Lynn and Obie are lifelong Lutherans with leadership roles in their local and regional church bodies.