Stephen Coombs was born in Williams Lake B.C. and now lives in the Okanagan Valley. Although he has worked most of his life as a carpenter, he has for many years considered himself to be a writer at heart. He has always enjoyed putting words together although he waited until he had a bit of life experience before trying to express too many of his thoughts and

opinions. Those thoughts and opinions are now communicated in the many stories and books of fiction he has written. Stephen admits that all of the characters in his stories have spoken to him, some in more words than others. It may sound strange but sometimes he feels like the stories not only write themselves, but they seem to demand being written.

There is an old saying that the world is carried on the back of a turtle. George Spottedback carried his world into Stephen's mind and demanded that it be written. The Legend of Turtle Bridge is George's story obediently written by the hand of the one he chose to write it.