John's Biography

Novelist John H. Ritter grew up in the rural hills of eastern San Diego County along the Mexican border.

"I grew up in a baseball family," says John. "But we were also a family of musicians and mathematicians, house painters and poets. My dad was a sports writer in Ashtabula, Ohio, who moved the family out west, just before I was born, to become Sports Editor for The San Diego Union."

When John was four, his mother died of breast cancer, spurring his father to resettle the family in the rural, San Diego back country.

"One thing I remember about my mom is that she sang to us constantly, making up a song for each of her four children that fit our personalities perfectly. So from her, I got a sense of how to capture a person's spirit in a lyrical phrase."

Growing up in a sparse, mountainous region also helped stretch John's imagination. "Out in that country," he says, "there was a real sense of the spirits who walked the land in the centuries before. And being so cut off from other kids, I roamed the hills a lot, following hawks and eagles, climbing boulders, sitting in Indian caves. Rattlesnakes never bothered us much. But I felt the spirits everywhere. I think my mom, who was part Blackfoot Indian, had a lot to do with that."

Bob Dylan, the songwriter, also inspired John to write songs all through high school. "Probably more of my mom's influence," he says, "but I liked how Dylan wrote about life from a working class perspective, often with religious overtones—a blend of gospel and blues."

After high school, John attended the University of California at San Diego, where he played baseball and met his wife, Cheryl, who later became an elementary school teacher in San Diego. Like their grown daughter Jolie, who runs her own vacation rental service on the island of Kauai, John has always preferred the self-employed life, having been a custom painting contractor for 25 years. "Even so," he says, "I always 'booked' my calendar with time to write."

In 1994, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators honored John with the Judy Blume Award and a cash grant. Five years later, his first novel, Choosing Up Sides (Penguin Putnam) won the International Reading Association's Children's Book Award.

Now with five books published, John admits writing doesn't get any easier. But it's something he feels compelled to do, even on the difficult days.

"I think it's wrong to squander your gifts. Besides, I love using the rhythms and the musicality of language. These were given to me by both my dad and my mom, and were shaped by the mountains where I grew up. So I work hard on my writing, because that's one way I can honor them all."