About The LDS Ghostwriter

I'm Jonathan, The LDS Ghostwriter, dedicated to helping you share your memoir, business book, or self-help book from a perspective that resonates with your LDS faith and culture.

Jonathan was awesome to work with, and I love the book he helped me write.

Calvin M.

Here's a little about me:

In the beginning. I was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. I was the youngest of three, born to parents (pictured) who joined the Church when I was five or so. After high school, I attended Ricks College for a year (as it was then known) and then went to BYU for a year.

My mission. Feeling like I was missing out on something, since almost all of my roommates had been returned missionaries, I finally decided to go on a mission. I worked for the phone company for a few more months while I was waiting for my call and saving up money.

And then one day, I got my call: Kobe Japan.

I was excited to go to Asia, and although Hong Kong had been my first choice, I decided that Japan would do.

My mission was tough. I had read the Book of Mormon and had a strong testimony before I left, but the work was not easy, because Japan is probably the least Christian industrialized nation on earth. Still, I worked hard and did my best.

I learned the language well and served as a senior companion for most of my mission (starting at six months out) and eventually served as a district leader.

Despite the difficult proselyting in Japan, I even had a few baptisms.

College. After I returned home, I went straight back into BYU where I eventually graduated with a B.A. in political science.

Utah is something of a second home to me, given that I lived there during my undergrad and again when I went to grad school at the University of Utah. After I got my master's in English, I again returned back east to the Washington, DC area where I worked for many years as a technical writer.

Marriage and family. A few years later, finding myself still single and not getting any younger, I found a job that put me back in Utah, this time in Salt Lake City, where I soon met and married my wife, who ironically was also from the DC area (she too had moved out west) and was someone I had known and dated there.

We lived in Sugar House and later in Ogden, and we now live in live in Little River, South Carolina, which is near Myrtle Beach and close to the North Carolina border. We have a boy and a girl. My son has autism, so I know a bit about that particular set of challenges. My daughter inherited my father's art talent, so I hope that she can someday follow in his footsteps.

Challenges. We all deal with adversity, and I've had my share as well. I’ve suffered from depression, and a few years back, my wife and I lost twin baby boys when she was only 21 weeks along.

Becoming a ghostwriter. I got my start as a ghostwriter during a business networking meeting back in 2013 when a ghostwriter attended as one of our guests. As soon as I heard the word ghostwriter, I felt like I had found my next career journey.

Since then I've been helping my clients, both LDS and non-LDS, to write memoirs, business books, and self-help books.

My philosophy on writing. My philosophy on writing good books is this: I feel that the most effective books tell stories, even if they are nonfiction books. We humans have been telling stories for as long as we've been able to speak, and nothing can grab a reader's attention or deliver a point or lesson better than a well-told story.

I love helping write nonfiction because I am interested in so many subjects and am a generalist at heart. I find entrepreneurship, business, sales, earth science, history, and the arts to all be interesting topics, both to read and to write about.

Livin' in the South. While I miss much about Utah, I enjoy having more air to breathe (living so close to sea level), and I like the easier pace of life and the friendliness of most people here in South and North Carolina (we live just 1.5 miles from the North Carolina border).

Fun stuff. It's not all work for me, of course. In my off hours I love reading, movies, dining out, and cooking great meals with my wife, who taught me how to cook.

Ready? And so, if you're LDS, or you don't mind that I am, and want to hire a ghostwriter who tries to live according to eternal principles and who values his faith and culture, you have come to the right place.

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