A native of Utah, Steven J. Clark’s first published writing was a short story that appeared in his Jr. High School yearbook when he was in the eighth grade. However, his youthful early success hit a quick brick wall just a couple of years later. Although he enjoyed casually writing stories and poetry at a tender young age, he actually flunked two quarters of high school English because in his youthful exuberance for such overwhelmingly important things as sports, music, fishing, hunting, and, of course, girls, he just couldn’t get his head into the process of writing the required term research papers. They were the only two failing grades of his primary and secondary education.

His next serious writing adventure came while, as a young man, he was serving as a missionary for his church in the North Central United States and parts of Central Canada. At age 20 he wrote what the missionaries called a “discussion” script that his mission leaders picked up and published for use by other missionaries.

The ensuing years saw him marry and serve in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. Although the marriage ended some years later, Mr. Clark became the father to four beautiful Children, Rebecca Jane, Carrie Denise, Darren McKay and Ryan Jack.

Mr. Clark has been engaged in a variety of business enterprises ranging from sales and distribution, to the manufacture of a successful line of fiberglass spas in the early 80’s, to fish farming, to owning and running a steel products fabrication plant. He, along with his friend and partner, Jim Oliver, created and designed the first earthquake resistive bracing system for mobile homes ever certified by the State of California, then he went on to design and patent a unique line of earthquake resistant foundation piers for mobile homes that have been responsible for saving many homes in earthquake prone areas from severe earthquake damage.

Although he has written both casually and commercially virtually all his life, Mr. Clark’s dereliction in writing his two research papers in high school came back to haunt him in a most interesting way. In 1981, Clark partnered with a man by the name of Rick Lee, who owned Centurion Boats, Inc. of Merced, California, to manufacture a line of spas Clark had designed. Lee and his company breached their contract with Clark, an act which cost Clark everything he owned, including his marriage at the time. In the winter of 1982 Mr. Clark found himself penniless, unemployed and without transportation in the middle of the deepest recession the country had experienced since the great depression. He was living in an unheated garage behind the home of a friend in Oakdale, California, sleeping on an old abandoned mattress he had scrounged from behind a Salvation Army drop box. Clark said that anyone who would have seen him in those dire times would have assumed he was just another homeless, hopeless street bum. Homeless he was, but hopeless and a bum? Hardly!

The one thing his ex-partner couldn’t take away from Mr. Clark was his spirit. He couldn’t afford an attorney but he scraped enough money together to pay the filing fees for a lawsuit against Lee and Centurion Boats. Everyone in the legal community and many of his relatives and friends told Clark how foolhardy he was to go up against his rich ex-partner and the man’s high-powered attorneys. But Clark went to work studying civil law and procedure and assembling his evidence and witnesses. Everything Lee’s attorneys threw at him he countered and threw back. The legal community sneers at people who choose to represent themselves but the lawyers of California’s Central Valley had not run into Steven J. Clark before.

The case came to trial in October of 1983. What had been anticipated by the opposition as a simple one to two day legal charade turned into a full-blown three-week jury trial. “One of the most satisfying days of my life was the day I had Rick Lee on the stand and forced him to account to the jury for the acts he had committed against me that had so devastated my life,” Clark said.

All Clark’s study and preparation paid off when the jury returned a nearly $300,000 verdict in Clark’s favor against the Defendants. That’s when Clark’s high school English class failures came back to haunt him. Lee appealed the jury verdict. The case was going to the 5th California Appellate District Court. Clark, with no attorney and no formal legal education or experience, had to write an appeal brief that would protect his verdict against Lee and Centurion Boats.

Clark not only successfully wrote a 52-page brief, but to the amazement of the legal community that had been closely watching this David vs. Goliath story unfold, successfully argued his case before the Appellate court. Afterward, Clark commented that his high school English teachers had finally gotten their revenge in spades. “Talk about a research paper,” Clark chuckled, “52-pages, and this time it wasn’t just to keep from getting an “F” for the school quarter, it was to protect a huge judgment and a monumental personal accomplishment in my life. My teachers would be happy to know that I actually did learn something in their class. It just took me nearly twenty years to be able to prove it.”

By the time of the appeal, Clark had secured other employment, was out of the cold and dreary garage and well on his way to success in other ventures, but ultimately he had to settle for the vindication of a moral victory and the personal satisfaction he obtained by beating Mr. Lee and his attorneys because about a week after losing their appeal, the Defendants filed bankruptcy and Clark was only able to collect about $2,500 of his sizable judgment against them. It was barely enough to cover the amount of Clark’s jury fees. However, much to Clark’s satisfaction, it had cost the Defendants many tens of thousands of dollars to mount their unsuccessful defense.

Clark’s experiences in the lawsuit led him to a fascination with the law that has led him to continue to study and use his informal legal education extensively in his business and personal affairs, not to mention providing the basis for his writing in the legal thriller genre.

Clark went on to other successes that have included use of his writing skills. He successfully published and edited two national trade newspapers for the manufactured housing industry. Additionally, he has prolifically written advertising copy as a marketing and sales professional. For the past few years he has been employed as the marketing and sales director for a large telephone company in central Utah. As an avocation, he writes extensively for regional newspapers. He is very active in community and political affairs in Central Utah and looks forward to making writing his full-time occupation.

Mr. Clark is happily married to his dear sweetheart Lauri Rosier Clark who is a career health services professional. They are currently in the process of marrying off their two children, Morgan David and Laci Ann, within weeks of each other, and are busily engaged in church and home life in a small rural community located in a beautiful high mountain valley in Central Utah. Mr. Clark welcomes both mail and email inquiries. Send snail-mail to HC13, Box 3071, Chester, UT 84623. Email to sjclark@cut.net.

Wage$ of Greed is Mr. Clark’s first book. The story of how Wage$ of Greed came to completion is truly an amazing saga spanning decades. To read the tangled story from the first trepidatious keystrokes through today, click on the link to the Epic Saga of the Writing of Wage$ of Greed.