Lyman is the author of many books, short stories, and magazine articles – mostly revolving around Southern Utah. He is part of the board of directors on the Utah Arts Council, and works as the executive director of Zion Natural History Association in Zion National Park. He is a hardworking, wonderful man with a heart of gold. To learn more about him and/or purchase his books go to this website. 

I feel like your love for Saint George is deeply rooted, into your soul, even. Do you think if you grew up and raised your own family in another place, you’d feel an equal amount of love?

The whole idea of place has always fascinated me. I guess you could say I am haunted by place. Where ever I am, I want to know what has happened there before, and because I was born and grew up in this place, the same place where five generations of my progenitors were born and lived, I know the stories that go with the place. And it’s those stories that bring a place to life and allow you to connect to it on a higher level than other places where you’re just passing through and you don’t know the stories.

So I suppose I would have the same deeply rooted affection for any other place had I been born and raised there, and had I grown up with its stories. But this is the place whose stories I know and I almost feel my connection to it is genetic, as if, over five generations, it has worked its way into my DNA. The fact that it is such a singularly beautiful place doesn’t hurt. People come from all over the world every day to see it, so I don’t think I’m alone in my admiration for its beauty.

It’s hard to imagine that I would have the same feeling for a place where the horizon is flat, but I’m sure I would if its stories were part of me. One of my favorite writers, Wallace Stegner, wrote that there is a time for children somewhere between the ages of five and twelve that corresponds to the time scientists have isolated in the development of birds, when an impression lasting only a few seconds may be imprinted on the young bird for life. It’s the way a bird emerging from the darkness of the egg knows itself and relates to the world. Stegner said if you expose a child to a particular environment at his susceptible time, he will perceive in the shapes of that environment for the rest of his life

I guess I see the world (and I’ve seen much of the United States, from Alaska to South Carolina, and Tijuana to New England, as well as some of South America and much of Europe) through the shapes of this place where I grew up. I love visiting all those places and I especially love to read and hear the stories that go with them. But I always come home to the place where the stories are part of me and where I, as I get older, am becoming a part of the stories myself.

How’s that for a short answer?

When did you realize your love for writing, and your talent to do so? What piece was it that you were working on?

I didn’t have a clue I could or would write at all until I was a senior at Brigham Young University. I happened to take a magazine writing class from a great teacher and an excellent writer named Jack Nelson. He was in wheelchair. He told us the first day of class that whether we came to class or not, if we could get an article published in a legitimate magazine by the end of the semester, we’d get an automatic A. I don’t know why I took him up on the challenge. I’d never written anything except what I had to write to get by in my college classes. In high school there wasn’t anything as difficult or intimidating for me as an assignment to write something.

I had befriended a guy from Oklahoma who was putting himself through college as a Quarter Horse breeder. He had a high-powered Quarter Horse stallion he had brought to Provo from home and he was able to charge a fairly high breeding fee for local horsemen to bring their mares to him. It seemed like an interesting story so I pitched it to Western Horseman Magazine. To my dismay, the editor at Western Horseman responded positively and bought the story for $80. I thought that was about the coolest thing ever, and I’ve been writing ever since.

Jack Nelson was very encouraging and supportive and helped me realize that maybe I had something that could be developed. Certainly it was nothing I had ever considered before. Thirty years and twelve books and about eight hundred magazine articles later, I feel very grateful to Jack and to others who encouraged me along the way.

How do you find joy in the journey [of life]?

Someone once said that life is what happens to us while we’re making other plans. When I was in high school, I was always watching the clock, waiting for class to get over, waiting for quitting time at work, waiting until the day I got my drivers license, or for the day I could buy my first pickup. It wasn’t until I was in college that I began to discover the joy of learning and the fulfillment of working hard and pursing the things you are most passionate about. Somewhere along the way I stopped watching the clock and started living each day. Not that I always did, or still do, but I learned that when I immerse myself in something that I’m passionate about, there is joy in every step along the way and you’re not fixed on the clock or on the finish line. Things don’t always end the way you dream they will, but if you are enjoying the journey, the result, or the destination, will not matter nearly as much as what you experienced and what you learned and what you became along the way.

Everyone who knows you, knows what a good man you are; do you think the man that you are comes from how you were raised? what are some of the most important life lessons you remember learning?

I’m a slow learner, so I think I learn a major life lesson every day. And often it’s the same one I learned yesterday. I think the biggest part of who I am comes from how I was raised. I am fortunate that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been the pattern I have been exposed to from the beginning. I will never be able to repay my parents for how lovingly they raised me and what they taught me. It’s interesting to me how sometimes your parents are wise enough to allow others to teach you some of life’s most important lessons. In my case, it was my Uncle Eldon Hafen who really taught me how to work when I was 12 and 13 years old at the OK Tire Store in St. George. He was a fun and friendly uncle, but he was no-nonsense during business hours and I learned how to sweat and work and not waste time under his stern watch. That ability to work has benefitted me in every aspect of my life ever since. What’s more, changing tires under the sizzling southern Utah sun helped steer me toward college where the prospects of getting an air-conditioned job were much higher.

What has been your greatest accomplishment?

My greatest accomplishment occurred on Christmas Day, 1976, when I convinced the smartest, most fascinating and most beautiful girl I have ever known to go for a horseback ride with me to the top of a red sandstone ridge overlooking St. George. There I asked her to marry me, and the fact that she said yes has made me the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Part of that accomplishment has been the honor to be the father of six incredibly wonderful children, and the father-in-law, to-date, of four fantastic young women, and one amazing young man. Not to mention the grandpa to the eleven cutest, most intelligent kids in the universe.

What are your favorite things? (could be people, places, objects, events..etc)

As mentioned earlier, I’m obsessed by certain places, but a place is not a place without the people who go with it. I have a lot of favorite places, and a lot of favorite people. Too many to mention here. I love horses and I love baseball (Go Red Sox), and I love the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, especially the saddle bronc riding which to me is nothing short of poetry in motion. If I had to narrow it down to one physical object, I would have to say books. I love the feel, the smell, the heft and the wonder of a book in my hands.

What is the coolest (neatest, prettiest, etc.) shape you’ve seen in a cloud?

A galloping horse. In fact, a story I am working on right now had its genesis in an image of a galloping horse I saw in a cloud.