My name is Brad Allred. I am the eldest of five children born to Darvel and Dottie Allred. My siblings are Amy, David, Greg, and Lisa. I grew up in Upland, California during the '70s and '80s. I attended Sierra Vista Elementary School, Pioneer Jr. High, and Upland High School. As a child, my hobbies included: reading Hardy Boy books, collecting and playing with Star Wars action figures, camping and hiking with my family, and playing sports. I played AYSO soccer for six years, and Little League baseball for five. I also participated in innumerable pick-up games (basketball, football, baseball, and soccer) with the kids in my neighborhood. We would also play night games - Capture the Flag, Lighthouse, and Ding Dong Ditch. In Jr. High, I played trumpet in both the concert band and the jazz band. Our jazz band was ranked #1 in southern California, and was even invited to play in South Africa. I also was active in Boy Scouts, and even earned the Eagle Scout Award.
Of course, many of my most treasured childhood memories include my membership in the DTB Cousins Club. I will give more information on this club in a future post, but the three members were my cousins Darin, Troy, and I. Since Darin lived in Utah, we usually only saw each other once or twice a year - usually at family reunions. Still, when we were together, we were inseperable. When we were apart, we kept the post office busy delivering coded letters back and forth.
After I graduated from high school, I worked for a year at Little Caesars while attending general ed classes at Chaffey College. When I turned 19, I left home to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After two months of training at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, I was sent to southern Chile where I served for two years. Those were two of the most memorable years of my life - and continue to influence my life to this day.
I returned home from Chile in 1992. A couple of weeks after I returned, I went on a hike with several family members down the Virgin Narrows in Zion National Park. It was on this hike, that I survived the flash flood that became the inspiration for the novel The Narrows Escape, and by extension the DTB Cousins Adventure series. I plan to post a detailed account of this hike, including pictures, in future posts.
A couple of weeks after this hike, I began attending college at BYU in Provo, Utah. My first weekend there, I met a beautiful woman named Cheryl Ashby. We began dating a couple of months later, and were married during the summer of 1993 in San Diego, CA. While at college, I majored in Social Studies Secondary Education with a minor in Spanish. I also worked part time as a Spanish teacher at the MTC for three years. Cheryl meanwhile earned a Masters degree in audiology, and worked for a local ENT.
When I graduated from college, I got a job teaching mainly Spanish at Orange Grove Middle School in Tucson, Arizona. While living in Arizona we adopted our eldest daughter, Erika. We also developed lifelong friendships with several other couples our age.
After four years in Tucson, we moved to Riverside, California so that we could live closer to family. I continued teaching Spanish at Centennial High School in Corona, CA and began writing in earnest during my cherished summer vacations. We also adopted our second daughter, Rachel.
After five years in California, we moved to Spanish Fork, Utah, where we currently live. I continue to teach Spanish at Canyon Jr. High in Orem. I also continue to write. I have currently completed four novels, and started several others. In May, I finally accomplished my lifelong dream of publishing my first novel, The Narrows Escape, and have high hopes of publishing others in the near future.
Brad Allred
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