[b]Wayne Thomas Batson[/b] was born in Seabrook, MD in 1968. He attended Gabriel DuVal Senior High School and wrote this for his Yearbook Senior Goals: To become a professional writer or artist. During the high school and early college years, he played lead guitar for a rock band called "Contagious." They were catchy, but apparently not enough to get a record deal. Having completed the rigorous Holmes English Literature Curriculum, he graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1991. In 1996, he received his first graduate degree in Counseling. He has continued his studies with 36 credit hours of graduate-level Reading courses. Wayne Thomas Batson has spent the last fifteen years teaching Reading and English to middle schools students. He pioneered the active instruction of Strategic Reading in Anne Arundel County and has written Reading and English Curricula for Anne Arundel County, Carroll County, and Howard County Public Schools. Most recently, he helped develop the Challenge Reading Curriculum for advanced readers in Howard County, Maryland. Wayne Thomas Batson lives in Eldersburg with his beautiful wife of eleven years and his four wonderful young children. Besides dividing his time between family, teaching, and writing, he likes to read, golf, play PS2, travel to the beach, play electric guitar, and create 3D artwork.