Gender

Male

Location

Ocala, FL

Birthday:

November 1

Which Category best describes you?

Professional Writer

Website:

https://www.rolandmann.me

Location:

Ocala, FL

Area(s) of Interest or Expertise:

writing, editing, teaching

My Testimony: (We encourage members to share briefly about how their faith in Christ has impacted their lives.)

Like many, I walked down that center aisle when I was young. I'm fortunate to have grown up in a Christian household where my family found themselves in church most of the times the doors were open. We were involved in many of the extracurricular activities as well, so many of our friends were from church. In August of 1974, when I was 10, I gave my life to Christ...or thought I did. Until recent years, I thought 1974 was when I'd become a "Christian," but I realize it was an emotional reaction and there really was very little change in my life. For many years, I did little more than pretend to walk with Christ. Obviously, it's easy to see now, but not then. Calling myself a Christian probably kept me out of some things, but not all, because there was no life change. In 1999, God led us to First Baptist Church of Muscle Shoals where we were immediately placed under strong Bible teaching. At first, I was very hesitant because it was such a big church. BJ and I are both accustomed to small to medium sized churches, but this was a big one--probably the biggest in the Muscle Shoals area. I “rededicated” my life in February of 2000. The men of the church went to a men's conference in Jackson, TN where there were several good sessions. I was under the word for two straight days. God really convicted me and showed me what I needed to do: true repentance and salvation. Essentially, I got saved. With salvation came true life changes. The first thing I did was give up secular music. Completely. I was big into music (as a kid I wanted to be a musician) and had a sizeable collection of music on vinyl and a decent cd collection. I got rid of it all. I don't even listen (not by choice, that is) to secular music on the radio anymore. I still enjoy music, and I'm still learning about the Christian artists that have come around the last few years. Then we shut off our cable tv. Yep. Just turned it off. It was difficult for a while, and I especially missed it from September to January (football season), but it caused BJ and I to grow much closer together and closer to God. Something about not having that idiot box on all the time just really worked. Oh, we still have a tv and we watch movies. But we stopped watching rated R movies (the Passion being an exception) as a rule. The kids were still able to watch Veggie Tales and Disney stuff, etc. But it was an incredible gift for us. Since 2000, I’ve been steadily involved in the church. I was recently ordained as a deacon; I’ve taught Sunday School (and even written 13 weeks worth of lessons), sang in the choir, and played drums in the praise band. While I’ve spent most of my career in publishing, I taught at the University level for about four years. Any skills I have come from God, and I feel he has truly blessed me with the ability to write, edit and teach. It is a desire of mine to pass on the skills God blessed me with and to encourage young students not to wait until later in their life to use their skills and talents for God. I love writing and the creative process of writing and believe that my passion is contagious.

Dream Job: (If you could have your dream job in the comics industry, what would it be?)

Avengers writer. :)

Favorite Comic Creators:

Stan Lee, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, David Michelenie