J. Scott Fuqua  Author and illustrator J. Scott Fuqua in his
Mayfield home. (Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun / August 15, 2013)
When Jonathon Scott Fuqua was 13 years old, he and his older
brother put on their swimming trunks and went surfing during a
Florida hurricane.  The wind bent the palm trees rimming the
Gulf of Mexico nearly double, like boomerangs. The teens were
buffeted by waves as tall as a house. During a brief rest on a
sandbar, Scott looked over his shoulder and saw a huge shark
silhouetted in the water about 15 feet away. He was certain that
any moment, razor-sharp teeth would close around his calves and
pull him under.  As he began to swim hard for the shore, he held
tight to the image in his mind's eye of a place with firm
footing and abundant oxygen.  If his determination never
wavered, perhaps that's because he'd spent his entire life out-
maneuvering his own self-doubt — a predator that was faster than
any shark and just as deadly.  That was more than 30 years ago.
Fuqua has become a husband, fa