Me and my wife, Heather Myers, at Bullards Beach State Park near Bandon, Oregon, on Thanksgiving Day 2013.

I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, the fourth of six children in a staunch Mormon family. My parents still live in the house they bought six months before I was born.

At age 18, I enrolled at College of Eastern Utah (now Utah State University Eastern) in Price, Utah, for one year, then spent two years preaching Mormonism to Spanish-speakers in southern California. Upon return home, I re-enrolled in school, where I focused on my college newspaper and graduated in 2006. While completing my degree, I discovered who I really am and what I want out of life. I left Mormonism. Today, I am an atheist.

I have been a professional journalist since January 2005, when I was hired as a reporter for the Sun Advocate in Price. I’ve been the editor of the Vernal Express in Vernal, Utah; and Lake Chelan Mirror in Chelan, Washington; and editor and general manager at the Genesee Country Express in Dansville, New York. I am currently the digital editor of The World in Coos Bay, Oregon.

Lest there be any confusion, my employer does not endorse my blog and is not responsible for its content. It’s all me.

My wife, Heather, and I have been together since 2004. She blogs here. We have two dogs and two cats.

I’m on Twitter (@newsylesbowen), on Faceboook and LinkedIn.