Steve Sieberson is the author of a new book titled The Fifteenth Commandment. His debut novel, its setting and themes arise from his own teenage years.
Born in farm country in Northwest Iowa and raised in a strictly religious, Dutch Calvinist community, Steve was a product of his ethnic and family traditions, but he was also keenly aware of the world “out there,” beyond his hometown and beyond the American Midwest. The tensions between an insular upbringing and a natural longing to spread his wings are the themes in his latest book.
When asked why it took him until the age of 75 to write The Fifteenth Commandment, Steve responded, “For one thing, I'd had a demanding career and a busy personal life, and I chose to let those things take precedence over my desire to write this book. And, frankly, it seems to have taken me this long to put my boyhood into perspective.”
Steve’s career has been as varied as it was demanding. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Calvin College in Michigan, and he was the second person ever to earn a master’s degree in American Popular Culture from Bowling Green State University, which pioneered the field. Along the way he amused himself by lifeguarding and skydiving, and he took part-time jobs in construction, journalism, and teaching English composition.
A desire to see a different part of the country led Steve to a year as a VISTA volunteer in El Paso, Texas, where he coordinated several projects with local attorneys. The lawyers convinced him that his intellectual interests and writing skills would be suited to the legal profession, and so he enrolled in the University of Iowa College of Law.
Law school was no cakewalk, but it was stimulating, and Steve did well enough to land a prestigious clerkship with a federal judge in Seattle. Steve’s move to the Pacific Northwest fulfilled a long-held desire to build a life near the mountains, and so began a stint as lawyer and recreational mountain climber. He joined the venerable Mountaineers to learn and hone his skills on rock, snow, and ice. In 1987 he became a member of Seattle Mountain Rescue.
As Steve’s law practice developed into the field of international financing, he managed to drag his climbing gear with him on a number of his business trips, and his solo expeditions provided the incentive he needed to sit through endless hours negotiating and drafting loan agreements and ship mortgages. These excursions also provided the fodder for his first non-law book, The Naked Mountaineer—Misadventures of an Alpine Traveler [please see page under Books tab].
A two-year stint as an in-house lawyer at a major bank in Amsterdam gave Steve the opportunity to connect with the roots of his roots. Needless to say, modern Holland proved to be nothing like the Dutch immigrant culture of rural Iowa. Several years after he returned to Seattle law practice, Steve was named Honorary Consul of the Netherlands for three Northwest states, a position he held for sixteen years.
A quarter century after arriving in Seattle, Steve decided he was tired of measuring his life in tenths of an hour, and he left private practice for law school teaching. As luck would have it, the university job market drew him to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, a scant two hours from his Iowa hometown. As a professor, he specialized in international subjects such as human rights, cross-border business transactions, and the European Union. Just to prove that teaching and learning go hand in hand, during his early years at Creighton Steve earned a Ph.D. in European Law from Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Netherlands - at the age of 59.
A sabbatical in 2013 led Steve and his wife Carmel to take a ninety-day road trip through the British Isles, and that provided the material for his second popular book, Low Mountains or High Tea—Misadventures in Britain’s National Parks [please see page under Books tab].
Just in time for his 75th birthday, Steve hung up his cap and gown and settled into life in a small town on Puget Sound. There, he and Carmel manage to grill a few salmon and keep up with their three children and six grandchildren. With the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges at hand, Steve is also looking forward to more climbing and backpacking—perhaps of a somewhat gentle sort—and in upcoming winters he plans to strap on his Telemark skis or snowboard and seek out the best blue runs.
With the publication of The Fifteenth Commandment accomplished, Steve is now working on a young adult novel set in rural Iowa in the Fifties.
Born in farm country in Northwest Iowa and raised in a strictly religious, Dutch Calvinist community, Steve was a product of his ethnic and family traditions, but he was also keenly aware of the world “out there,” beyond his hometown and beyond the American Midwest. The tensions between an insular upbringing and a natural longing to spread his wings are the themes in his latest book.
When asked why it took him until the age of 75 to write The Fifteenth Commandment, Steve responded, “For one thing, I'd had a demanding career and a busy personal life, and I chose to let those things take precedence over my desire to write this book. And, frankly, it seems to have taken me this long to put my boyhood into perspective.”
Steve’s career has been as varied as it was demanding. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Calvin College in Michigan, and he was the second person ever to earn a master’s degree in American Popular Culture from Bowling Green State University, which pioneered the field. Along the way he amused himself by lifeguarding and skydiving, and he took part-time jobs in construction, journalism, and teaching English composition.
A desire to see a different part of the country led Steve to a year as a VISTA volunteer in El Paso, Texas, where he coordinated several projects with local attorneys. The lawyers convinced him that his intellectual interests and writing skills would be suited to the legal profession, and so he enrolled in the University of Iowa College of Law.
Law school was no cakewalk, but it was stimulating, and Steve did well enough to land a prestigious clerkship with a federal judge in Seattle. Steve’s move to the Pacific Northwest fulfilled a long-held desire to build a life near the mountains, and so began a stint as lawyer and recreational mountain climber. He joined the venerable Mountaineers to learn and hone his skills on rock, snow, and ice. In 1987 he became a member of Seattle Mountain Rescue.
As Steve’s law practice developed into the field of international financing, he managed to drag his climbing gear with him on a number of his business trips, and his solo expeditions provided the incentive he needed to sit through endless hours negotiating and drafting loan agreements and ship mortgages. These excursions also provided the fodder for his first non-law book, The Naked Mountaineer—Misadventures of an Alpine Traveler [please see page under Books tab].
A two-year stint as an in-house lawyer at a major bank in Amsterdam gave Steve the opportunity to connect with the roots of his roots. Needless to say, modern Holland proved to be nothing like the Dutch immigrant culture of rural Iowa. Several years after he returned to Seattle law practice, Steve was named Honorary Consul of the Netherlands for three Northwest states, a position he held for sixteen years.
A quarter century after arriving in Seattle, Steve decided he was tired of measuring his life in tenths of an hour, and he left private practice for law school teaching. As luck would have it, the university job market drew him to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, a scant two hours from his Iowa hometown. As a professor, he specialized in international subjects such as human rights, cross-border business transactions, and the European Union. Just to prove that teaching and learning go hand in hand, during his early years at Creighton Steve earned a Ph.D. in European Law from Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Netherlands - at the age of 59.
A sabbatical in 2013 led Steve and his wife Carmel to take a ninety-day road trip through the British Isles, and that provided the material for his second popular book, Low Mountains or High Tea—Misadventures in Britain’s National Parks [please see page under Books tab].
Just in time for his 75th birthday, Steve hung up his cap and gown and settled into life in a small town on Puget Sound. There, he and Carmel manage to grill a few salmon and keep up with their three children and six grandchildren. With the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges at hand, Steve is also looking forward to more climbing and backpacking—perhaps of a somewhat gentle sort—and in upcoming winters he plans to strap on his Telemark skis or snowboard and seek out the best blue runs.
With the publication of The Fifteenth Commandment accomplished, Steve is now working on a young adult novel set in rural Iowa in the Fifties.