Richard VanHouten (May 3, 1958-)

Raised on a dairy farm in upstate New York as the fourth of 5 children, Richard VanHouten first became interested in Japanese when an exchange student attended his high school. After dropping out of college, he served 6 years in the Marines. In 1981 he was stationed in Japan for a year, where he studied a bit of Japanese. An interest in Inuyasha reawakened his desire to study Japanese in the summer of 2005, and since May of 2006 he has been writing Yuki's Story as a learning exercise.

Richard is the father of three adult children, and lives with his wife, dog and cat in the same county where he was born and raised.