INTERVIEW BY DEE ANN GRAND

Most readers identify Jerry B. Jenkins as the co-author of the popular Left Behind series. (Several of those eight titles remain at the top of the charts, and the ninth in the series, Desecration, is due out in the fall of 2001.) But Jenkins has a long history in writing that might surprise some readers. Not only does he have a total of seven New York Times bestsellers under his belt, Jenkins also writes the nationally syndicated sports comic strip Gil Thorp. Having begun his career as a newspaper sports writer, Jenkins has written biographies of such sports legends as Walter Payton, Hank Aaron, Orel Hershiser and Nolan Ryan. He also assisted evangelist Billy Graham with his best-selling memoirs, Just as I Am.

Coming in October, Jenkins is going solo with his original genre -- sports. But American Leather is not your predictable story of small town football, where the final touchdown saves the day. Jenkins approaches this new novel with the tenacity of the best-selling author he is, developing believable characters with real life issues.

The novel is set in an Alabama town where a football factory is located. To add authenticity to the story, Jenkins went to Ohio to tour the only U.S. football manufacturer. "It was important to use the right terminology for people who are turners, sewers, lacers and liners," he says.

The idea for American Leather originally came from a film script. In fact, Jenkins, who founded Jenkins Entertainment, had fallen so much in love with the script that his company made the movie, American Leather, which will be released shortly after the book's debut. Interestingly, his own son is the film's producer and also plays a role, that of a high school football player. What was that like? "Well, you see this play on the field where the kid dies. And my son happens to play that part. It was very freaky to watch your son die on a film. It really was."

Why would Jenkins want to switch gears at the crest of the Left Behind series' tidal wave of success? "Mostly, the impetus behind this was that we saw a good story and we wanted to make the movie. And we thought so often movies come from books. Obviously, this goes the other way around."

Jenkins still talks with great enthusiasm about the upcoming additions to the Left Behind series, but fans of his sports books will be glad he hasn't forgotten them.