Greg Oberst enjoys his day job working in marketing for a Seattle based retail company because it allows him to flex his creative muscle.

But lately, he’s been writing in a whole other niche, and in the spring Canadian publishing company Overtime Books put out his first book, “Washington Sports Trivia.”

Oberst, a Covington resident since 2005, has been published in newspapers, magazines and trade publications.

“I’d always had a notion to do a book,” he said. “But there’s this issue of time to write a book and nailing down a publisher, small details like that.”

Then he got lucky.

He had been talking with Overtime Books about writing a historical tome called “Northwest Crimes and Capers.”

“They were looking for a writer and I had responded to a query,” Oberst said. “What I like to write about the most, if I’m choosing my own genre, is something that’s historically based. I find that sort of historical research part just fascinating… the little nuggets you find.”

That assignment, however, went to another writer.

The company had another book in mind for him and they later talked at length, Oberst explained, about the Washington Sports Trivia book.

“I knew there were trivia books out there and in their research they found a trivia book that was multi sport didn’t exist,” he said. “You could find a million books about the Mariners… the Seahawks, the same with the Huskies, the Cougars. As we talked about the concept, I thought this was a really good idea.”

These discussions occurred in October.

Once he started on the book, he had two months to complete it, “which was lightning quick.”

“That’s probably the one rub in this project is that the timeline that they established, I accepted it knowing that it was going to be tight,” he said. “But I also knew on the back end that there was going to be lots of time editing. While I spent my time giving my best effort for the first draft I knew we’d have a good month to edit and likely end up re-writing a good portion of it.”

And toward the end of the process, they were waiting for the Winter Olympics to wrap up in Vancouver, B.C., to see if Apolo Anton Ohno would end up the most decorated winter Olympian.

“Their overall goal was to get it to market in the spring so that it would be available for summer reading,” he said. “So, it was a quick turnaround. It worked out OK in the end. I had a great editor.”

Not only does he now have a book he authored published, Oberst said it was a good experience.

“I learned a great deal about publishing in the process, which is something that I wanted,” he said. “I also knew I didn’t want to write another book like that.”

It must have gone well enough because he’s already working on another book for Overtime.

“I jumped almost immediately into another book … but I asked for five months this time and they had no problem with that,” he said. “The working title is ‘Disasters of the Northwest.’ It will be a longer, more comprehensive book, another reason for the longer (writing) time frame.”

He will tackle disasters both man-made and natural such as big ones like the eruption of Mount St. Helens and smaller ones such Galloping Gerdy, the bridge that collapsed over the Tacoma Narrows in 1940, or the trolley disaster in Tacoma in 1900 when a trolley went off a bridge and killed 100 people.

“Even the ones that are forgotten are fascinating from the standpoint of how they affected other things, the changes that came out of it,” he said. “Mount St. Helens, for example, is the most studied mountain in the entire world. It’s not just studying the tragedy of the disaster but also the lessons learned and how life in a clumsy sort of way is made better as a result. There’s also some great human stories.”

Oberst, who has been married for more than 20 years and has an 11 year old daughter, Olivia, squeezes in time to write at night after work or on weekends.

“With writing you need to be able to focus, to zero in, in order to write really well,” he said. “One of the biggest challenges I have is finding the time.”

When he’s not writing, either at work or at home, Oberst said he spends time with his family doing things like going for bicycle rides and going to his daughter’s extracurricular activities.

“Raising my daughter is probably my No. 1 activity,” he said. “I love being her dad. It’s a lot of fun.”

Oberst is particularly pleased that his first book is on the shelf at the library of his daughter’s school, Meridian Elementary in Kent.

“I love the idea of this showing up in libraries,” he said. “It’s an act that helps people learn something, it helps them grow, and in a small way makes them a better person. Writing a book and putting it in someone’s hands, especially a child or a young reader, was deeply satisfying.”

Oberst’s book can be found at Barnes and Noble, Costco, Amazon.com and other online book sellers.