William J. Atkins wrote his first full-length novel after thirty years as an international financial services executive. His life experiences in international sales and marketing exposed him to the cultural cross currents that feed the characters and places in his book. He is a graduate of Hobart College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1975. He also studied Middle Eastern history at Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland. In 1973, he was evacuated from Eilat, Israel, days before the beginning of the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt. He fled to a kibbutz in Beersheba, where he was educated first hand about Israel's conflict with the Arab world. William and his wife Betsy split time between homes in Indiana, the Bahamas, and Canada. He is an avid fisherman and outdoorsman who kayaks, bikes, runs, and hikes as much as he can.