As a young boy, I was fascinated with the unknown, the mysterious, and also the unworldly. Ever since I can remember, I enjoyed reading books about archeology. To be the first to enter a crypt, or a tomb that no one had set foot in for three thousand years held a fascination for me. I always wondered what it would be like to encounter an intelligent being from another world. What secrets could he tell? What mysteries could he solve? Such is my imagination, such is my passion. Since I've never had an opportunity to experience any of those things, I dreamt a lot. The most logical step was to write, but that took years in the making. I soon discovered that in order to hold a reader's interest, a book had to be more than just a good story. Finally, I managed to write on my own. To date, all thirteen of my novels contain quest plots. My characters are always searching for "something." They also manage to get themselves into a lot of trouble before they find what they're looking for. What they find isn't nearly as important as the change that occurs within them during the quest. My grandparents were Russian. During the Bolshevik Revolution they fled to China, where my mother was born. I came to America from France at the age of twelve and immediately traded in my French-version of Lederhosen for a pair of jeans. After earning B.A. and M.A. degrees, I wore a number of different career hats, but none of them ever stirred my soul—until I took up writing.
