This is going to sound horribly cliched, but I have always had a thing for travel, getting out of the door, walking to new places, etc. I've been very lucky that I've had the opportunity to turn this love, plus a love of words, into a career. I won't go down every travel moment of my life, but one flash seems particularly worth mentioning. I was in South Africa, on a university study abroad, discussing a novel with a professor who would go on to become a cherished friend of mine, the same professor who had set up the study abroad program. During our discussion I realized I had learned more in three months in South Africa than three years of university. I thought, "I want to dot his for the rest of my life." It's been a series of trial and error ever since—I worked at no less than five newspapers in three years, covering everything from local politics to murder trials to U.S. Supreme Court Cases to the Sri Lankan civil war. That last story cracked the door open a little, got some publishers noticing, and I passed Lonely Planet's writing test. Since then I have earned a master's and worked on some LP titles, and if I can use that, plus other freelance work, to see the world and write about it, I'll be a happy man. I am originally from the tidewater region of Maryland.