Robert V. S. Redick

I'm the author of the epic fantasy series THE CHATHRAND VOYAGE QUARTET. which begins with THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY and concludes with THE NIGHT OF THE SWARM. I wrote much of MASTER ASSASSINS, my latest fantasy, in the city of Bogor, Indonesia, beside a window through which the sounds of the city--calls to prayer, street vendors, kids, dogs, parrots, screeching toads and geckos--filtered in a soundtrack that waxed and waned but never stopped. I have two beloved home towns: Charlottesville, Virginia, and Iowa City, Iowa. I've been writing since I could hold a pen, and began my first novel, about purple monsters invading a Chicago apartment complex, when I was twelve. I studied literature and Russian at the University of Virginia, tropical conservation and development at the University of Florida, and fiction writing in the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Among my wonderful former mentors are Jim Shepard, John Casey, Wilton Barnhardt, Judith Grossman, David Haynes and Chuck Wachtel. I've had the good fortune to live abroad and travel extensively. Before my two recent years in Indonesia my travels were mostly in Latin America. In Cali, Colombia, I worked with a human rights foundation and taught in a bilingual school. In Argentina I interviewed park rangers, park administrators, superintendents and biologists across the country and wrote an in-depth study of ranger training in Argentina and elsewhere. My first (serious) novel, Conquistadors, is set during the Argentinian dictatorship of the late 1970s. The book was a finalist for the 2002 AWP/Thomas Dunne Novel Award. For four years I worked as a stage critic for two New England newspapers--a nice job to have if you're dating. I've also worked as a baker, translator, Paso Fino horse handler and lab technician in an acid rain study. For more information please visit my blog: robertvsredick.blogspot.com. I live in rural western Massachusetts with my compañera, Kiran Asher, and an assortment of mammals and reptiles.