Rik Stone’s working life began in shipyards before he moved on to become a merchant seaman and, for reasons he won’t share here, on more than one occasion found himself stranded in the middle of nowhere. Later on, he worked in quarries and met some wonderfully rich and diverse characters. But then life tamed, maybe a little too much, when he moved into the IT industry. A surprise came like an episode from Tales from the Unexpected when he became interested in studying and worked through to gaining a BSc. degree in Mathematics and Computing. But it was his love of reading fiction gave him the ambition to write it and his broad experience of life and the confidence of education enabled him to do it. Rik and his wife share a home in Essex in the UK and they have loved, and continue to love, traveling the world; especially when taking it all in from a ship’s balcony.