Stephen Holgate is a fifth-generation Oregonian who served for four years as a diplomat with the American Embassy in Morocco. In addition to his other foreign service posts, Mr. Holgate has served as a congressional staffer; headed a committee staff of the Oregon State Senate; managed two electoral campaigns; acted with the national tour of an improvisational theater group; worked as a crew member of a barge on the canals of France; and lived in a tent while working as a gardener in Malibu. Holgate has published several short stories and a successfully produced one-man play, as well as publishing innumerable freelance articles. Tangier is his first novel.