Canadian espionage writer Xander Richards was born during the early sixties in an unremarkable town in western Europe to parents whose stories of their wartime military experience enthralled him and stoked the fires of his imagination. Inspired by Fleming’s James Bond series, Cussler’s Dirk Pitt adventures, Clancy’s techno-thrillers, Alistair MacLean’s novels and many other suspense and espionage books, he started writing at an early age. After a spell in the military Xander was first published—under a different name—in the late eighties. Around this time the idea for ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ was conceived whilst on vacation with friends from the army. It was initially started as a film script but due to the pressures of work and family was never completed in that format. Nonetheless, the story stayed with Richards over the next two decades during which time he authored many factual articles, reviews and instructional pieces which were published both in magazines and online, and relocated to Canada. In 2008 Xander decided to complete ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ as an espionage novel, inspired by J.K. Rowling’s rags-to-riches success story with the Harry Potter series. Compiling an enormous amount of espionage, technical and geographical research, he wrote at every opportunity. A professional screenwriter edited the work leading to a number of beneficial changes which were incorporated into the story. Still driven to aim for excellence, Richards then had the work edited a second time by another skilled editor. Xander looked into options for publication and after a number of approaches to agencies and publishers decided to become a part of the ‘ebook revolution’ and publish through Bookbaby. The cover was created by well-known Canadian artist Jonathon Earl Bowser, whose picture ‘The Awakening’ was famously stolen by Saddam Hussein as the cover of his 2000 novel ‘Zabibah and the King’. Despite sharing a cover artist with one of the most notorious dictators of modern times, Xander Richards describes himself as ‘an ordinary fella with regular interests and pastimes’. These include cars, photography, movies and garage sales. Xander lives in Saskatchewan, Canada with his wife Mindy. They have four adult children and four grandchildren.