Douglas Preston worked for the American Museum of Natural History in New York as managing editor of Curator magazine. In 1989, he undertook a thousand-mile horseback journey with a photographer, retracing the Spanish explorer Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold-and nearly perishing in the harsh deserts of southern Arizona and New Mexico. He has written a number of nonfiction books as well as several novels.Lincoln Child was an editor at St. Martin's Press when he met Douglas Preston and invited him to write a book about the American Museum of Natural History (Dinosaurs in the Attic). The two first collaborated on The Relic; their other titles include Mount Dragon and Reliquary.