About The Author International author, Gene Stiles, a Michigan native, moved to Simi Valley, CA in 1963. His first publication was at age eleven when the Los Angeles Daily News (then the Valley News and Green Sheet) and the L.A. Times both wrote articles on a young poet selling his work to buy a Mother's Day present. His interests include mythology, world religions, archeology, geology, paleontology, lost civilizations, science fiction and the 2012 phenomenon which are the basis for his Colony Series of novels, Colony - Atlantean, Colony - Neander and Colony - Bloodkin. Growing up an outcast in his family, he lived much of the story in his first novel To Walk the Winding Road - A Story Of Abuse And Survival. At age seventeen, he started a three-state wide non-profit organization called Teens, Inc. in the hopes of helping other troubled teens like himself. As an adult, he continued his devotion to kids by opening teen-oriented businesses including two arcades and three teen nightclubs - which are the sources for his book Phenomenon - The Xenon West Story. He is also a martial artist and major karaoke junkie. He lives in Missouri on the land he and his late wife, Dianne, cleared together and in the house the two built alone and with their own two hands. She promoted him, believed in him and without whose inspiration none of his books would ever have been printed.