The finest escape in literature is an escape into a real and inviting culture—so asserts L. D. Alford a novelist who explores with originality those cultures and societies we think we already know.  He builds tales that make ancient people and times real to us.  His stories uniquely explore the connections between events close and familiar and events of the past—he cleaves them together with threads of reality that bring the past alive.  L. D. Alford is familiar with technology and cultures—he earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Pacific Lutheran University, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University, and is a Ph.D. candidate in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Dayton. He is a graduate of Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, and the US Air Force Test Pilot School.  He is widely traveled and has spent long periods in Europe and Central America.  His writing includes over 40 technical articles and a historical fiction novel, The Second Mission.  L. D. Alford is an author who combines intimate scientific and cultural knowledge into fiction worlds that breathe reality.