A former pilot, sarcophagus maker, and businessman, David W. Ball has traveled to eighty countries and seven continents, crossed the Sahara Desert four times in the course of researching his novel Empires of Sand, and explored the Andes in a Volkswagen bus. Other research trips have taken him to China, Istanbul, Algeria, and Malta. He’s driven a taxi in New York City, installed telecommunications equipment in Cameroon, renovated old Victorian houses in Denver and pumped gasoline in the Grand Tetons. He lives with his family on a small farm in Colorado where the only things he grows are weeds and tall tales.