Gifford Keen is fifty four years old and describes himself as a retired software geek, reluctant landlord, and aspiring novelist. He has a liberal arts degree from St. John's College in Santa Fe and has had a variety of careers: from apple picker to software executive, carpenter to real estate investor. He's climbed in the Joshua Tree, built cutting-edge databases to support high-throughput DNA sequencing at pharmaceutical companies, and lived in a log cabin with no electricity or running water that he built with his own hands. In addition to co-authoring Prodigal Father Wayward Son with his father (Sam Keen - bestselling author of Fire in the Belly), Gifford has written six novels: two thrillers, three mysteries, and (voted least likely to ever be published), a half-vampire-detective novel. All are currently unpublished, but the last two did receive more than a dozen absolutely glowing rejections from top editors at big publishing houses -- we're talking something that could have gone on the back cover, right up until the... "but." He's currently working on a more serious novel about the differences between romantic-adolescent-in-love type love and long-term-committed-married type love with a working title of "Longing." Gifford is happiest backpacking in the high country or spending time with his family, and he currently manages a dozen rental properties in Santa Fe - which is hardly enough to keep the mind alive, but does give him time to write, meditate, and practice yoga.