David Drake was attending Duke University Law School when he was drafted. He served the next two years in the Army, spending 1970 as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam and Cambodia. Upon return, he completed his law degree at Duke and was for eight years assistant town attorney for Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He has been a full-time freelance writer since 1981. His books include the genre-defining and best-selling Hammer's Slammers series and the nationally best-selling RCN series, including In the Stormy Red Sky, The Road of Danger, The Sea without a Shore, and Death's Bright Day.