Wil Mara has been writing books since 1988. He began with a manuscript about herpetology, a childhood hobby, and sold it to TFH Publications, who at the time was the world’s largest publisher of animal books. He gave them another manuscript four months later, at which time he was offered a position on their editorial staff. He would go on to write a total of 18 titles during his tenure. In 1996 he left TFH in search of new challenges. He accepted a position as a senior editor with Harcourt Brace and, in his spare time, tried his hand at fiction. He started with a story for the popular ‘Boxcar Children’ series, which eventually became The Mystery of the Pirate’s Map (Boxcar # 70). He would go on to write four more Boxcars, plus more than 100 other titles, for both children and adults. (A complete bibliography of his work can be found here.) Through the years he has also worked for the now-defunct Troll Communications, as the director of their Canadian Book Clubs, and as an editor for textbook publisher Prentice Hall. In 2002 he began his first novel for an older audience. It chronicled a tiny island community’s reaction to the grim news that a tsunami would be hitting their shores in just over two hours—not nearly enough time to evacuate every resident. This book would eventually become Wave, a megahit that, in spite of a tiny marketing budget and a bankrupt distributor, went into a second printing in less than three months and won the 2005 New Jersey Notable Book Award. The paperback rights were subsequently picked up by Macmillan, who released the book globally as a mass-market edition in May of 2010. Wil turned to writing fulltime after Wave’s success and signed a deal with NYC publisher St. Martin’s Press for a group of ‘NFL novels.’ Mixing real-world factuality and behind-the-scenes detail with imaginative storytelling, these books were endorsed by the likes of Indianapolis Colts’ general manager Bill Polian, Hall of Fame head coach Marv Levy, and veteran Sports Illustrated journalist Peter King. The first, The Draft, was released at the end of October 2006, and the second, The Cut, a year later. Wil is now back to writing disaster thrillers, with a brand-new hardcover due from Macmillan in early 2011 and two other storylines currently in development.