Writer-poet-aviator C. Douglas Taylor, son of author Kathrine Kressmann Taylor (Address Unknown, Day of No Return), was educated at Penn State, Gettysburg College, and the University of Florida, where he picked up a pilot's license and a master's degree in creative writing before heading off to a college teaching career, interspersed with occasional returns to the building trades as a carpenter. He has taught literature, humanities, and creative writing at eight different colleges and universities, mostly in the South, and has worked on construction sites from Florida to Texas to South Dakota. His interest in flying led to his first book, the humorous aviation best-seller HOW TO PILOT AN AEROPLANE, which has sold out three printings and a revised edition; and a popular humor column, ADear Ace,@ which ran for 19 years in General Aviation News. His second book, FOOTBALL IN AMERICA (2003), is a highly irreverent novel based on his college experiences as an English major housed among the athletes. During a teaching sojourn in Memphis, Tennessee, Douglas met artist/sculptor Catherine Wright.of that city. They were married there, at the newly-reopened Peabody hotel, which soon became the setting for their first joint effort, DOWNTOWN DUCKS (Xlibris 2003) incorporating his story and her watercolor illustrations.

Further collaboration produced an illustrated children's poem, THANKSGIVING, and a series of Lighthouse Notes greeting cards, combining his verse and her paintings. THE REACTOR, Douglas's fourth book and second novel, draws heavily on his experiences in the academic world and the construction industry, where he worked as a traveling carpenter and foreman building cooling towers for nuclear plants.