C. Alexander London is an award-winning author of nonfiction for grown-ups (under a slightly different not very secret name) and, as his official biography says, he really is an accomplished skeet-shooter, having once won a 12-gauge tournament because no one else had signed up in his age group. He's also a Master SCUBA diver, and, most excitingly (to him) a fully licensed and accredited librarian. He used to know the Dewey Decimal System from memory. He doesn't anymore. While traveling as a journalist, he did indeed watch television in 23 countries (Burmese soap operas were the most confusing; Cuban news reports were the most dull). He survived an erupting volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a hurricane on small island in the Caribbean, 4 civil wars (one of them was over by the time he got there, thankfully), and a mysterious bite on his little toe in the jungles of Thailand. The bite got infected and swollen and gross and gave him a deep mistrust of lizards. Although he has had many adventures, he really does prefer curling up on the couch and watching some good reality television or reading a book. Like Oliver and Celia Navel, he enjoys danger and intrigue far more when it's happening to somebody else.