William Dietrich, author of BLOOD OF THE REICH

William Dietrich grew up near Puget Sound in the shadow of Mount Rainier.

Bill was born on Sept. 29, 1951 in Tacoma, WA, graduated from Mount Tahoma High School during culturally tumultuous 1969, and attended Fairhaven College, an experimental liberal arts division of Western Washington University.

Interest in actually getting paid for writing led him to journalism at Western, and his first job was covering agricultural Skagit County for the Bellingham, WA, Herald.

In 2006, he took a half-time position as an assistant professor teaching environmental journalism and writing at Western, advising a student magazine called Planet of which I’m immensely proud. Bill left the position in June of 2011 to focus on my own writing.

Bill’s latest book, Blood of the Reich, is based on a 1938 Nazi expedition to Tibet, it ranges from Berlin to central Asia to Washington State and Geneva, and explores the mysterious ties between an imperiled young Seattle woman and a contemporary conspiracy.

Bill is married to the wonderful woman he met in college. He has two grown daughters, four grandchildren, and when not writing he reads, hikes, sails, travels (more than 36 countries), and waves around the Roman cavalry sword his wife got to inspire him.