Tim­o­thy Schaf­fert is the author of five pre­vi­ous nov­els: The Swan Gon­do­la, The Coffins of Lit­tle Hope, Dev­ils in the Sug­ar Shop, The Singing and Danc­ing Daugh­ters of God, and The Phan­tom Limbs of the Rol­low Sis­ters. He is a pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish and Direc­tor of Cre­ative Writ­ing at Uni­ver­si­ty of Nebras­ka-Lin­coln, and he writes the col­umn ​“The Eccen­tric­i­ties of Gen­tle­men” for the pop­u­lar lifestyle mag­a­zine Enchant­ed Living.