Initially, I was encouraged to write creatively by Ernestine Robinson, a wonderful high school English teacher who assured me that poor 'speling,' poor 'grammer,' and a highly experimental approach to writing would not necessarily limit my literary future. She then introduced me to the work of James Joyce. Later, as a young graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, I greatly admired the poignant beauty of Loren Eiseley's writing. Scientist, humanist, naturalist, and poet, the ability to interweave his academic training in paleontology with personal reflections on 'the human condition,' was most inspiring. I especially remember two memorable occasions when we met for lunch at a nearby campus cafeteria. During these discussions, he shared his thoughts on science and humanity, ideas which emerged six years later in his highly popular book, 'The Immense Journey.' While our anthropological interests soon diverged, his literary achievements have continued to inspire my own writing to this day. After a fair number of years writing books as an academic anthropologist, I finally returned to my earlier literary interest and wrote a novel. Entitled 'Betrayal,' it explores repercussions stemming from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons tests carried out by the U.S. Government in Alaska during the 1960s and beyond. It was years before these agencies admitted that damage caused by these tests included human beings; an acknowledgment only made public because people with access to confidential information were willing to speak out. However, as the novel makes abundantly clear, speaking the truth can carry a severe penalty.