Lawrence A. Wenzel grew up in Southern California during the Great Depression. During World War II he served in the United States Marine Corps in the South Pacific, and after the war he attended college under the GI Bill. He was a Fulbright Exchange Professor with the University of Manchester and a Harvard Ford Fellow. He also received a California State University Chancellor’s Grant to study potential U.S. immigrants in northern India. He taught college philosophy and sociology for thirty-two years and is a professor emeritus at California State University, Chico. The Sandcastle at High Tide is his second novel.