Alan E. Sparks is the award-winning author of Dreaming of Wolves and Into the Carpathians, and has written articles about wolves for International Wolf Magazine and other publications. He earned a BS degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Maine and an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and was employed for over twenty years as a software engineer developing new technologies in the telecommunications industry. A voracious student of the natural and cultural histories of the places he visits, Alan has supplemented his indoor studies with training in mountaineering from the Colorado Mountain Club, mountain ski touring/expedition leadership from the National Outdoor Leadership School, and winter ecology/animal tracking from author, biologist, and renowned animal tracker Dr. James Halfpenny of A Naturalist’s World. As a writer, teacher of English as a second language, commercial actor, and web designer—and as an avid hiker, backcountry skier, and wolf tracker and caretaker—he has lived, worked, and trekked extensively in the Carpathian Mountain region of Central and Eastern Europe.