Rick Strater was born in Miami, Florida to creative parents who were both talented artists. He says that his brother inherited all of the artistic skills.

The family moved to the Midwest when Rick was young, but he insists his birth place gave him a congenital weakness against the cold weather he detests.

Still, he acknowledges moving north was necessary for him to meet the love of his life, Natalie, when they were cast as Lancelot and Guinevere in Camelot. When he sang “If Ever I Would Leave You” to her, he meant it.

Balancing his right-brained interest in music and writing with his analytical side, he studied business at Indiana University, where he received a BS and an MBA before embarking on a successful career in key leadership roles with several large Fortune 500 companies and becoming a co-founder of a tech firm.

Throughout his career, Rick has believed in the power of disruptive thinking in order to drive ever-improving results. He brings this focus on thinking differently to his writing. Existential Thread, his first novel, is an excellent example of how he creatively captures both the potential benefits and threats represented by advanced 3-D printing and artificial intelligence and forces the reader to begin to seriously consider how we should prepare for both.

After living for decades in the Midwest and on the East Coast, where they raised their four wonderful children, Rick finally convinced Natalie that it was time to escape cold weather and high taxes. He wanted to live on the ocean and Natalie wanted to live on a lake where she could have four seasons, so they compromised. They live on a lake in northern Georgia, and Rick, who is very happy, heads to the ocean every chance he gets.