Richard Thomas Lane was born in Indiana in 1947. He entered the Marine Corps in 1966 and was stationed in Hawaii, Cherry Point North Carolina, and Okinawa before serving as a battalion message center chief outside Da Nang in Vietnam in 1970. Upon discharge he spent two years by the beach in Sand Diego before moving to San Francisco. He graduated from San Francisco State University with a major in sociology and a minor in philosophy. He moved to New York City and, in 1979, became an alcoholism counselor. He received his MSW from Fordham University in New York, then trained with Harville Hendrix, PhD to become an Imago Relationship Therapist, and from 1990 to the present has worked as a psychotherapist in private practice, specializing in the areas of addiction, trauma and couples therapy. (A client once described him as a cross between Clint Eastwood and Mr. Rogers.) Now in his 70s, he has more time to pursue his passion for writing and wakes up every morning feeling blessed he is married to his amazing wife, Pam.