To learn more about Blake and his writing process, check out the interviews and articles below:

Blake Crouch grew up in Statesville, a small town in the piedmont of North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000, where he studied literature and creative writing. The author of Desert Places and Locked Doors , he currently resides in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, where he is at work on a new book.

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This is a photograph of the high desert plain of southwestern Wyoming, about forty miles south of the town of Pinedale. I took this photo in the summer of 1996, on the way to a backpacking trip in the lovely Wind River Range. It was near sunset, and we were cruising north on Highway 191 when I happened to see this little dirt road running off into nowhere. When we pulled over to stretch our legs, I snapped this picture. I remember wondering what lay at the end of that lonely road and wanting to follow it. But having driven two thousand miles from North Carolina without stopping, our party was hungry, tired, and in desperate need of a hot supper before our venture into the wilderness. So we moved on.

Three years later, as the concept for Desert Places  was beginning to percolate, I happened across the photo album from my '96 Wind River backpacking trip, and came across this picture. When I saw that forsaken high desert, I found myself wondering once more what lay at the end of that dirt road. Imagination took over. I saw a cabin and a shed and a monster named Orson Thomas, surrounded by miles and miles of solitude and sagebrush. Without this picture, I wonder if this book would've been written, because it was the simple question, "What's at the end of that road?" that broke Desert Places  open for me.

So what was at the end of that road? Probably a well or an oil derrick. Maybe a small ranch. But to tell you the truth, I'm glad I never found out. What you imagine is always better.