A native of Pocatello, Idaho, Collins attended college in San Diego, where he has lived since. He holds a BA in English and an MBA from San Diego State University. After a stint as a journalist, he served as a senior executive for a Fortune 500 company and later founded a series of venture-backed technology start-ups. Today he focuses primarily on his first loves of writing, photography, and travel. He is most interested in exploring places far off the beaten path and writing about how the meld of history, geography and nature affects modern people and cultures. Collins is the author of two books of literary nonfiction — Thunder in the Mountains and Midair — and is currently writing a novel set in Silicon Valley, as well as a work of historical non-fiction about one of the great merchant travelers of the Silk Road.
