About the Author

Michael J. Chrzastowski earned a Ph.D. in Geology with a specific focus on coastal geology. His career involved research, applied studies, and outreach related to coastal changes since late glacial time. After retirement he returned to college to study Religion and earned an M.A. degree with an emphasis on Islam. His objective was to gain the education to be a religion instructor teaching fellow Christians about Islam. He developed a curriculum titled Islam for Christians and taught five- and eight-week classes in the Adult Bible Studies at various denomination churches (Lutheran, Catholic, Presbyterian, and Methodist) as well as at non-denominational retirement living. His classes often set attendance records.

Keturah’s Wish is a development from the time working toward the M.A. degree. In a graduate-level class on the Book of Genesis, Michael did a research paper on the Jewish and Christian commentary related to the enigmatic Keturah (Gen. 25:1). Subsequently in his Islam for Christians classes, he would often explain how the roots of Islam reach back to Genesis and the Abraham story with specific connection to Hagar and Ishmael as well as the sons of Keturah who apparently settled along coastal western Arabia. For Chrzastowski, questions about Keturah became a passion—who was she; was she a wife or a concubine; why did Abraham take her as partner; and, most intriguing, when did she bear her six sons? Over more than a decade of further research and pondering, gradually this novel took shape. Michael and his wife live in Bellingham, Washington.