A Second Act in Print

Bill Atkission had always dreamed of writing a book—he even had a plot and main character—but he had no time to write it while running Bella Vita Dental Designs, Arden, NC. When his sons took over the lab’s day-to-day operations in 2025, he used his newfound free time to make his dream come true.

Caught Looking will be published at the end of this month. The main character is Jack Cooper, a San Diego private investigator and varsity baseball coach—a nod to Atkission’s former side job coaching high school baseball—who helps police track down a human trafficking ring and solve related murders.

To plot out a believable story, he did an immense amount of internet research into human trafficking and murder investigations. But as a brand-new writer, he realized he needed the feedback of someone he trusted, so he asked his daughters Nikki Conti and Staci Baker, both schoolteachers, to collaborate with him.

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