T. L. Williams

Terrence Lee "T.L." Williams (born January 23, 1950 in Columbus, Ohio), is an American author and former operations officer in the Central Intelligence Agency, from which he retired in 2009. He is the author of several novels in the suspense/thriller genre.
Early life
Williams was born at in Columbus, Ohio, on January 23, 1950. He was the first of five children born to Betty Lee Williams (née Maratta: 1927-2008) who for many years worked at the Defense Construction Supply Center in Columbus, and Charles William Williams (1922-2004), a World War II and Korean War veteran and career soldier. Due to his father's military career, Williams moved often as a child, living in Columbus, Wichita Falls and El Paso, Texas, Madrid, and Chicopee, Massachusetts. He graduated from Chicopee Comprehensive High School in 1968. He then attended Bridgewater State College (now Bridgewater State University) in Bridgewater from 1968 to 1972 (graduating in 1975) with a degree in anthropology and a minor in philosophy. In 1973, Williams joined the Peace Corps. He trained for three months in Bogotá, Colombia, after which he was assigned to Pasto, Nariño, where he worked in youth development programs. Peace Corps transferred him to Medellin, Antioquia, where he completed his service in 1975. He then attended The Experiment In International Living's, School for International Training (SIT), where he received a Master's of Arts in teaching English as a second language and Spanish. Following graduation, he was awarded a Tufts University Latin American Teaching Fellowship to lecture at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Over the next several years he taught English in Isfahan, Iran, for Bell Helicopter (1976-1978), and at (now Bunka Gakuen University) in Tokyo, Japan (1979).
Central Intelligence Agency career
Williams entered the Career Trainee Program at the CIA in 1980. Following successful completion of training, he was assigned to the Directorate of Operations where he served until his retirement in 2009. Williams served in senior assignments abroad and at Langley, Virginia, during his three decade career. He had eight foreign field assignments in Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe and the Americas. In three of these assignments, he was the senior U.S. intelligence official in country. His foreign languages are Mandarin, Chinese and Spanish. At Langley he was a Deputy Division Chief for Counterintelligence. In 1998, he was awarded an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship (a mid-career senior school program.) Through this one-year program he attended a non-degree graduate course at Johns Hopkins University's, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and subsequently served as a Congressional Fellow/Foreign Policy advisor to the Kansas senator, Sam Brownback. In 2004, Williams was detailed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation where he served in a liaison capacity for one year. He retired from the CIA in 2009. His awards include the CIA's Career Intelligence Medal, NATO Service Medal, Bosnian Service Medal and the National Intelligence Medal from the Government of Taiwan.
Literary career
Williams' literary career began in 2010, when he enrolled in a correspondence writing course at The Long Ridge Writer's Group in Danbury, Connecticut. His instructor, Mary Rosenblum, a science fiction and mystery author from Canby, Oregon, was an early source of inspiration and support. His first novel, Cooper's Revenge, was an outgrowth from this course and was published in 2013. It won the Silver President's Award from the Florida Authors and Publisher's Association in 2013. In 2014, his second novel, Unit 400: The Assassins, a sequel to Cooper's Revenge, was published. It too was recognized by the Florida Authors and Publishers Association, winning a 2014 Silver President's Award for suspense fiction. His third novel, Zero Day: China's Cyber Wars was published in February 2017 to critical acclaim. In August, it was awarded gold medals in adult fiction and best ebook in the Florida Authors and Publishers President's Awards. In October 2017, it was awarded silver in the Royal Palm Literary Awards Competition. He is a contributor to volume II of Stories From Langley: A Glimpse Inside the CIA, writing a chapter entitled "How Intelligence Saved The Pope". This work was scheduled to be published in 2017. In his writing, Williams draws upon thirty years of experience conducting and managing clandestine operations worldwide. His first two novels depict military and paramilitary operations in the Middle East, while his third novel examines the role China plays in cyber espionage against the United States through a group of elite hackers. While his writing is primarily fiction, the stories themselves delve into many contemporary issues affecting U.S. national security.
Personal life
Williams and his wife, Carol Fedyk Williams, a retired CIA officer, married in 1975. She is the daughter of Olga Fedyk née Kamenski (1913-1990) of Bridgeton, New Jersey and Nicholas Fedyk (1917-1985) of Millville, New Jersey. They have two children, Colin Bradley Williams (Cary), of Richmond, Virginia (born in 1979 in Brattleboro, Vermont) and Carly Williams Cox (Joseph), of Jacksonville, Florida (born in 1982 in Reston, Virginia.) They have six grandchildren: Julia Hunter, Holt, Archer, Chipley, Will and Barrett.
Williams is a member of The Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, The World Affairs Council Jacksonville of Jacksonville, The Association of Former Intelligence Officers, The Central Intelligence Agency Retirees Association, The Florida Writers Association and The Florida Authors and Publishers Association.
Williams is a member of Our Lady Star of The Sea Catholic Church in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. In 2012, he and his wife walked The Way of Saint James, a 500-mile trek which began in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France and ended in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In September 2016, they walked the Camino Portugues from Porto to Santiago.
Williams cares deeply about the environment and conservation issues. He is a member of the Micklers Landing Turtle Patrol, which protects nesting Green, Leatherback and Loggerhead sea turtles along several miles of northeast Florida's sea coast from April to October. He has also volunteered at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve in a community project to rebuild an oyster reef along the intracoastal waterway and has conducted habitat surveys of native bees and gopher tortoises.
Williams volunteers for the Saint Johns County Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Senior Corps summer reading program, teaching reading to elementary school students in Ponte Vedra Beach.

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