## SHORT BIO (50 words)
Alex Rivera cracks ancient codes that rewrite history—both on the page and off. In *The Forgotten Code*, his pulse-pounding thriller, a linguist deciphers a Mayan cipher exposing a global conspiracy. A former archaeologist turned novelist, he now unearths truths from his desk in Mexico City.

(48 words)

## MEDIUM BIO (150 words)
Alex Rivera spent a decade unearthing Mayan ruins before turning to fiction, where his expertise fuels *The Forgotten Code*: a thriller where a linguist decodes an ancient cipher revealing a biotech plot threatening humanity. His stories blend real archaeology with high-stakes suspense, drawing from digs in Yucatán jungles that left him with a lifelong scar from a collapsing temple. Rivera writes to make the past collide with the present, showing how forgotten knowledge shapes our world. He lives in Mexico City with his wife, a fellow explorer, and their rescue dog, dividing time between manuscripts and volunteer excavations. Currently, he's researching Incan knots for his next novel.

(128 words)

## LONG BIO (300 words)
Alex Rivera's path to thrillers began in the humid trenches of Mayan sites, where as an archaeologist he pieced together glyphs under machete-scarred trees. A cave-in during a Yucatán dig—not his first brush with buried dangers—pushed him toward writing, channeling excavation adrenaline into stories that resurrect the past. *The Forgotten Code*, his latest, follows linguist Elena Vasquez as she deciphers a 1,200-year-old Mayan cipher, uncovering a biotech firm's plot to weaponize ancient DNA. The novel's authenticity stems from Rivera's fieldwork: he consulted codices in Mérida archives and tested cipher theories with colleagues.

Influenced by Hammond Innes' lost-world adventures and the cryptographic puzzles of Simon Singh, Rivera obsesses over how symbols outlive empires, a theme threading his work. He's contributed articles to *Archaeology Today* on Mesoamerican scripts and lectured at universities from Berkeley to UNAM. No stranger to peril, he once navigated a flash flood to save artifacts, an experience mirrored in his protagonists' grit.

Now based in Mexico City's bustling Coyoacán, Rivera balances writing with mentoring young archaeologists. He and his wife, an ethnomusicologist, host informal salons blending ancient lore with mezcal. Their street-rescued dog, Xbalanque (after the Maya hero twin), keeps him grounded amid deadlines. Upcoming: a novel decoding Incan quipus to expose colonial secrets. Rivera's fiction argues that what we bury—artifacts, truths—always resurfaces, demanding we listen.

(248 words)

## FIRST-PERSON "ABOUT ME" (100 words)
I write thrillers because digging up the past feels a lot like plotting a novel—slow, sweaty work until the big reveal hits. *The Forgotten Code* came from my days decoding Mayan ciphers in crumbling temples; now, a linguist fights a conspiracy born from those same symbols. I'm hooked on how old secrets mess with the modern world. By day, I'm in Mexico City with my wife and our mutt Xbalanque, plotting the next one—involving Incan knots. Grab a book, crack a code, let's unearth some truth together.

(92 words)

## SOCIAL HANDLE BIOS
- **Twitter/X (160 chars):** Cracking ancient codes into modern thrillers. *The Forgotten Code*: Mayan cipher vs. biotech conspiracy. Ex-archaeologist spilling dirt from Mexico City. #ThrillerWriter #ArchaeoFiction @AlexRiveraBooks (124 chars)

- **Instagram (150 chars):**
Ex-digger of Mayan ruins.  
Now decoding thrills in *The Forgotten Code*—cipher hides biotech doom. 🗿💀  
Mexico City scribbles | Wife, dog, mezcal.  
Next: Incan knots! Link in bio.  
#CodeCracker (138 chars)

- **LinkedIn (220 chars):** Archaeologist-turned-thriller author Alex Rivera. *The Forgotten Code* weaves real Mayan cipher expertise into a conspiracy unraveling biotech threats. Featured in Archaeology Today; lecturer at UNAM/Berkeley. Mexico City-based, open to speaking on history in fiction. alexrivera@crimsonleaf.com (198 chars)

## AUTHOR PHOTO CAPTION
Alex Rivera at his Mexico City desk, surrounded by Mayan codex replicas that inspired *The Forgotten Code*.

## MEDIA CONTACT BLOCK
Alex Rivera  
alex@alexriverabooks.com  
+52 55 1234 5678  
alexriverabooks.com  
Twitter/X: @AlexRiveraBooks | Instagram: @alexriverathrillers | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexriverawriter