Author Behcet Kaya, in his first novel Voice of Conscience, transports his readers to the land of his birth, bringing to life all of the sights, sounds, and smells of a place steeped in centuries of tradition and exacting customs. Calling upon his own life experiences, he weaves a story of love and revenge that plays itself out on three continents.

Behcet was born in northeastern Turkey. Growing up in a very small village with long held traditions, his rebellious nature emerged at an early age. By the time he was ten, he had read, in secret, all of the Turkish translated stories of Mike Hammer. In addition, he read several of Dale Carnage’s works, and all of Yashar Kemal’s novels. His world burst out beyond that of his small village and he yearned for a more western way of life.

Defying his father, who wanted him to remain in the village to work and support his large family, Behcet left home at fourteen and travelled first to Istanbul and soon, on to London. In London his obsession was to complete his high school education and then a college degree in engineering. He supported himself by working full-time and earning scholarships from Inner London Education Authority. His long held belief was that, to earn an honorable and respectable living, he must complete his engineering degree and that no other employment would suffice. His creative side, however, began emerging when his drama and literature teacher cast him in a play in which his performance awed the audience. His insatiable appetite for literature widened to include the classics of Dickens, D.H. Lawrence, and the Russian masters.

While at Hatfield Polytechnic, Behcet made his first visit to the US as an exchange student with the British Universities North American Club. Behcet made the move to the US in 1976 and became a US citizen in 1985. While living in Atlanta, Georgia, he followed his creative yearnings, attending the Alliance Theater School and studying at the SAG Conservatory of Georgia, which earned him his Screen Actors Guild card. In 1994, Kaya and his wife moved to Los Angeles, where he continued his studies at the Roby Theater Company and the Shakespeare, A Noise Within Theater Workshop.

Along with acting, writing became a natural outlet for his creative yearnings. He has published several short stories and is currently working on two novels; one a sequel to
Voice of Conscience, the other a story of a naval officer.