ABOUT THE AUTHOR

If you have read any of my works, then you have likely seen this blurb: Zachry Wheeler is an award-winning science fiction novelist, screenwriter, and shutterbug. He enjoys casual gardening, serious gaming, and wandering the wilds of New Mexico.

It’s crisp, lean, and willfully vague, as I am never one to overstay my welcome. I am always happy to discuss my writing world when asked, but for the most part, I prefer to stand in the corner with the other nerds and talk about anything but myself. Nevertheless, I do get asked about my origin tale from time to time. So to answer that question (and to help keep my facts straight), I give you my official, extended, author-approved backstory:

The first thing I can say about my writing history is that I never intended to be a writer. I went to college to become an accountant, and I wish there was a punchline to follow that statement. I made it through half of the curriculum before caving to boredom and switching to Computer Science (no offense to the ledger jockeys). Thankfully, all of my accounting classes counted as elective credit, so it wasn’t a giant waste of time. I graduated with a coding dregree and hit the ground running.

That’s when my writing life began, but I didn’t know it at the time. Most people think that programming is just staring at code all day (and they’re not wrong). But, there are many tasks that go along with it, including large amounts of technical writing. You can’t just release an app and hope for the best. You need documentation, wikis, manuals, things like that.

At a baseline, most competent coders are actually decent writers. They need a strong grasp of language to perform their jobs effectively. Translating blocks of machine code into meaningful user instruction is not an easy task. It requires patience and editorial skill. That’s why Technical Writing is its own career. The good ones are worth their weight in gold because they alleviate a lot of confusion and training costs.

This is why I can say that I have been writing professionally for longer than I’ve been a writer. It took me a while to realize that coding was writing, which also gave me the tools to develop my own platforms. I have owned and operated several online ventures over the years, everything from review sites to news outlets. I didn’t recognize it at the time, but I had crafted a bypass to the reputation grind. I had the next best thing: a killer web presence.

When I decided to write fiction, I had already learned the basics. I still needed to learn hooks, structure, provocation, etc. You know, the things that make stories interesting. The first draft of my debut novel Transient actually read pretty well as a thesis on vampire biology, but the story lacked pacing and plot. It sucked, in other words, which kind of defeated the purpose.

That’s when my authorship began to take shape. I studied the craft, read constantly, and devoured every pro tip I could find. The most exciting moment came when I was reading a book and could actually critique it. “This writing sucks and I understand why it sucks.” (I was reading my own book, but that’s beside the point.) I had gained the insight I needed to write decent fiction. I was by no means at a Douglas Adams level, but I finally had momentum and I’ve ridden it ever since.

That’s what writing is to me, a never-ending battle of brain-melting masochism. It’s a skill you never truly master, which I find endlessly appealing. There is a bottomless pit of improvement that I enjoy exploring, so I hope to continue this journey for many years to come. After all, few things are more rewarding than a happy reader.