Aaron Allston: Biography

I was born in 1960 in Corsicana, TX. Related to too many strange people ever to lead a normal life, I began writing at the age of 11; I perpetrated my first short story at 14 and my first novel at 16. (Mercifully, both are hidden away from the eyes of men.) I studied journalism, among other things, in high school in Denton, TX, graduating in 1979.

I moved to the nation's capital, Austin, intending to continue journalism studies at the University of Texas while writing on the side, but neither a semester at the university nor a year with the Austin American-Statesman proved agreeable.

After leaving the newspaper in 1980, I was hired by game designer and publisher Steve Jackson as circulation manager for Space Gamer magazine; over the next two years, I became assistant editor and then editor of the magazine. I also began designing game supplements on a freelance basis, for Steve Jackson Games and then for Hero Games. In 1983, shortly after Space Gamer won the H.G. Wells Award for Best Role-Playing Magazine of 1982, I went freelance full-time as a game designer, doing most of my work for Hero Games and Dungeons & Dragons publisher TSR.

My first novel, Web of Danger, game-based fiction supporting the Top Secret/S.I. game line, was released by TSR in 1988. In 1993, Baen Books published my second novel, the original fantasy Galatea in 2-D. Subsequently, I gradually moved from game design to full-time fiction writing.

I live in the Austin area with three roommates, three cats, and a dog. I am unmarried. I enjoy reading, movies, ping-pong, and avoiding the rays of the accursed sun.