Phil Zack was born in New York City and grew up in the suburbs of nearby Long Island, where he caught the science fiction bug while confined to home for three month in grade school with some disease they never identified properly. Although he didn't finish his BS in Space Technology, within ten years of leaving Florida Institute of Technology he was working on NASA's Deep Space Network at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Writing had always been a part of Phil's life, but until a short story insisted in 1983 that he write it, that was mostly in the form of technical documentation on software projects. The story became the core of his first novel, The Shoals of Time, and quickly took over his life, even causing him to quit his job to focus on the project.

Unfortunately, complex stories by unknown writers weren't in demand after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, so he shelved the project and returned to the job market, but focussed this time on writing rather than on software.

In the late 1990s, after returning again to contract employment, he triggered a series of major changes by starting a small business in a field he knew nothing about. When Print-on-Demand technology offered another means of getting "Shoals" out, he took advantage of the situation, and in late 2000 completed that long-delayed project. After closing his business, he turned his attention once more to writing. As of the end of 2002, he has one novel in submission and another in development.

Biography provided by the author, December 2002.