William I ZardWilliam I. Zard is the pen name for Patrick G. Heck's fantasy fiction writing. He was born in Ohio but moved to Massachusetts at the age of ten. His originally intended career was Biology, and he earned a Bachelors and a Masters in Biology at Clark Uiversity and S. U. N. Y. Buffalo. He caught the writing bug during the final project for his creative writing class at Clark University. Since the assignment was to write a "short story," and his writing quickly expanded to twenty-seven pages with a lame, tacked-on ending, it wasn't much of a success as a final project. However, he continued reading and writing and building a world for his characters and their story for many years. Eventually, he had so many ideas he wanted to share that he finally got serious about publishing his work. Nine months later, Metamancer was finished and ready for publication.His writing is influenced by a wide variety of authors. The strongest influences would be Ursula K. LeGuin, David Eddings, Glen Cook, and Dragonlance Chronicles/Legends. Robert Jordon is also a big influence, though in both positive and negative ways. He also admires Patrick Rothfuss's work but not his publication schedule.In addition to science, computers, and fiction, he also enjoys autocross racing, computer games, the game of Go, and flying airplanes. Read More Read Less