Author Bio
David Z. Pyke is a native Texan related to one of the Alamo defenders. His great-great-great-great-great-granduncle, Isaac Millsaps, was one of the Immortal 32, the reinforcements from Gonzales who answered William Barret Travis's call for help, rode to San Antonio, and died in the Alamo on March 6, 1836.
A professional writer since 1975, Pyke has written for newspapers, magazines, and websites.
In 1991, a mutual friend introduced David to Suzanne, an English literature teacher from Missouri. Their first date was on a Friday the 13th. She later confessed that before that first date, she read some of his stories to make sure he could write. Apparently, he received a passing grade. They were engaged five months later, married four months after that, and in 2022 celebrated their 30th anniversary.
Artwork
The images below are:
- All Hot and Bleeding's cover
- Rescuing Crockett's cover
- author David Z. Pyke
Click an image for the full image.
Influences
A writer is the sum of their reading, and these authors and books have particularly influenced Pyke's writing.
- Peter Benchley's Jaws
- James Carlos Blake's In The Rogue Blood, Wildwood Boys, Friends of Pancho Villa, The Pistoleer, Red Grass River, A World of Thieves, Handsome Harry, and The Killings of Stanley Ketchel
- Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles
- Geraldine Brooks's The Secret Chord
- Max Brooks's World War Z and Devolution
- Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama
- Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles, Sharpe series, The Last Kingdom series, Grail Quest series, Starbuck Chronicles, Stonehenge, Fools and Mortals, 1356, Agincourt, and Redcoat; and his nonfiction, Waterloo
- S.A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears
- Justin Cronin's The Passage, The Twelve, and City of Mirrors
- Clive Cussler's Raise The Titanic and Treasure
- Frederick Forsyth's The Day Of The Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, and Avenger
- Neil Gaiman's American Gods
- Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, Mindbridge, and All My Sins Remembered
- Stephen Harrigan's The Gates of the Alamo
- Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers
- Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, It, The Stand, Cell, Duma Key, Elevation, and Billy Summers
- Elmore Leonard's Killshot
- Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, Dead Man’s Walk, Comanche Moon, Anything For Billy, and Zeke and Ned
- Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer
- Lauren Owen's The Quick
- Frederik Pohl's Gateway
- Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire, Tides of War, Last of the Amazons, The Virtues of War, The Afghan Campaign, Killing Rommel and A Man At Arms
- John Scalzi's Old Man's War series
- V.E. Schwab's Vicious and Vengeful
- Clifford D. Simak's Way Station
- Barry Strauss's The Death of Caesar, The Trojan War, The Spartacus War, The Battle of Salamis, Ten Caesars, and The War That Made The Roman Empire
- Stephan Talty's Agent Garbo and Empire of the Blue Water
- Studs Terkel's The Good War
- Leon Uris's Battle Cry
- Andy Weir's The Martian
- Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff
- and Audie Murphy's memoir, To Hell and Back
Contact
author@davidzpyke.com
