Born in Salzburg, Austria, of American parents, Thomas Hackney grew up in Washington, DC, and spent his teen years and young adulthood in New York City. After earning a BA degree in psychology at the University of New York at Stony Brook, Tom worked professionally in publishing as an editor on several magazines, in public relations, brokerage, and IT. Throughout his life, he has maintained an avid interest in both science fiction and extraterrestrial possibility (not UFOs), and has published extensively in these and other areas for almost forty years. Tom currently resides in an earth-sheltered home of his own design in the wilds of West Virginia.