William R. Burkett, Jr. (born 1943) is a native of Georgia who grew up in
Neptune Florida, and began writing when at age fourteen he given an
ancient Smith-Coronatypewriter. His first science-fiction novel, Sleeping Planet, was published in Analog magazine in 1964, and it was subsequently published in hardcover and paperback in the U.S. and abroad.
On the strength of being a publishedwriter, he was promoted to reporter at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Florida, beginning a career in journalism which led
him from the Bahamas to Pennsylvania to the state of Washington. He
continued to write creatively, and had some fiction and nonfiction magazine
sales. But he found journalism a beguiling mistress, due to the twin
incentives of a steady paycheck and seeing his byline on page one.
In
1978 he left journalism for public relations, and was a public
informationofficer for three different state agencies in Arizona and
Washington state. He edited a monthly tabloid for the Arizona Game and
Fish department, which "required" him to spend days on end out in the
wilds with a gun or fishing rod, doing research. In Washington, he
headed up a negotiating team which settled major litigation between the
state and local Indian tribes over tribal sales of untaxed liquor. And
he won a Clio, a Telly, and other writting awards for TV commercials
which promoted traffic safety.
He left state service 1993 and returned to full-time fiction writing. Bloodsport, his second science-fiction novel, was published in 1998 by HarperPrism.
He has two grown children, Beau and Heather. He and his wife, Wanda,
live in the small logging community of Buckley, Washington, with a
cranky cat and a gun-shy Lab retriever.
