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Between 1962 and 1969 Zelazny worked for the Social Security Administration in Cleveland and then in Baltimore, spending his evenings writing science fiction. He deliberately progressed from short-shorts to novelettes to novellas and finally to novel-length works by 1965. On 1969 he quit to become a full-time writer, and thereafter concentrated on writing novels in order to maintain his income.

Zelazny was married twice, in 1964 in 1966.

Zelazny was considered one of the leading lights of the ”New Wave” movement in science fiction in the 1960s. He incorporated elements from literary novels of the mainstream into his fiction, and experimented with allusion, lyricism, and mythic imagery. His stories often involved characters from myth, depicted in the modern world. Zelazny's fiction was also highly influenced by wisecracking detective fiction. He was also apt to include modern elements, such as cigarettes, in his fantasy worlds.

A frequent theme is gods or people who become gods. Another recurrent theme is the ”absent father” (or father-figure).