Paul S. Cilwa was born April 8, 1951 in New Jersey. He informed his parents in 1958 that he would be moving to Vermont and they could accompany him if they wished. Since then, he's lived in most of the Eastern states but finally settled in Arizona in 1997.

His career path has been similarly varied. After a range of short-term jobs including radio station disk jockey, ditch digger, tour guide, and Electronics Technician for the US Navy, he became a computer programmer and then corporate instructor of Windows programming, publishing four books on the subject before losing most of his clients in the events of September 11, 2001. He is currently a professional long-haul trucker, but continues to write when not navigating his 18-wheeler along the highways of the Eleven Western States.