Born in Miami, Florida, the only child of Layton and Virginia Mae Ruse, Gary Alan Ruse has been a professional science fiction and mystery writer since 1972, and a professional illustrator and graphic artist since 1969. Educated in the Miami area, Gary earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in the field of Commercial Art/Graphic Design at the University of Miami at Coral Gables, Florida in 1968, minoring in Mass Communications. He studied television production and scriptwriting as part of his minor. While at the U. of M., Gary worked in student publications, doing writing, photography and artwork for the student newspaper and magazine, and served as Graphics Editor for the magazine during his senior year.

Just before graduation from college, Gary was hired by Morrow Junior Books in New York to illustrate several of a series of children's educational books written by Dr. Herbert S. Zim and James R. Skelly, and had just completed the second book when he was called to military service. Gary served in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Republic of Vietnam 1969-1970, as a Public Information Specialist (reporter, photographer, and editor of the Group level newspaper, editing and polishing materials from the Battalion level offices).

Gary began writing fiction intensively after he returned home from Vietnam, and sold his first story to Analog Science Fiction Magazine in 1972. Numerous other short stories and five novels followed.

Biography provided by the author, November 2001