Rick Polney was born and raised in Delaware and then moved with his parent to Avoca when he was five. He had a relatively uneventful childhood, school, crushes, karate, chemistry lab, acne, no dates, restraining orders, went to prom with an ugly girl, mayhem on the high seas, adventures on distant planets. The whole nine yards.
He graduated from the University of Scranton (a fine Jesuit college) and then went on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army. In six and a half years, he has served in Indianapolis, Fort Bragg, Albuquerque, Fort Jackson, South Korea and finally, Las Vegas, Nevada. He has seen a lot of strange things in his travels, not as many as some, but definitely more than most.
His literary influences include Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, J. G. Ballard, Blaise Cendrars, and Eli Coppola. A Harlan Ellison story was the final impetus that motivated him to write full time. So he resigned his commission and sought entrance to Creative Writing programs across the country. He applied to seven schools, all but Temple University denied him admission. One out seven isn't the best success rate, but hey, you take what you can get.
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Created 17 June 2000
Updated 1 July 2000