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Bill hard at work at the beach (in the woods -- it's an Adirondacks thing). I write most of my first drafts by hand...in cursive. (Ask an old person what cursive is, kids.)
Bill Smith's writing credits include:
Bill Smith's books have sold nearly half a million copies. He has written for leading publishers such as Del Rey Books, Little Brown, Lucasfilm, Topps, West End Games, TSR Inc. and Wizard Press.
From 1991 to 1997, he served as the Star Wars roleplaying game line editor for West End Games. In 1995, he was voted "Favorite Designer" by the RPGA, the world's largest organization for role-playing game enthusiasts. He has also written for Hershey Foods, the WIT Agency, and has been involved in motorsports promotion, marketing and journalism for nearly three decades.
Bill can't remember a time that he didn't love science fiction and fantasy. He remembers being three or four years old and watching Star Trek reruns with his Mom and spending time in his Kindergarten class drawing crude pictures of Sleestacks and thinking up new story ideas for Land of the Lost.
Bill was in the fourth grade when he realized that he wanted to be an author. Growing up in a small, rural town, he discovered Star Wars not through the movies, but through comics and novels.
He very clearly remembers pestering a classmate to borrow his copy of the Marvel Star Wars Super Special, flipping through scenes of X-Wing and TIE fighters battling above the Death Star, and thinking to himself, "I want to write this when I grow up!"
His fate was decided from that moment. He spent countless hours writing stories featuring Han Solo and his trusty sidekick, Luke Skywalker, and soon after that, added Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers stories, in addition to creating his own characters and settings. In eighth grade, he spent a few minutes flipping through a friend's Dungeons and Dragons rulebook and was captivated. It led to a long-time fascination with creating adventures set in the world of elves, orcs, and twenty-sided dice. At about the same time, he also discovered and fell in love with Marvel and DC comics, read his first Tolkien and Terry Brooks, and his homeroom teacher introduced him to the wonderful Brian Daley Han Solo novels.
Bill, his wife Amy and their son, Billy.
Bill earned a BA Public Communications (1990) from the The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, where he was editor of the student newspaper. During his college years, he also did public relations and race announcing for the Champlain Valley Racing Association, all the while hoping to write roleplaying games, comics and fiction professionally.
In 1991, Bill joined West End Games and fulfilled his childhood dream of professionally writing and developing role-playing games and stories. As line editor for the Star Wars roleplaying game, he edited or contributed to over forty Star Wars game products, authored updated versions of the game, and wrote two Star Wars Essential Guides for Del Rey books. Bill also consulted on several projects for Lucasfilm, including the X-Wing computer game guidebook, the Parker Brothers Star Wars Monopoly edition, several Star Wars novels, and the Star Wars Customizable Card Game from Decipher.
In 1997, Bill left West End Games. He and his wife returned to their hometown in the foothills of New York's Adirondack Mountains. At that time, he began writing what would become the Outlaw Galaxy series. In addition, he served as PR director and promoter at Mohawk International Raceway (then Frogtown International Speedway) and taught at a local high school.
In 2000, Bill and his wife moved to Central Pennsylvania, where he worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency. He developed and wrote the original HersheysRacing.com website (now inactive). In addition, he has held a number of jobs, both dreadfully ordinary and delightfully unusual. He particularly enjoyed his time as a ghost tour guide in Gettysburg, PA (GhostsOfGettysburg.com) and as announcer at Hagerstown Speedway and Susquehanna Speedway Park, now BAPS Motor Speedway.
In 2004, Bill annd his wife returned to their hometown in Northern New York, in the foothills of New York's Adirondack Mountains and just a few miles from the Canadian border. They still live in their hometown, with their son Billy and their adopted poodle, Ted, and enjoy much laughter and a great deal of gratitude for the many blessings they have in their lives.
Bill works a day job to support his writing habit and continues to publish Outlaw Galaxy stories. He hopes you enjoy them.
A cold Spring day, (left) Billy and Bill hanging out, while (right) Ted the poodle photobombs Amy. "Excellent!"
Bill and his wife, Amy, about 2014. Note how dapper Bill looks with that Rush T-shirt -- they were, still are, and always will be the greatest band in the universe!
Chessie, our second poodle, passed away the day before our son, Billy was born. Sometimes the universe works in weird ways.
Our oldest poodle Sabrina (3/17/98-9/11/13) was my everpresent companion, always eager to help out with a snack or sit on my lap and help me write. She was surprisingly good at character development, plotting, and pacing ("Move it, Daddy, this is BOOORRRINNNG, let's go for a walk!") but not so good with dialogue ("Bark, bark, bark!"). She taught me so much about enjoying life and unconditional love. She will always have a special place in my heart.
Our girls together.
Copyright Notice: BillSmithBooks, Outlaw Galaxy, Outlaw Galaxy Tales and Imagination Forge are trademarks of Bill Smith. Copyright 1998-2020 by Bill Smith. Please respect my copyright. Please don't copy, post on torrents or otherwise duplicate my stories without my express permission. Copyright infringement makes me sad.