Eric Nylund was born in 1964, and spent his youth in California. He has a bachelor's degree in Chemistry and a masters degree in Chemical Physics. In the 1990s he was hired by Microsoft to help rewrite and edit scientific parts of Microsoft's multi-media encyclopedia. Since then, he has written novels for several games, including Halo and Crimson Skies. Crimson Skies was written along with fellow Halo writer Eric S. Trautmann. One of Nylund's personal heroes is Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury. He was able to meet Bradbury at the San Diego Comic Con in 2007.