David Z. Pyke is a native Texan related to one of the Alamo defenders. His great-great-great-great-great-granduncle, Isaac Millsaps, was one of the Immortal 32, the reinforcements from Gonzales who answered William Barret Travis's call for help, rode to San Antonio, and died in the Alamo on March 6, 1836.
His relationship with words began in elementary school, where he read Beowulf and Dracula by the time he was 10 years old. Pyke began writing professionally in 1975 and has written for newspapers, magazines, and websites.
In 1991, a mutual friend introduced David to Suzanne, an English literature teacher from Missouri. Their first date was on Friday the 13th. Suzanne later confessed that before that first date, she read some of David’s stories to see if he could write. Apparently, he received a passing grade. They were engaged five months later, married four months after that, and in 2022 celebrated their 30th anniversary.