A native Texan, Payne Harrison admits to having a "jaded past" as a newspaper reporter.
He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Texas A&M and an M.B.A. from SMU, and served as an officer with the U.S. Army in Europe.
His journey to being a New York Times bestselling author started with his sending an except of his book STORMING INTREPID to a New York publishing house, unsolicited and without an agent. That led to a multi-book publishing deal, an appearance on the TODAY show, hitting the New York Times list, and a paperback auction. *I found out later you weren’t supposed to do it that way,” he recalled.
He has had a dual career as a novelist and a forensic litigation consultant, which has required him to use “both hemispheres of the brain. A painful experience but also rewarding.”
His reading gravitates to military history, spy novels, signals intelligence and a trace of sci-fi. “There is a rich fabric of untapped history in those topics, and where it works, I enjoy “crossing borders’ to link two genres together.
His military background dates back to when he was in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M. (Unless you’ve lived it, that experience is hard to explain to outsiders.) From there he spent two years in Germany as a public affairs officer on a brigadier general’s staff where “it was a great time. Made deep friendships and part of my job was managing cocktail parties. It was tough duty, but i’d do again for my country!”
He and his wite live in Maryland