Rob Scott began writing fiction as a creative way to engage his father-in-law, Jay Gordon's imagination while Jay's body slowly succumbed to Lou Gehrig's disease. The Hickory Staff (Gollancz, 2005) is the result of two years of storytelling over the phone, via email, and in day-long discussions about characters, plot twists, and mysteries that hopefully helped to distract Jay from his physical battles. Lessek's Key (Gollancz, 2006) and The Larion Senators (Gollancz, 2007) represent the rest of Jay and Rob's collaboration, even though both books were released after Jay died.

Born in New York sometime between RFK’s assassination and One Life to Live’s premiere, Rob Scott studied music at Colby College before turning to education. He received a graduate degree at the University of Massachusetts and moved to Colorado where he worked as a teacher and school administrator. He finished a doctorate at the University of Northern Colorado in 2001 and works now as a high school principal in Northern Virginia. He published a collection of short stories for young readers, The Great M&M Caper and Other Fourth Grade Adventures, which adults are not permitted to read (see his two, school-age children for rules & regulations governing this work.)

He is a guitarist and a distance runner (rarely simultaneously) whose goals include shaving ten minutes off his marathon time, playing Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor with no mistakes, and signing on as a middle reliever for the Boston Red Sox. He has two children involved in martial arts, baseball, soccer, arrow catching, and piano. So most of the time you can find him taxiing back and forth across the region, a mini tape recorder in hand and a laptop under one arm. He drinks too much coffee and often shouts at the 24-hour news channels regardless of whomever else might be in the room. 15 Miles and its sequel, Asbury Park (due August, 2011) are both Gollancz horror/crime releases.