About the Author

Joseph S. Zeigler has spent eighty years being right about things people didn't want to hear. He built FirePrograms Software, three other software companies, and six computer stores — then watched bean counters dismantle most of what entrepreneurs like him constructed. He founded Penguin Racing School, consulted at Digital Equipment Corporation, and gave Ken Olsen advice that went unheeded. Olsen was still a good man.

He holds degrees in engineering and economics, a pairing that runs through everything he writes: how things are built, and who pays for them. His career has ranged from firefighting in Williamsburg, Virginia, to writing software used by fire departments across the country, to early work in personal computing and shipping systems.

He publishes fiction and essays through Arrakis Publishing, Inc., out of Crystal River, Florida. His ongoing essay series Wars Are What We Do tracks humanity's oldest habit from the first prehistoric graves to the latest drone footage — the conclusion isn't comforting. His political writing has covered Trump's financial irregularities, the Epstein files, the U.S.–Iran conflict, and the slow erosion of democratic institutions by people who know exactly what they're doing.

He is a longtime collector of Bibles and has read across multiple faith traditions. He is also an atheist. These facts are not in conflict.

Joe lives with his wife Lanying and their cat, Cat. They travel between Crystal River and Santa Fe in an RV. Lanying drives. Joe writes. Cat supervises. Read his essays at Burnt Ground.