Christopher Stasheff was born on the east coast and grew up in the Midwest. He married Mary Miller and settled down in New Jersey to rear four children while he taught broadcasting and she helped supervise the costume shop. After fifteen years, they became unsettled and moved back to the Midwest where the kids could finish growing up and Dr. Stasheff could make his try at becoming a full-time science fantasy writer. After a dozen years, he returned to teaching at a Southwestern university, where he was able to take his first official creative writing course with the famous science fiction writer Jack Williamson and his colleague Patrice Caldwell.