About the Author

Get to Know James "Jim" A. Zarzana

As a novelist, I choose to call myself a writer of speculative science fiction, not a science fiction writer. This is not a semantic ploy: character development, political machinations, and theme drive his works, not plot gimmicks, scientific tricks, and hypotheses about future technology. Marsco uses raw power to control and dictate who and what it wants. It is this conflict between humans and the abuse of power by monolithic political entities that I explore.

As writers, we’re often told, particularly in formal education, to write what you know. Given that we don’t live in a Marsco World–yet–these novels have made use of my expansive imagination.

Many years in the works, first, in internal dialogue and thought only an author can possibly imagine and, subsequently, through many, many drafts, The Marsco Saga is my debut series.

The speculative, science fiction novel, The Marsco Dissident, the initial novel of The Marsco Saga, is my first published work. The second of the four novels, Marsco Triumphant, is available as well. These two novels tell the story of a post-nationhood world where a single mega-corporation, Marsco, controls everything via its absolute control of computer usage. The Marsco Sustainability Project, Book III, tells of the final years of this situation. The Ascendancy of Marsco, Book IV, is the prequel to the nightmare world of Marsco. It will complete The Marsco Saga. Look for its publication in early 2022.

Even though most of my work is in the speculative genre, I am also working on a novel about the academy, which is either a comic look at the incongruous drama of university life or a serious look at the unintended absurdity of academic life. Most recently, I’ve been inspired by my grandson, Torne, to engage in the young adult genre with a new novel, Sir Torne, which is coming soon.

Besides writing and teaching, I enjoy reading fiction ranging from Jane Austen to Pat Barker to Patrick O’Brien. I also read widely in history. Fun fact: the Marsco world is based loosely on the Roman and British Empires.

An avid college football fan, I’ve been known to yell at the television when watching Notre Dame football. Italian to my core, I love cooking Italian food and am known for my Famous Zarzana Spaghetti. It’s been said that once my wife tried my spaghetti, she knew I was the one–the rest was history. It’s possible I’m making that up. However, I’m married to a fellow retired professor, poet, and Notre Dame graduate, Marianne Murphy Zarzana. We have one daughter, Elaine, who is a graduate from Notre Dame and Southwest Minnesota State University. She a fellow educator and writer.

Originally from Sacramento, California, I hold a BA in English from Saint Mary’s College of California and an MA in English from Sacramento State University. After teaching high school in Sacramento, I moved to Indiana, where my love of Notre Dame football began, to begin graduate school at the University of Notre Dame, where I earned a PhD in English, specializing in the British novel. In 1989 I became the newest professor in the English Department at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota. I received the prestigious Cathy Cowan Award for his contribution to the university and the Marshall community in 2014. Having reached the pinnacle of my professorship (read: I wanted more time to write), I retired a year later with emeritus status. I now write full time.