Background
Andy Weir was raised in the Bay Area. He is an only child. His father is an accelerator physicist. And his mother Duffield is an electrical-engineer. His parents divorced when he was 8.
Andy Weir was raised in the Bay Area. He is an only child. His father is an accelerator physicist. And his mother Duffield is an electrical-engineer. His parents divorced when he was 8.
He studied computer science at UC San Diego, however, he didn't have enough money to finish.
When he was 15, he started to work as a computer programmer for Sandia National Laboratories.
He wrote code for the very popular 1995 game Warcraft II.
In 1999, after he was fired from AOL, he started living on his savings and gave himself three years to get published. He wrote a book which is called "Theft of Pride", however, he couldn’t find an agent.
In 2002, when his time limit was up, Andy Weir got back to programming. He worked for Palm, MobileIron, Blizzard.
However, he never stopped writing. He launched a website Galactanet, where he posted sci-fi Web comics and short stories. He slowly acquired a loyal readership.
In late 2009, he started posting The Martian chapter by chapter. Readers liked it very much. Thus Weir used Amazon’s self-publishing arm and setting the price at the minimum of 99 cents.
At the beginning of 2013 The Martian became a top sci-fi title because there were 35,000 copies sold in four months.
In April 2014, when the print version of his book climbed the New York Times bestseller list, he left his job and started writing full time.
He is a fiscally conservative social liberal, and he tries to keep his political views out of his writing
Andy Weir always wanted to be a writer, however, he studied programming to be on the safe side. He says: 'I don’t like taking financial risk if I can avoid it’.
Quotes from others about the person
The Telegraph:" In 2009, Andy Weir, a computer geek with a chronic fear of flying, turned his musings about a human mission to Mars into an online book that became a phenomenon".
Doctor Who (series)
Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov
Andy Weir now lives in Mountain View, California.
He is single.