Eric S. Nylund was born in 1964, though his writing career didn't seem to begin until 1995. He is a novelist and professional technical writer. He is married to another Sci-fi writer, Syne Mitchell.
Eric Nylund is the author of Halo: The Fall of Reach, a novel that acts as a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo: First Strike, a sequel to Halo: The Flood and prequel to Halo 2, and a sequel to Halo 2, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. Despite this, his actual job is as a writer for Microsoft Gaming Studios. His job is to develop character and story bibles, write backstory, prepare materials for Marketing, write game manuals, write game scripts, consult on voice casting, direct voice actors, and coordinate with MS Localization, Legal, and Geopolitcal departments
He was born in 1964, and spent his youth in California. He has a bachelor's degree in Chemistry and a masters degree in Chemical Physics. In the 1990s he was hired by Microsoft to help rewrite and edit scientific parts of Microsoft's multi-media enyclopedia. Since then, he has written novels for several games, including Halo, Crimson Skies, and Gears of War. Crimson Skies was written along with fellow Halo writer Eric S. Trautmann.
Nylund has implied in an issue of Bungie Weekly Update that he may not be avaliable to write the announced 5th and 6th books for the Halo series.