About Jim Dattilo.
A writer of dark rooms and difficult choices, in his own words and in the third person — because the third person is more honest about a writer than the first.
Jim Dattilo lives in New Jersey with his wife, Vicki. He has worked in clinical research at the University of Pennsylvania for over twenty years, and previously served as the guide to Computer Simulation Games for About.com and as a volunteer research coordinator at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He lives with Spinal Muscular Atrophy — a form of muscular dystrophy with symptoms similar to ALS, but a very different progression.
His love of the zombie genre began the night his older sister made him watch George Romero's Night of the Living Dead as a teenager. The interest went dormant for a while, and was rekindled by The Walking Dead. He found interactive fiction through Choose Your Own Adventure paperbacks; he found his vocation after reading Choice of the Vampire and discovering that Hosted Games existed. He started writing Zombie Exodus almost immediately.
Today his novels are published through Choice of Games, Hosted Games, and StoryLoom, and have been read by hundreds of thousands of readers across Steam, iOS, Google Play, and Amazon. He is currently writing Zombie Exodus: Stronghold, released chapter by chapter on StoryLoom.
Away from the desk
Jim runs a long-running Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign for two childhood friends, and plays in a Vampire: The Masquerade Elders chronicle on Roll20. He keeps a cabinet dedicated to Keurig K-cups — for variety, not consumption — and a well-stocked bar in the same spirit.
His favourite author is Stephen King, his favourite filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, and his favourite television show is the original Highlander — which directly inspired a special achievement in A Wise Use of Time. In 2013 he produced a documentary with Reel9 Productions, The Way to Kevin, which screened at QFest Philadelphia at the Ritz East Theater.
Get in touch
The best place to reach him is jimd@gamesbyjimd.com. He's also on X / Twitter, Instagram, Patreon, in the Zombie Exodus Facebook group, and on the Discord.