Author's Life:
Nicholas Irving was born and raised in Maryland. He is the son of two Cold War era veterans. Both of his parents worked multiple jobs. At one point, his mom was the janitor at his high school. He got picked on for that and got into fights for the same reason. He joined the military during the early days of the Global War on Terror. He graduated in 2004 with a GPA of 1.7. Less than a year later, he joined the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq. He had aspirations of becoming a sniper like his idol, Carlos Hathcock, who was a Vietnam War hero. Nicholas Irving was a sniper in the Army's Special Operations 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. He recounts his experiences of combat and life after the Army. Nick and his spotter, Mike Pemberton, are credited with killing high ranking terrorists of the Taliban. He left the service in 2010. After he left, he didn't really have a plan. He spent his savings on his alcohol obsession that could've easily put him into homelessness. While he was in his alcohol frenzy, he wrote his first book, "The Reaper". The book was such a success that he was featured on "American Grit", a television program that has four teams representing the, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Army. Each team competes against each other physically. He was the team coach that represented the U.S. Army. He now is the owner of HardShoot, where he trains personnel from Olympians to members of the Special Ops community, in the art of long-range shooting. ("The Reaper") ("American Grit")
Author/Character Comparison:
In The Way of the Reaper, the author of the book is the main character, Nicholas Irving.