SENG TY was born in 1968 in the Kompong Speu province of Cambodia, the son of a respected and admired physician who taught him to value life, to aspire to humility, and to seek the good in people. As the child of a well-to-do family, Seng was destined to follow in the footsteps of his oldest brother, who was attending an institution of higher learning in France, and to dedicate himself to the improvement of his native land.
His future, and that of millions of other Cambodians, was destroyed by the advent of the Khmer Rouge, whose four-year reign of blood and unrelenting terror wrenched seven-year-old Seng from the comfort of his home, stripped him of his family and his childhood, and shoved him to the brink of death almost daily.

Nonetheless, Seng managed to survive the depredations of the Khmer Rouge and escape to Phnom Penh, where as an eleven-year-old waif he used his wits to stave off the specter of starvation. As he gradually became more adept at the plying the city’s underground economy, he found a place in it as a middle man, making a living by skimming a little off every transaction. He was only thirteen when he made his way alone to a refugee camp in Thailand, from which he was rescued a year later by an American family and brought to Amherst, Massachusetts.
After graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Seng went on to get married and have a child. He currently works as a guidance counselor at Stoklos and Butler Middle Schools in Lowell, Massachusetts, not far from Boston. He is a frequent speaker in the area, called upon to share his story of hardship, survival, and triumph with students and civic groups.
Seng will never rid himself of his ghosts, nor will he forget the blood-chilling atrocities he has witnessed and experienced. However, he doesn’t crave revenge against those who carried out these atrocities. He desires to share his story of survival and courage only in order to give hope to others.

In his role as a middle school guidance counselor, Seng often comes across children who feel abandoned by their families, beset by brutality and hardship on every side, and cut off from the possibility of a better life. When he speaks with these children, who are often otherwise inconsolable, he tells them of the atrocities he faced in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. In the process establishes a connection with them. He shows them that they are not alone in the world, that there are those who know what they are going through.

Seng’s wish is that The Years of Zero will give him a platform to expand his message beyond the circle of his students in Lowell, to people all over the world who are in need of a little hope.

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MICHAEL JAN FRIEDMAN is the author of sixty-five books of fiction and nonfiction. In a career that spans three decades, eleven of his titles have appeared on the prestigious New York Times bestseller lists and several more have achieved bestseller status in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia. Friedman has written for network television, his episode of Star Trek: Voyager (guest-starring Joel Grey) acclaimed by series star Kate Mulgrew as one of her favorites in the show’s seven-year run.

Friedman also counts among his credits a number of projects in cable television, radio, and comic books. His Darkstars title, a science fiction series published by DC Comics, became a cult favorite in the 1990s. He has also written comic stories on such four-color icons as X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, and The Fantastic Four.

As a collaborator, Friedman worked with wrestler and worldwide media icon Hulk Hogan on his powerhouse authorized biography, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, which launched a series of highly profitable wrestling bios for Simon & Schuster. More recently, he partnered with Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, the Sci.Fi Channel’s Ghost Hunters, on their Ghost Hunting casebook.

Friedman lives with his wife and two sons on the North Shore of Long Island, where he is known as an avid runner, kayaking enthusiast, and single-wall handball player.