My full name is Zsuzsanna Sophy Zsadanyi, but I use Sophy because English speakers find it easier to pronounce. I was born and raised in Budapest. Before I came to the United States, I have spent a couple of years in Italy.

From my father's bookshelves I discovered SF, first  through fairy tales and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, Alexei Tolstoy, C. S. Lewis, and then later John Varley, Julien May, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Larry Niven. There was no stopping after that. Much later, while raising two daughters, I decided to write my own fiction. Books such as Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Fantasy and Science Fiction, Ben Bova's The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells, and James Gunn's The Science of Science-Fiction Writing proved invaluable.