In 1973, the world was introduced to a bloody and screaming baby boy that would become known as Derek M. Koch. The firstborn son of a military family, he moved around during his childhood, having lived in the blistering desert of Tucson, AZ, the wind-chilled plains of Cheyenne, WY, and the just-too-bloody-cold winterscapes of Bozeman, MT; he and his wife (and three cats) now live quite comfortably in the Northwest climes of Portland, OR. Having first put pencil to paper in the mid-80s, Derek began to seriously pursue writing as something other than just a hobby in the late-90s, and since then has written for a number of different websites as a columnist or reviewer. Writing in the fantasy and horror genres, Derek's short fiction will appear in print for the first time in 2008.

When he wasn't writing, Derek was learning to use his family's camcorder to produce and direct his own no-budget and student movies. In junior high school, a classmate looked at him and asked, "Hey, wanna make a movie?" and since then, Derek has never been far from a video camera. While his focus is now on his writing, Derek still works on the the occasional short movie, and his efforts have made him an international award winner. Firmly entrenched in the horror genre, Derek has performed as a writer, director, videographer, actor, editor, producer and special make-up effects artist.

His story-telling influences come from a variety of people, both alive and dead. Robert E. Howard, George A. Romero, Dougles Clegg, John Carpenter, Bill Roberts, Stephen King, Jack Arnold, H. P. Lovecraft, Jason Santo, George R. R. Martin, Bill Mantlo, Edward Martin III and Lloyd Alexander are just a few of the responsible parties for shaping Derek into the creator he is today.

Derek maintains both a LiveJournal and a MySpace page.