Born in Mobile, Alabama, V. H. Mizzell spent the entirety of his childhood there, except for a year in Summit, New Jersey. He holds a BS in Physics from Auburn University and almost but not quite an MS in Mathematics from UAH. He has spent thirty years in the Defense/Aerospace industry, most notably working as a Fortran programmer on the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) and as a Systems Engineer for the Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin, and Northrup Grumman.

He developed a love of Science Fiction when he found Heinlein's juvenile series in the Mobile Public Library Bookmobile. That was also the year that Star Trek premiered and his big sister bought a telescope.