The fifth of seven children, Vince Flynn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1966. He graduated from St. Thomas Academy in 1984, and the University of St. Thomas with a degree in economics in 1988. After college he went to work for Kraft General Foods where he was an account and sales marketing specialist. In 1990 he left Kraft to accept an aviation candidate slot with the United States Marine Corps. One week before leaving for Officers Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program, due to several concussions and convulsive seizures he suffered growing up. While trying to obtain a medical waiver for his condition, he started thinking about writing a book. This was a very unusual choice for Flynn since he had been diagnosed with dyslexia in grade school and had struggled with reading and writing all his life.

Having been stymied by the Marine Corps, Flynn returned to the nine to five grind and took a job with United Properties, a commercial real estate company in the Twin Cities. During his spare time he worked on the idea he had for a book. After two years with United Properties he decided to take a big gamble. He quit his job, moved to Colorado and began working full time on what would eventually become Term Limits . Like many struggling artists before him he bartended at night and wrote during the day. Five years and sixty plus rejection letters later he took the unusual step of self-publishing his first novel. The book went to number one in the Twin Cities and within a week had a new agent and two book deal with Pocket Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint.

Term Limits hit the New York Times Best Seller List in paperback and started a trend for all of Flynn's novels. Seven books later he has become a perennial best seller and is lauded for his research and prescient warnings about the rise of Islamic Radical Fundamentalism and terrorism. Read by current and former presidents, foreign heads of state and intelligence professionals around the world, Flynn's novels are taken so seriously one high ranking CIA official told his people, “I want you to read Flynn's books and start thinking about how we can more effectively wage this war on terror.”

The high-level of success and attention Flynn has garnered from his novels eventually brought him to Hollywood. In 2005 he was approached by the creators of the hit FOX show “24” and asked if he would join the writing staff. With a family in Minnesota and a fresh four book deal from Simon & Schuster imprint Atria, a move to L.A. was not in the cards. A middle ground was reached and Flynn came on board as story consultant for season five. In the Fall of 2006 Flynn signed a deal with FOX to create a new series with Joel Surnow, Bob Cochran and Howard Gordon, the brain trust behind “24”. Flynn finished the script this past February and is now in rewrites, while working on his 9 th novel Protect and Defend , which will be published on October 30 th , 2007.

Flynn lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and three children

Other works by Flynn include: Transfer of Power , The Third Option , Separation of Power , Executive Power , Memorial Day , Consent to Kill and Act of Treason .