Brilliant rays of indigo and turquoise glimmered in the dark sky as John Zakour ’79 gazed at the aurora borealis from SUNY Potsdam’s athletic fields. While Zakour only recalls one photo of him being taken during his college years, his mind is full of vibrant memories such as this.
To Zakour, SUNY Potsdam was a second home. With a welcoming atmosphere and a diverse student body, it did not take the Central New York native long to comfortably find his place at the College. Zakour was involved in a wide variety of activities throughout his four years in the North Country—from sports teams to gaming groups.
“I pretty much majored in broomball, foosball and Dungeons & Dragons, with computer science and economics on the side,” Zakour joked.
There is some truth to his quip. Though he graduated with a degree in computer science, Zakour’s career journey has been built upon many aspects of his college experience, even Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy role-playing game still popular on college campuses.
“I always wanted to be a writer, but I went with the more conservative route of becoming a computer programmer, which led to me getting a job at Cornell [University] and learning more about the World Wide Web. Then, I started writing books and interactive fantasy about the World Wide Web,” Zakour shared. “Playing D&D during my Potsdam years helped me become a more creative writer.”
Decades later, Zakour is a full-time writer and has published over 50 titles spanning multiple genres—including fantasy, science fiction and self-help. Some of his stories have been optioned for television shows, though they have not yet continued past a pilot episode. He has also written dozens of video games, one of which has sold over 150,000 copies.
Zakour is most proud of his 2001 novel The Plutonium Blonde, which the Science Fiction Chronicle pronounced the funniest sci-fi novel of the year. The story follows the last private detective on earth as he searches for a plutonium-powered android, and it became the first book in Zakour’s action-packed trilogy.
Zakour wrote The Plutonium Blonde in Costa Rica, where he lived for three years after marrying his wife, Dr. Olga Padilla-Zakour, now the Director of the Cornell Food Venture Center. After Zakour in his home office in Geneva, NY leaving his computer programming job to pursue freelance writing full-time, it was easy for Zakour to make the transnational move. While there, he found success faxing jokes to American television shows, comedians and comics, such as The Tonight Show, Joan Rivers and Mother Goose and Grimm.
“One day, when I was ghostwriting for comics in Costa Rica, I picked up a copy of the Miami paper, and five of the comics were written by me,” Zakour recalled.
In 2002, Zakour started a comic of his own called Working Daze, which depicts amusing social interactions of a fictional office—often based on Zakour’s real-life experiences and acquaintances. Twenty years later, Zakour and his illustrator (now Scott Roberts) still publish a new comic daily with gocomics.com, reaching up to 100,000 readers a day.
Without his experience at SUNY Potsdam, Zakour may have never had the confidence to share his jokes and gags. “Probably my greatest takeaway from my time at Potsdam is that I learned I could make people laugh,” he shared.
Whether crafting relatable jokes or futuristic novels, Zakour finds fulfilment in his work as a writer because he writes what he enjoys. “I figure if I like it, there must be other people who will like it. It’s a nice way to make a living.”
Zakour is a happiness advocate and will always advise others to do what brings them joy. In 2002, he earned a master’s degree in human behavior with a concentration in positive psychology, and he writes a weekly happiness column for the Finger Lakes Times.
To generate his own contentment, Zakour plays pickleball, lifts weights and practices tai chi daily. He also enjoys talking with his son Jay, a lawyer, and playing frisbee with his dog, Daisy.
Zakour often turns to his hobbies when he faces writer’s block. “When writing, every once in a while, I will hit a dead end and not know how I am going to write my way out of it, then I will stop and breathe,” he noted. “Sometimes you just have to walk away or punch your punching bag, and you need the wisdom of knowing which one to choose.”
In 2020, Zakour had the opportunity to share acquired insights from his career with a SUNY Potsdam student intern. Though the experience was cut short due to the pandemic, he enjoyed working with the student and looks forward to possible internship collaborations in the future.
His advice for aspiring authors is simple. “Do what you love and write. Don’t even follow the money anymore; do what you love and do it often. The secret to success is showing up every day.”
When Zakour is developing an idea for a story, he creates a roadmap for the plot of the project—but it always encourages detours. In many ways, the “detours” in Zakour’s life have led him to where he is today. From his career switch to his move to Central America, Zakour has found success and happiness because he was unafraid to show up, look towards the unknown and take the next step.