John edits and writes speculative fiction across multiple genres and loves stories about ordinary people stepping up to do extraordinary things. He loves to
create and fix things, whether editing or writing novels or short stories or working in his secret lair equipped with dangerous power tools. In all cases, he applies engineering principles and processes to the task at hand, often in unpredictable ways.
He lives in Utah with his lovely wife and a variable number of mostly grown children and a constantly changing subset of extended family.
“The Riland Throne series (starting with Crystal King) came about because I’ve always loved a good fantasy story. Much of my inspiration comes from years ago as a teenager reading my father’s library and coming across a whole section of books by Andre Norton. I’ve inherited and expanded that library, and I’m into the 40s now on Andre Norton novels. In her books, you will see a regular recurring theme of animals, crystals, and mind-linking. I wanted to take several of those same themes and put them into a magic system that was a lot more “crunchy” and rule-based, sort of like what Brandon Sanderson does with magic in his books to make it a predictable and understandable part of the world. I threw my protagonist and some big challenges into the mix, and I was off to the races.
I love to create things. I build fancy boxes out of exotic woods. I tinker with electronic gadgets. I built a two-car garage in my back yard. Building something new brings a satisfaction that you can’t relate to until you’ve done it. Creating stories is one of those areas where I get to create something that never existed before. The difference with books, is I can share them with an unlimited number of people. That custom pen from the lathe can only go to one person.”
Book titles:
Crystal King
Crystal Queen
Crystal Empire
All Made of Hinges (with my story Marching On to Glory)
Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel (I edited this anthology)
Of Fae and Fate (with my story The Bannik and the Soap)
Haunted Yuletide (with my story Ghost Train)