John's Bio author of the pendant united states army veteran

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John is a seven-year veteran of the United States Army, an archaeologist, and an IT professional. He is the lead author of Desert Farmers at the River’s Edge and has published in the Michigan Archaeologist. The Pendant is his first novel, Book One of the But Always Me series.

I have always loved books, even before I could read. Reading was a way to escape into exciting adventures where I could become one with the characters. Whether it was riding horses and having shootouts with outlaws in a Louis L’Amour western or trudging through Middle Earth with Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Wizards, I read as much as I could. Not all were fiction, though. I was fascinated about early humans from books in my grandfather’s library and what piqued my interest even more was books my father introduced me to on the subject of Past Lives and Reincarnation. Later I found more metaphysical authors like Richard Bach and Kahlil Gibran.

I grew up in rural Gratiot County, Michigan, where my father's ancestors have lived for over 150 years, although we have been in America for more than 400. On my father’s side, my ancestors settled in Connecticut in the early 1620s while on my mother’s side, they arrived in Jamestown, VA in 1619. I come from a long direct line of military service. My four times great grandfather fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill and later with George Washington during the Revolutionary War. At least two of my two times great grandfathers fought in the Civil War (I have inherited a Civil War marching drum from one of them) and my grandfather was in World War I.

After high school, I joined the US Army, serving during the Cold War in Germany and Oklahoma as a Combat Engineer. After leaving active duty, I served in the Michigan National Guard as an Infantryman while obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, with a focus on archaeology, from Central Michigan University (CMU). That is where I met my wife. I volunteered at the CMU Museum and became the student curator of the Anthropology department. On the weekends I worked at various archaeological sites around Michigan and spent one summer at an archaeology field school at Tobico Marsh Nature Area, north of Bay City.

Once we graduated from college, we moved to Arizona, where I worked as an archaeologist and museum educator, publishing a book on the prehistoric Hohokam people and an article in the Michigan Archaeologist. Five years later we moved back to Michigan to start a family. I now work in IT and we have two wonderful children, one in the US Navy and one in college. We love taking walks, sitting with friends around a firepit, hiking along the shores of the Great Lakes, biking, and binge-watching tv shows.