Peter T Tomaras

Peter T. Tomaras was born of a Greek father and an American mother. As a young man, he lived in Greece for a year, married there, and has made many return trips. He has also traveled in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, France, Italy, and Spain—the perfect grounding for the novels he would write. In Greece at the time of the July, 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Mr. Tomaras became emotionally immersed in that tragedy and has made research trips to Cyprus. He has lectured on Cyprus, and contributed articles on Cyprus to The Washington Times, The Hellenic Journal and Greek Accent. He has published upwards of 250 non-fiction articles in local, regional and national papers and magazines. Since undertaking to adapt his journalistic voice to fiction, he has published novel excerpts in The Hellenic Journal, and in the Blue Moon anthologies published by the Red Herring Fiction Writers Workshop at the University of Illinois.

"Journalistic research underlies my fiction," says Tomaras, "but my inspiration is emotional. The story lines for Resistors and Innkeeper spring from compelling experiences and the need to express them. Born into vague concepts of plot, my characters simply take over and write their own stories...my fingers enable their self-realization."

The idea for Innkeeper germinated during Mr. Tomaras’ extensive career in active hotel management. But the hotels he managed were relatively small, and mostly independent. Key to Innkeeper was behind-the-scenes, on-site research he conducted at major hotels in the United States, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus, arranged through the courtesies of the CEOs of Hilton Hotels and Hilton International. He also researched the U.S. Department of State, meeting with desk officers in Washington, DC and family members of senior Foreign Service officers. Only then did he feel qualified and empowered to write Innkeeper.

Mr. Tomaras devoted most of eight years to Innkeeper. Unable to attract a publisher, he shelved the book and, after retiring from a second hospitality-related career, wrote a “more commercial” novel, Resistors. This action/adventure novel is primarily an intercontinental love story, but it involves extensive use of firearms, with which Mr. Tomaras, a long-time competitor with both rifles and pistols, was knowledgeable. A segment on Vietnam helicopter combat required meticulous research into the arms used not only by the U.S. and Vietnamese forces, but also some employed by the Israeli Navy. His Cyprus locales are authentic, and he believes his Vietnam chapters are, as well.

Mr. Tomaras ultimately self-published Resistors with CreateSpace and on www.amazon.com to positive reviews and encouraging public acceptance. Four years later, he took Innkeeper, the novel he first composed decades before, off the shelf, trimmed and fine-tuned the manuscript, and again self-published. Again, the locales and events that transpire in Greece and Europe are authentic, as Mr. Tomaras honors the international hotel industry, the U.S. Foreign Service, and his Hellenic heritage as he unfolds a love story that should resonate with anyone who has experienced the passions and disappointments of true love.

Mr. Tomaras spent his high school years at Shattuck School in Faribault, MN, then earned a BA in Economics at the University of Illinois, and an MBA at Illinois State University. He served eight years as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. During his long career in the hospitality industry, Mr. Tomaras has owned, managed, taught at the college level, and consulted. As culmination to his decades-long career in hospitality, Mr. Tomaras now practices as a litigation-support expert, working with attorneys on hotel and restaurant cases. He offers special expertise in hotel safety and security.

Read more about his consulting work at www.thehospitalityexpert.com.