John Armstrong

I was born and raised in Little Italy on the East Side of Vancouver. In my early teens we moved to the small town of White Rock on the US border and I met Art Bergmann, which led to 15 years of playing music for a living and generally acting in a shameful and often legally actionable manner. This is recounted in explicit detail in Guilty of Everything, now that the crimes therein are no longer prosecutable.

My main band in those years was the Modernettes. Interested parties can search for the name, some videos are up on YouTube. In 2006 we did a reunion tour of Japan, where we got to be The Beatles for 10 days.

In my early 30s I began writing and freelanced for a few years before joining the Vancouver Sun in 1990. For the next 15 years I was a reporter and columnist covering crime, politics, theatre, music, popular culture, and science. In 2006 I left the paper to write full-time and have published four books since, with several others in varying stages of pre-publication.

My latest release is A Series of Dogs, a remembrance of the dogs in my life, from New Star Books.

Under my own imprint Pachuco Press over the next year or so are:

Mob Rule, an alt-history satire in which the Mob took over America in the 1930s, and had to go straight, more or less.

Sugar, a dystopian-future novel set Just About Any Time Now. "It's the same old story, Young love, drugs, and the End of Everything."

Schadenfreude, Inc., an SF comedy in which Earth becomes a hot destination for galactic tourists, who come here to observe and study our atrocities, unique in the known universe. Probably the best comedy about genocide and self-inflicted human misery you'll read this year. I guarantee it.

The Circle of St. George. Historical fantasy based on a true story. During the Second World War British magicians and witches used magic to keep the Germans from invading the UK. That's the true part - the rest I made up, except for the part about naked Winston Churchill, which is also true. Adventure, Romance, and Enchantment, with occasional breaks for tea.

I currently live on a smallish mountain in Chilliwack, BC, at the foot of the Cascades, a rural God, Guns, and No Weirdness place in which I am the only one driving a truck and blasting Kurt Weill, obscure '70s funk/R&B, and the MC5 from my speakers.

I have a wife, Penny, two step-kids, a Rotweiller named Bobo and a '79 Corvette I drive in the summer. Also, far too many old guitars and amps. And many, many books.

If you like my stuff, please help spread the word. It's much appreciated. Reviewers and book bloggers always welcome - let me know where and I'll send you copies.

My current favourite quotes:

"The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons."

― Jean Renoir

“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”

― Napoleon Bonaparte