John Thompson

John Thompson wrote his first story in grade school, a first-person account of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima told from the perspective of a man standing directly under the bomb as it fell. The story ended very abruptly and his teacher accused him of being too lazy to finish it.

He's been bitter about it ever since.

In spite of this setback, while in high school Thompson indulged his love of writing by mimicking his favorite authors in stories no one will ever read. After dropping out of college to find himself, he has maintained two blogs and entertained friends and family with travel journals. Since retirement in 2012, Thompson has self-published an account of living full-time in an RV, received several polite rejections from science fiction magazines such as F&SF, Asimov's, and Analog, and written 59.2% of his first novel.

He has also devoted about 50,000 words to growing up in a small town in Iowa, a subject he finds endlessly fascinating.