John Hamilton

I am a graduate of Eastern Illinois University where I was Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Sociology and later an MA in Public Policy with a minor in International Relations. I served as a Student Supreme Court Justice at the University, was the president of two organizations and the founder of one, a student policy think tank (EICAP). I was a member of the National Honor Society for Sociology and for Political Science. A lot of blah blah blah there.

Anyway, I currently reside in SW Tennessee, run a small farm and a little store. I have 4 daughters that are worthy of their own books. When people ask me how I am, I say "old and creaky." Its the mileage folks.... the mileage.

I loved role-playing between classes in college. I liked being inside the story with my alter ego and having a say in how the story ends. Interestingly, I learned a whole lot about people doing that. You see, when people are freed from the constraints of their inhibitions in a fantasy world, you get to see more closely who people really are by the way they act in that world. I learned a lot of people are not nearly as good as they purport to be on the surface. Just an interesting observation.

The "Prince of Providence" fantasy series was inspired by snippet memories of my gaming experience and real life experiences too. Its real crowning achievement has been, as reviewers have noted, how extremely visual the writing is. I wanted people to feel like they could see this world through the eyes of the characters. The writing style, for this reason, uses "real voice" dialog for the characters, which means it is written as it sounds when the character says it. There are imbedded accents and non-English languages are used too, but in a way that isn't confusing or disruptive. You can't have a multicultural world where everybody speaks the same language. Like good role-playing, I felt it was important to feel totally immersed in the world of the characters.

I have really been writing most of my life, but was always too busy chasing rainbows somewhere to make myself take the big plunge with novels. No one really writes about spiritual or religious-oriented characters because, frankly, no one seems to understand them or think they will be interesting. But, magic is not and was never the only force at work in the world. There is a lot of knowledge and thought-provoking ideas I wanted to present and everyone who has read these books has been really moved by them. I even got a comparison to J.R.R. Tolkein; pretty flattering. I hope you find a part of yourself in these stories, because they are human stories (and I assume you're human).

For many years now I've spent my Octobers as a "scare" actor (see author pictures) and have mastered the art of "being the monster."