John York

Biography

I grew up in a rural town in central Ohio and have fond memories of working on the extended-family farms during the summer months of my youth. I had hoped to attend Ohio State University after high school, to study art, but we couldn’t quite manage the costs, so I joined the Air Force. I served with the 3rd Air Rescue and Recovery Group in Viet Nam and then on to Thailand with the 40th Rescue and Recovery Squadron toward the end of that unpopular war. I left the military in 1974, and bumped around for several years as a kind of vagabond, doing all kinds of crazy jobs in several different places. I called that period of my life the pirate years.
I finally attended college at Florida Atlantic University and received my bachelor’s degree in computer science. I worked in that industry for the next 24 years. The beginning of this period was when the Internet was being born, and I was lucky enough to have been involved in many of the historic efforts to create and evolve those technologies.
Along the way, my wife, Paula, and I built our beloved Hellanback Ranch in the back country of San Diego County. This was our little piece of paradise where we raised livestock, planted wine grapes, and started a winery. Ramona, the little town a few miles from the ranch, was a great place to live, and, over the years, we became very involved in the community, getting to know just about everybody. The time came, however, when ranching and winemaking were a bit overwhelming and we made the painful decision to sell the ranch. We relocated to New Port Richey on the west coast of Florida so that I could focus on writing.
I got the idea to start writing novels around 2014. I did a lot of professional writing dealing with management and technology during my career, but I always loved just telling stories. It was in my blood, as they say. I retired in 2016 and I’ve been writing ever since. I’ve published books in several different genres and have really enjoyed working on each one. The stories just keep pouring out of my head. I also love to cook, play the piano and sing, and I’ve composed several songs. Of course, I love to drink wine — I was a winemaker. I’m still involved with winemakers back in California, and enjoy mentoring a few people who are just getting started in that industry.

Smashwords Interview

What are your favorite books, and why?
I have read a lot of books, but now I mostly listen to audio books, which I enjoy a lot. These days I rotate from listening to history books and fictional books. I love learning about the details of historic events, but that can get to be a bit tedious, and often depressing, depending on the topic. I like science fiction and fantasy, but also enjoy a good adventure. From time to time, based on a recommendation from my wife, I'll listen to a "chic book", and almost always find that they are very entertaining. I have read many of the classics. I have lately been reading books by Joyce Strand. These are murder mysteries and are quite good. She is a local author and helped me get through the process of publishing my first book.
What's the story behind the cover design?
Mind Meld is about alien parasites invading the brains of a group of Marines, so the idea of using a psychedelic image of a human brain seemed like a good representation of what's going on in the story. We added a bunch of lightning to emphasize the notion of an invasion, but also to represent the turmoil that ends up going on in each of the human-alien hybrid beings.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find John York online

Where to buy in print

Videos

Slim's Choctaw Promotion
Old codger, Slim, talks about John York's new novel, Trouble in Choctaw County.

Books

Retribution
Price: $6.99 USD. Words: 82,960. Language: English. Published: March 17, 2024 . Categories: Fiction » Romance » Action/adventure
A dark tale of love, vigilante justice, and retribution. Jack and Lilith's relentless pursuit of a murderous pedophile becomes more complicated when they become targets of Miami's violent Cuban mafia and ruthless Russian Bratva. They want Jack dead, but they don't know who they're dealing with. Lilith's dark powers are about to be awakened and all hell is about to break loose.
Journey to Eden
Price: $7.99 USD. Words: 142,560. Language: English. Published: February 23, 2023 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » General
An early 19th century epic adventure of four unlikely comrades who journey north up the Mississippi River to find freedom from oppression and a place to create a new life. Spans two generations, from Virginia to Maine to Louisiana to Illinois to Minnesota. Winner of the 2022 FAPA President’s Award for historical fiction.
Billy Bean's Ghost
Price: $7.99 USD. Words: 51,310. Language: English. Published: April 21, 2022 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Paranormal, Fiction » Mystery & detective » Amateur sleuth
Billy Bean lives alone in the small attic apartment of an old, unoccupied mansion. He finds a grand piano on the first floor, but when he plays this marvelous piano, he hears an imploring voice inside his head. Billy thinks he's going crazy, but, led by the voice, horrific secrets of a long-forgotten cellar below the house are uncovered.
The Eighth Day
Price: $7.99 USD. Words: 148,790. Language: English. Published: August 10, 2020 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Apocalyptic, Fiction » Adventure » General
The year is 2068 and the world order is in chaos. An unlikely alliance of characters take on the challenges of rebuilding what's left of America. In the midst of all the man-made and natural disasters, yet another challenge emerges from the cosmos in the form of a rip in the space-time continuum. The rip opens portals between parallel worlds. A new order is about to emerge from the ashes.
Mind Meld
Price: $7.99 USD. Words: 151,650. Language: English. Published: March 3, 2019 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » General, Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
Wolf and Chase O’Brian discover a portal to another dimension, a parallel world, called Talbeek. A new human visitor, a Marine fighter pilot, finds his way into Talbeek and is surreptitiously infected with an alien brain-infesting parasite by beings from a dying world in another parallel universe. A botched invasion of the human world begins, and the O'Brians try to help save the world.
Wolf's Tale: Memoir of a Man Named Wolf
Price: $7.99 USD. Words: 137,920. Language: English. Published: October 21, 2017 . Categories: Fiction » Biographical
From his earliest childhood, Wolf O’Brien enthusiastically wanders into unexpected twists and turns that life places before him. His propensity to impulsively plunge into situations that he considers “something worth doing” result in many unlikely adventures. As an old man, he recalls these adventures as stories that become his memoir.