My name is Steven Thompson and I live with my wife and three teenage children in Florida. I've had a burning desire to write since before I was in high school. As so often happens, life got in the way of my dream and it was put on the back burner until recently. In the years that I would have liked to have spent writing, I was an air traffic controller, volunteer firefighter, optician, web designer, emergency medical dispatcher, and an operator at a traffic management center for FDOT.

The first book I published was an ebook of quotations on Amazon in 2010. The content is great but I really didn't know what I was doing as far as the formatting went.

My first novel was a crime novel titled "Brilliant" that I published on Amazon for the Kindle in July of 2012. It was flawed and not so brilliant. I realized that although it had a decent pace and fairly well developed characters, that there was no cause for any reader to like them. I had failed to create sympathy for them within the reader as they came off a bit too greedy and lazy. So much for the protagonist. I have since pulled it from Amazon because I think readers deserve better.

My latest effort is "The Dead Badge of Courage". I adapted Stephen Crane's masterpiece to depict the Union army battling zombies rather than Confederate soldiers. The main reason for not changing the story more was that Crane's novel had an important message regarding how man deals with fear and I did not want that to be lost for the sake of entertainment. My great hope is that people who have not read the original novel, "The Red Badge of Courage", will consider doing so should they read my book.

My current project is in the planning stages and is tentatively titled "Navajo Eight Five Six". It is an intensely personal story that has its roots in my own life but the lessons I have learned, as well as the advice I have to offer, can be of use to anyone. That's about all I will say about that project right now until it is in the writing stages. At that time, I will be happy to share more.

I love to learn and the best way to do that is by listening to others. I welcome constructive criticism and will do my best to offer the same to anyone who asks. I'm not saying I have all the answers but I like to help when and where I can. Here's my first piece of advice: If you have a story to tell, don't wait. Start right now and give it your all. Someone out there will want to read it.