Sean Thomas-Alaskan Resident and Writer

Alaska’s been my home since on and off since 1955 and I grew up mostly in Eagle River, a small community just north of Anchorage. In a few minutes, one can drive north or south of Anchorage/Eagle River and be surrounded by pristine wilderness with clear unpolluted lakes, rivers, and creeks loaded with fish and surrounded by green forests flush with wild game.  

The state is rich in history, minerals and oil, diverse native cultures, and lots of mystery—missing planes, missing people and very few roads.  For a serial killer, there are many places to hide a body. Alaska has had several serial killers. One, Robert Hansen, kidnapped prostitutes, held them captive, tortured and sexually assaulted them, then took them to the Alaskan bush to hunt them down.   Nicholas Cage came to Alaska this last fall and filmed a movie, On Frozen Ground, based on Robert Hansen.

In school, I was an average student.  I spent more time reading novels instead of concentrating on my school work and polished off a book a night.  My favorite authors were Jack London and Edgar Rice Burroughs.  At thirteen, I wrote my first story based on a plane crashing in the wilderness and the passenger’s survival.  My teacher, Mrs. Green, liked it.  She liked it so much she had me read it in front of the class.  I was the only one who read a story.  I was so embarrassed it killed my inspiration to write until I was in graduate school when I became the editor of the Vandal Review, a ROTC newspaper.  I didn’t seriously start writing again until 1990.   

The writing bug bit me but I really wanted to write fiction.  I picked a writing partner, a former coworker of Aleut heritage.  She wrote children’s books while I wrote a science fiction detective novel.  Occasionally, we would kibitz over our projects.  We joined a local writer’s group.  The group met weekly and everyone submitted 10 pages a week for review. After a couple meetings, my partner quit.  She said the members were the meanest, most vindictive people she’d ever met and quit writing.  I continued on with the group, accepting their harsh criticism.  I found with all the editing on other member’s works, there was little time to work on my own novel.  So over the next few years, I took creative writing courses.  My writing kept improving.

I took a screen writing course at the University of Alaska Anchorage taught by Kim Rich.  Kim wrote numerous screen plays and a book, Johnny’s Girl, about her life with her father, an Anchorage Mafioso.   Through her course, I finally understood how stories were put together following the Greek tradition.  I had four books in the hopper.  My Alaska State Trooper mystery novels, Dark Project, Dark Soul and Dark Gold, were published by Infinity. My third mystery, actually more a horror novel, Dark Shaman, was published by Trafford, a Canadian press. 

In the late 90’s, I had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure with atrial fibrillation.   My congestive heart failure reversed itself, but the irregular heart beat remained.  Several of the drugs that had helped keep my heart in sync failed.  So, doctors at the Alaska Heart Institute performed ablation therapy.  

 I lost eight months of short term memory and my ability to write. When I finally got my energy back, I looked down at the computer screen, it looked like gobbledygook, like Sergeant Snorkel from Beatle Bailey cussing.  I couldn't string sentences together and it took three years to relearn my writing abilities. 

Around that time, I started to have a dream--a nightmare about a Roman Legion expedition to Qin that had been blown off course, went up the Yukon and  merged with Athabascans.  Tons of gold were hidden with their ancient weapons and Roman armor.  I had to get the story down on paper to stop the nightmares. So Robert Sable, my Alaska State Trooper, emerged in a new, different mystery novel, Lost Legion.  Other Robert Sable Mystery novels quickly followed: Stalker, Silent Killer, Alaska Dutchman, and Deadly Rites.  Lost Legion and Silent Killer were picked up.  The other three will be released from Whiskey Creek Press in 2012.  Synopses of my novel can be found at my website and blog.

All Information on Sean E. Thomas can be found at any of these sites: Website:  www.seanethomas.com Facebook: Sean E Thomas Blog: http://alaskannovelist.blogspot.com/ http://alaskannovelist.wordpress.com/ Tumblr: Alaskan Novelist Book Buzzr: http://www.freado.com/users/28782/sean-e-thomas http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com