John Richard Stephens began writing books in 1987. Prior to becoming an author, he held a wide variety of occupations ranging from work as a psychiatric counselor in two hospitals to being an intelligence officer and squadron commander in the U.S. Air Force. John has had twenty-one books published so far, including Wildest Lives of the Wild West: America through the Words of Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, and Other Famous Westerners, Gold: First-Hand Accounts from the Rush that Shaped the West (both by TwoDot), Commanding the Storm (Lyons Press), Weird History 101, and Wyatt Earp Speaks.