John Patrick Schmitz was born in eastern Virginia in 1963 and still makes his residence there. At the age of five, when he first opened Charles Schulz' Peanut's Treasury, he began his life-long love affair with the written word. He estimates that in his life he has read upwards of ten thousand books, many of which he still retains in his considerable library. When he was thirteen, a family friend gave him A Princess of Mars, the first in the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars series. This kindled a passion for speculative fiction that still burns hot today.

After graduating from high school in 1981, John developed interests in science, computers and music while continuing to devour books on innumerable topics, both fiction and non-fiction.

He has written close to a hundred songs in his lifetime, many of which he still performs publicly. He still dabbles in songwriting, and constantly works to improve his blues guitar licks. He listens to all types of music (except disco, which he hates with a passion), but refers to blues music as "my religion".

After several attempts at a novel, he drew inspiration from his participation in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and penned Titanstomper Book One, The Hintlebrac Helm, a heroic fantasy adventure set in Eleadon, a world of his own invention. He was also the founder, editor and webmaster of the online speculative fiction magazine, The Door to Worlds Imagined.