Compton, Stoney

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Compton, Stoney

PERSONAL:

Born in NE; divorced from first wife; married; wife's name Colette; has children.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Seattle, WA.

CAREER:

Writer, novelist, short-story writer, printmaker, and graphic artist. Works as a graphic artist for a company in Bellevue, WA. Jim Baen's Universe (online science fiction magazine), assistant art director. Has worked as a visual information specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), a graphic artist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and for KTOO-TV, Juneau, AK, and as a staff artist for a weekly newspaper. Worked for the Tanana Chiefs Health Authority and the Athabascan tribe in Alaska.

WRITINGS:

Russian Amerika, Baen Books (Riverdale, NY), 2007.

Contributor to anthologies, including Universe 1, Tomorrow, and Writers of the Future.

SIDELIGHTS:

A graphic artist as well as a writer, Stoney Compton has applied his visual talent working for government and news organizations, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and a PBS television station in Juneau, Alaska. The former owner of a printmaking studio, Compton found himself drawn toward writing fiction when the economic realities of Alaskan business forced him to close the studio. After closing his business in 1987, ‘I fidgeted for about a month and then bought a computer on time payments and started writing fiction. Although I had taken a couple of creative writing courses in college, I pretty much learned by reading and having others read my work. That takes awhile but you learn just the same,’ he told Toni Weisskopf in an interview posted on Baen.com.

Inspired by a sixth-grade teacher who would read to the class from a huge anthology of science fiction, and by early exposure to the classic works of juvenile science fiction by Robert A. Heinlein, Compton's reading and writing interests centered on speculative fiction, he related to Weisskopf. This interest in SF and a concurrent interest in American history merged in his first novel, Russian Amerika, an alternate history centered on a world in which the Russians still control Alaska. In 1987, Grisha Grigorievich is a captain of a charter vessel in the waters off Alaska. A former officer in the Russian Imperial Navy, Grisha still resents the incident that cost him his military status and position. He also finds himself growing increasingly dissatisfied with the petty powermongers and other self-important Russian functionaries that plague him. Grisha's life takes a terrifying downturn when he is falsely accused of murdering a government spy and is incarcerated in a brutal labor camp. When a group of Native American Alaskan separatists attack the camp, Grisha sees his chance to escape, and soon he finds his desire for revenge against his accusers inextricably mixed with an unexpected role in the separatists' mission of freedom. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that ‘military SF fans will welcome Compton's debut’ novel. The reviewer also called Compton's descriptions of arctic warfare ‘horrifyingly realistic and vivid."