Peter T Tomaras
Peter T. Tomaras was born in Champaign, IL, USA, of a (Corinthian) Greek father and an American mother. He spent his high school years at Shattuck School in Minnesota, then graduated from the University of Illinois and received a commission in the US Army. After service he entered the family motel and restaurant business, and his primary career work has been in hospitality. But writing has always been his passion. "I am a writer masquerading as a businessman," he observes.
Immediately following high school, Tomaras lived in Greece for a year, where he met Ina, a blond, Greek teenager. Three years later he married her at St. Demetrios church in Psychiko, just north of Athens. The couple are parents of two children, Pete and Natalie, both successful in business careers.
Tomaras has made many return trips to Greece, and was there at the time of the July, 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Through an extraordinary arrangement in 1981, he moved back and forth between the Cyprus Republic and the occupied North, something no other person with a Greek surname had done at that time. He made subsequent research trips to Cyprus.
Tomaras has also traveled in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. He has lectured on Cyprus, and contributed articles on Cyprus to The Washington Times, The Hellenic Journal, and Greek Accent. He has published more than 250 non-fiction articles, including in seven national magazines.
Since adapting his journalistic voice to fiction, he has published novel excerpts in The Hellenic Journal and in the Blue Moon anthologies published by the Red Herring Fiction Writers Workshop at the University of Illinois, USA.
"Journalistic research underlies my fiction," says Tomaras, "but my inspiration is emotional. The story lines for Resistors and Innkeeper, my other novel, spring from compelling experiences and the need to express them in some form. Born into vague concepts of plot, my characters simply take over and write their own stories...my fingers enable their self-expression."
In 1994 Tomaras earned his MBA from Illinois State University, and also holds the highest professional certifications. Thanks to his years as a competitive handgunner and rifleman, Tomaras is meticulous about the authenticity of his references to firearms. He firmly believes in self defense, not passive victimhood.
During his career in the hospitality industry, Tomaras has owned, managed, taught at the college level, and consulted. His present work is litigation support, working with attorneys on hotel and restaurant cases. He offers special expertise in hotel safety and security.
Read more about his consulting work at www.thehospitalityexpert.com.
