72 year old John L. "Sonny" Maton was born in the small town of Pana, Illinois. During the Korean War, he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves while still in high school, but due to his growing too tall and being unable to go on active duty aboard ships, he was discharged honorably from the Navy and immediately joined the United States Air Force. He completed his education after the war on the G.I. Bill, earning his B.S. from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. Sonny went on to earn his master's degree from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D.,from Kensington University in Palto Alto, California. Sonny worked at General Electric Company as a mainframe computer operator contracted to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he was involved in all the early rocket and manned space flights and exploration, including the Redstone, Mercury, Atlas, and Saturn as well as the Shuttle. He also worked with the original seven astronauts in the early astronaut program. He later became a programmer and systems analyst with NASA and finally the Firing Operations Director at Cape Canaveral. In the educational field, Sonny has been a top administrator at two community colleges, one in Illinois and one in Washington State, as well as on the four year college level at St. Leo University in Florida. He served as the Associate Dean of Instruction at Keiser University in Sarasota, Florida and retired from there in 2000. He has also served as a Director of Information Services at both the high school and college levels. Mr. Maton has two grown children and four grandchildren, and he now resides in Arcadia, Florida.

Won top honorable mention in International Writers Guild in 1987.