Stephen Tomajczyk

Stephen Francis Tomajczyk (a.k.a., SF Tomajczyk, Steve Tomajczyk) (1960 - ) is an American author and poet.

Early Life and Education

Stephen Francis Tomajczyk (pronounced “Toe-MY-check”) was born in Newport, RI to Charles F. Tomajczyk, Jr. (b. Grand Rapids, MI) and Gretchen Ross (Mintz) Tomajczyk (b. Boston, MA) on March 30, 1960. His father was a career naval officer who earned his commission from the US Naval Academy and subsequently served in the submarine service before becoming involved in special R&D projects at the Pentagon. This lifestyle meant that the family, including two younger siblings Michael Ross (b. Charlestown, SC) and Kathryn Helen (b. Columbus, OH), moved frequently throughout the US including Hawaii, San Diego and Virginia Beach, and even spent several years overseas in Rota, Spain. Tomajczyk later credited this experience as teaching him how to be “…self-reliant, responsible, open minded, and flexible. I learned to be accepting of other cultures and to embrace people with different ideas, beliefs and lifestyles.”

Tomajczyk, an Eagle Scout (1976), graduated from Chantilly High School (Chantilly, VA)(1978) and from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)(1982) with a bachelor’s of science degree in natural resources. He graduated from the New York Institute of Photography in 1997.

Writing Career

Stephen Tomajczyk was greatly influenced during his childhood by his mother and his maternal grandfather, Captain Emmanuel Ross Mintz, MD (US Navy Reserve) (1901-1985) who served as a field surgeon in the Central Pacific during World War II with the Marine's III Amphibious Corps. Both encouraged him to read, explore and pursue his creative interests, which included art, photography and writing short stories. Tomajczyk enjoys recounting a story of an event that took place one summer when he was just 12-years-old and vacationing on Diamond Lake near Colebook, NH. While watching the sunset over the lake, his grandfather urged him to always reach for the stars when going through life because if he only reached for the roof, he would never get off the ground. As the author claims, “His advice held true and, as a result, I dream big and I have the stardust to prove it.”

Beginning in seventh grade, a number of teachers pulled his parents in for after-school meetings to encourage his writing abilities. It culminated at the University of Michigan when his English professor returned the final paper of the semester, scribbling at the top: “I accuse you of possessing talent and I dare you to do something with it.” Tomajczyk took the challenge to heart and graduated with a contract in hand for his first nonfiction book, Eyes on the Gold.

The author’s first post-collegiate job was as an editor at 80 Micro (which is where poet and Marianne Moore Prize winner Susan Gubernat also served with him on the magazine staff), and as a newspaper columnist (“Running Shorts”) and correspondent. Over the next two decades he wrote 11 nonfiction books including a well-received series that focused on the capabilities of law enforcement and the US military. He received praise from a number of senior officials, including the Secretary of Defense, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and Secretary of the Navy.

Tomajczyk’s magazine articles have appeared in such diverse publications as Writers Digest, SWAT, Lost Treasure, Yankee, Sportscape and People. With regard to the latter, his most memorable assignment as a correspondent was writing about the Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol just after the movie Titanic was released in 1998. He flew with the patrol between Newfoundland and Greenland documenting the reconnaissance work and photographing rogue icebergs and team members dropping a memorial wreath on the RMS Titanic’s resting spot in the north Atlantic. The specially configured C-130 aircraft he was aboard lost an engine and nearly crashed in a blinding snowstorm at St. Johns, NF. The airport immediately closed due to weather conditions after the pilot made a last landing attempt that, fortunately, was successful.

In addition to nonfiction, Tomajczyk’s early literary career also involved writing poetry. As he shared with a writer’s group, “I knew I had the potential to be a poet for two reasons. First, I was keenly observant and empathetic. I felt things, and felt them hard. And second, I was the only person in class who immediately knew that Edwin Morgan’s poem, Strawberries, was about lovemaking. It was clear I had the mind of a poet. The message, the structure, everything about that poem was obvious to me.” In the years that followed, his poetry appeared in a number of small literary journals, including the Odessa Poetry Review, as well as anthologies. He sometimes published under the pseudonym Brendan O’Keefe. Over the years he established contacts with a number of poets who inspired him, including Dolores Kendrick and Poet Laureats of the United States Donald Hall and Richard Eberhart. (Eberhart also won the Pulizer Prize for Poetry.)

Among his many poems was Silver Serenade, which was inspired by a wintry moon-lit walk over snow-covered fields.

I pass beneath silver frosted trees,
Their arms outstretched, embracing me.
Ever and anon doth the darkness break
With beams of silver stardust
That guide me to Nature's beauty innate.

I trod upon open silver fields of light,
Each step crunching in the crisp winter night.
Surrounding silver grasses stand still and bent,
The weight of God and Nature
Sculpting them into frozen forms of love, unrelent.

I rest beside black pools of silvered lace,
Lean o'er, and examine mine inner face.
With silvered silhouettes I revel in the silver serenade,
To grasp and explore Nature's primal answers
That Man has forgotten, effaced or forbade.

I hear the brook laugh with silver glee,
Racing o'er silvered rocks and sunken leaves.
Oh doth my spirit arise to soar
Upon Nature's cool silver breath,
Which comforts, rekindles and liberates ever more.

I smell the silver earth, dank, yet so sweet,
It provides a firm resolving path beneath mine feet.
For whenever the world has me at the bay,
I roam the wayward silver hills
From frozen night to the dawning of the day.

In this silver solitude do I find relief
From turmoil, taintedness, and inner-worldly grief.
With outstretched arms to the silver heavens above
I find and treasure the solitude of freedom,
And the special gift of silent silvered Love.

As a senior lecturer, Tomajczyk taught writing and communication courses at both Franklin Pierce University and Rivier College in New Hampshire, and he is currently an authorized trainer for the US Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Domestic Preparedness. Since the mid-1980s he has participated in the “Young Author’s Program,” whereby he visits elementary and middle schools to inspire children to pursue their creative writing interests. It is one of his ways (in addition to hosting writing workshops) to give back to those who had encouraged his own literary success.

In the 1990s, Tomajczyk broadened his writing and marketing-communication skills. He served as a communications consultant to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1990-1996) and assisted in developing that agency’s well-known national campaign, “America Responds to AIDS.” In 1995 while serving as President of the National Public Health Information Coalition, he founded and served as the managing editor of the American Journal of Health Communications, a quarterly magazine that promoted effective social-marketing techniques. And last, in 1998 he founded the internet-based website, Disaster Magazine, which covered natural disasters, technological failures and acts of [...], and led the public step-by-step on how to prepare for emergencies. As a result of his involvement with the latter project and because of his knowledge about [...] and his book US Elite Counter-[...] Forces, Tomajczyk was one of the first people contacted and interviewed by the national news media (e.g., Fox News Network, ABC Evening News, Washington Post, New England Cable News) in the aftermath of the September 11th 2001 [...] attack.

Once the book To Be a US Marine was published in late 2004, Tomajczyk decided to transition to writing novels. Long inspired by James Michener’s The Source, Norman Mailer’s The [...] and the Dead (Tomajczyk interviewed Mailer for an English paper while a student at the University of Michigan), JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, and Herman Wouk’s Youngblood Hawke, he felt he had reached a point in his life where he had something to share with the broader public and to bring history alive by pursuing historical fiction. He believes Society has forgotten lessons learned in the past and is unnecessarily repeating its mistakes. Presently he is working on a historical-adventure novel that takes place at the height of the Great Depression. The author arises in the pre-dawn hours of the early morning to write in the solitude of the night when there are no distractions.

He is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in the World, Gale's Writer's Directory, and Contemporary Authors.

Personal Life

Tomajczyk has resided in New Hampshire since 1980. He was previously married once for 13 years, and has no children. His agents include the Richard Curtis Literary Agency, New York City (books) and George Hall / Check Six, San Francisco (photography).

Associations

The Authors Guild
American Society of Media Photographers
International Association of Counterterrorism and Security Professionals

Works

Eyes on the Gold (1986) ISBN 0-89950-229-6
The Children’s Writer's Marketplace (1987) ISBN 0-89471-421-X
Dictionary of the Modern US Military (1996) ISBN 0-7864-0127-3
US Elite Counter-[...] Forces (1997) ISBN 0-7603-0220-0
Bomb Squads (1999) ISBN 0-7603-0560-9
101 Ways to Survive the Y2K Crisis (1999) ISBN 0-312-24591-2
Carrier Battle Group (2000) ISBN 0-7603-0707-5
Modern US Navy Destroyers (2001) ISBN 0-7603-0869-1
US Counterterrorist Forces (2002) ISBN 0-7603-1363-6
Black Hawk (2003) ISBN 0-7603-1591-4
To Be a US Marine (2004) ISBN 0-7603-1788-7

Sources

Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who in the World, Gale’s Writer’s Directory, Contemporary Authors, The Nashua Telegraph, Books in Print