John Schembra was born in Corning, New York in 1948 but grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Drafted into the Army in 1969, he spent a year in Vietnam as a Military Policeman with the 557th MP Co., 18th MP Brigade. After completing his military service, he joined the Pleasant Hill Police Department, retiring in 2001 as a Sergeant after 30 years of service. John's experiences in Vietnam as a Military Policeman provided the basis for his first book, M.P., A Novel of Vietnam. It is a work of fiction based in part on his personal experiences during his tour of duty with the 557th MP Co. M.P. was awarded the finalist certificate for Best Action-Adventure novel of 2004 by EPIC writers group. His time in law enforcement provided the basis for his second novel, Retribution, the story of a vigilante killer at loose in San Francisco. The SFPD Inspector pursuing the killer, Vincent Torelli, is the M.P. from John's first book, 25 years later. Retribution was awarded the Silver Medal for writing excellence by the Military Writer's Society. John's third book, Diplomatic Immunity, was published in 2012 and continues the adventures of Homicide Inspector Torelli, as he investigates the killings of foreign consuls in San Francisco by a very talented, deadly sniper. His fourth book, Sin Eater, is a stand alone novel about a series of murders, with a supernatural twist, in a small California central valley college town, investigated by a campus police officer and a history professor.Sin Eater has won three writing awards. John's fifth novel, Blood Debt, is the fourth in the Vince Torelli series, in which Vince is stalked by the Tennessee family of a suspect killed in a shoot-out in San Francisco. It won third place in the PSWA 2017 writing competition. John's sixth book, An Echo of Lies, is a supernatural thriller about demonic possession and is currently at the publishers. It was awarded third place in the PSWA 2020 writing competition, and should be released mid-2021. John's seventh book, The List, is the fifth in the Vince Torelli series, and is the story of a killer seeking revenge, twenty years later, on a group of boys who mercilessly bullied him in middle school. It, too, is currently at the publishers and should be releaded near the end of 2021. John is currently hard at work on his eighth book, as yet untitled, another Vince Torelli thriller.

After John's retirement from the police department, he became the lead Emergency Vehicle Operations Course (EVOC) instructor for the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office, teaching emergency driving and pursuit driving at the academy and to officers all through the county and state. John has been designated by the State of California as a subject matter expert in Emergency Vehicle Operations. He has been married for 48 years and has two grown children living in Sacramento. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, golfing, fishing and traveling with his family.