About Harold R. Thompson

Harold R. Thompson (or Hal to those who know him) writes both historical fiction and science fiction and fantasy. During regular business hours he works for Parks Canada, but for the rest of the time he writes. He also doodles cartoons and dabbles in filmmaking. Thompson is the author of the For Empire and Honor series of novels, which star fictional Victorian hero William Dudley, an infantry officer of the British Army, and also the Gunner series, about the exploits of an artillery officer during the Napoleonic Wars. In addition to historical novels, he writes science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories.

From Hal:

Writers are of course readers first, and I was a great reader from an early age, having grown up in a house spilling over with books. My early favourites, book I read over and over, were Hardy Boys mysteries, but also Roald Dahl’s Danny the Champion of the World and E. B. White’s Stuart Little. Later I became a fan of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. At about the same time, I discovered Richard Adams’s Watership Down, and when I was in Grade 6 I decided to tackle The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Through middle school and high school I read Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert and many others, and then C. S. Forester and Bernard Cornwell and – the master of historical naval fiction – Patrick O’Brian. I think history, science fiction, and fantasy go hand in hand. My first professional fiction sale was a fantasy story to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, and that same month I sold two historical non-fiction pieces to separate periodicals. That was 1994, the year I wrote the first draft of Dudley’s Fusiliers, which was to become my first published novel in 1996 (a new edition was published in 2010). I have since written many science fiction and fantasy short stories for various online and print magazines. Orphans of Sturnus is my first science fiction novel, but not the last.

I’m a self-described film hack, creating short films both for fun and in a semi-professional capacity. Explore more about my work and check out some of my films.

Press Biography

Harold R. Thompson has written non-fiction and short science fiction, fantasy and horror for a variety of print and online magazines. He is also the author of the “Empire and Honor” series of historical adventure novels, which include Dudley’s Fusiliers, Guns of Sevastopol and Sword of the Mogul. His latest novel, The End of the Tether, was released in July 2017. He lives in Nova Scotia and, when not writing or spending time with his family, works for Parks Canada.