About T. O. Burnett

T.O. Burnett is, in many ways, a typical inner-city man. Having moved to the southeast section of Washington, D.C. by the age of one with his single mother, he spent his adolescent years learning in the school of hard knocks. He grew up in the Barry Farms community where he developed his tenacious spirit.

Despite not having much, T.O. managed to do well academically. Always inquisitive, he quenched his thirst for knowledge with after school programs—such as the Higher Achievement Program (HAP)—and public television. He prided himself with acquiring trivial knowledge and learning from everything and everyone he encountered. That helped him to become a first-place regional winner of the IT’S ACADEMIC CLUBS competition while he was an eighth grader at Douglass Junior High School.

After moving South to rural Alabama to start high school, T.O. began to explore writing, which came naturally to him. His literary skills and overall writing talent were cultivated by his father, who was a respected educator and dedicated public servant. A short stint in the United States Marine Corps, and a career in law enforcement helped him to develop a well-rounded perspective on life. In addition to being a patrol officer, he also taught at the police academy—where he was a firearms instructor, defensive tactics instructor, and senior drill instructor—for over fifteen years. He was named MPCTC instructor of the year in 2011.

As a science fiction author, T.O. has been heavily influenced by space operas, science fiction shows of the 1970s, kung fu movies, and numerous sci-fi authors. He hopes that he, too, will one day be recognized as an influential person in the science fiction genre. T.O. has never been married and does not have children.