John R. Stark

I am a veteran journalist, writer and editor who spent 14 years at the San Francisco Examiner, where I was a feature writer, movie reviewer and theater critic. I spent 10 years in New York, where I was Senior Entertainment writer for People magazine. I have held editing positions at Cooking Light magazine, Martha Stewart’s Body + Soul, Cooks Illustrated and Readers Digest. My stories have appeared in such publications as the Sunday New York Times, Newsday, AARP magazine, the Boston Globe, Bark magazine and Cesar’s Way (hey, I love dogs). I was a founding editor of PBS’ Next Avenue website for boomers, where I wrote 100 blogs and feature stories. I have been published electronically by such Web sites as the Huffington Post and Purple Clover. I spent two years with the New Jersey State Troopers writing an on-the-job book called Troopers. I hold a master’s in journalism from Boston University. I am not, for the record, Jon Stark (Lord Snow on Game of Thrones), Tony Stark (Ironman), John Starks (NBA), or Revolutionary General John Robert Stark, whose middle name I share, and who coined the phrase, “Live Free or Die.” I am semi-retired and live in Palm Springs, where I write satirical essays for the Desert Sun newspaper. It’s here where I wrote my book, What to See in Palm Springs, which I update every year.