John M. Harpster was born in Ft. Worth, Texas and raised in Arlington. After several years of odd jobs, he went back to college and got his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from California State University in Northridge, CA. His first job after college was in Fort Worth, Texas at General Dynamics. He met and started dating Tamara Stensland, also a software engineer at General Dynamics, and they were married in Dallas, Texas. They currently live in Lakeside, California with their son John and their cat Kayla. Because he was born over the Thanksgiving holiday, he claims everyone in the USA celebrates his birthday.

After some years of retirement John has decided to start writing with his debut book of Doing the E.T. Tango: Dancing with the Universe. He is currently writing on other books, including another satire called "Elijah" and one about his life raising and teaching his autistic son. He is also building a wooden robot that he can put in the front seat of his car to enable him to drive in the HOV lanes on the freeway.