In early publication, John Swan was described as a former cop, though no legitimate forces have a record of his tenure. Some speculate that John Swan is not his real name, despite the many stories published in Kairos, Blood & Aphorisms, The Unsilenced Voice, Canadian Storyteller Magazine, Rampike, Prophile, Front and Centre, Zygote, and the anthologies Your Baggage is in Buffalo, Between a Dock and a High Place, Burning Ambitions, ICED, the New Noir Anthology of Cold Hard Fiction and Hard Boiled Love.
In 1996, a collection of mystery stories,
the Rouge Murders, was released by the Jasper Press, in which John Swan was one of the characters, still claiming to have been a police detective. There are rumours of a second volume, and a collection of short stories.
Authorities suspect the author lives in Hamilton, Ontario under an assumed name, writing articles, teaching creative writing and reviewing books in the mystery genre.
Yet there are two sides to Swan: the surly, over-weight, unkempt, heavy-drinking big-mouth and the depressed widower whose daughter has severed ties with him and who wants very much to reconnect with her."
