Jon Smith lives with his wife Lisa, and their children Alia and Ronin in southern Spain. Originally from Liverpool, England, Jon was awarded a BA (Hons) in American Studies from The University of Reading (and The University of Texas at Austin). He went on to teach English as a foreign language in South Korea. After teaching, Jon joined the Internet industry for five years; working for Amazon.co.uk and others, as a project manager. Subsequently Lisa and Jon launched a toyshop selling wooden toys, called Toytopia, which failed miserably. Jon had a brief flirtation with poetry publishing for two years before deciding he much preferred writing full time.