Roman Sebastian began life as a “Tarheel,” born at Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C.

At the age of eleven, his family packed up and moved to Orlando, Fla., where he eventually graduated from high school. At seventeen, he volunteered to join the U.S. Navy as a navigator. By the age of twenty-one, he had toured for six months in the Mediterranean Sea and completed three voyages to the Caribbean Sea.

With a seemingly insatiable thirst for knowledge, he read practically every book in the ship’s library and passed the college entrance exam to begin his college education at the University of Florida as a music major, with studies in other liberal arts. Not content with the programs there, he transferred to Florida State University and completed his education in music performance.

He now performs regularly on trumpet, tenor sax, flute, keyboards, and vocals. Later, he moved to Seattle, Wash., became a very successful building contractor, and spent winters at his home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he incorporated a fishing charter and a clothing line business.

It was there that he began his writing career with a book of anthologies, ELNINO—DESPERATE PLANET. In addition, he wrote articles for sporting publications featuring hunting and fishing, and contributed to various political groups.

After retiring from the building trades in Seattle, he moved to the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, where he began a two-year task of completing his first novel, Bernard’s Dream. He then began writing poetry, with nine of those published online.

After completing his novel, he realized that some chapters deserved illustrations. While searching online for illustrators, he discovered they were charging $200 per pencil page—and he needed seventeen. After doing the math, he recalled that years earlier he had taken an adult night class in painting and had enjoyed it very much. So, he purchased artist brushes, acrylic paints, and canvas.

Much to his surprise, the first painting came out better than anticipated, so he continued. As fate would have it, each one was better than the last. Discovering that a local art show and competition was scheduled in his hometown, he set up an exhibit booth and entered four works. To his shock, two paintings were awarded ribbons and a cash prize.

Soon after, he was approached by a local businessman who invited him to set up a public exhibit inside the entrance of his large commercial building in town. He did—and they remain there today: all forty-five of them.

Shortly after that, he received a call from a reporter at the Sedalia Democrat, who asked permission to write an article about his biography and art. The article ran one and a half pages. Not long afterward, an agent from the Liberty Theater and Art Gallery in Sedalia called and asked if he would be interested in a two-month exhibit of his work. The exhibit is currently scheduled for September and October 2026.

Roman continues to write and travels extensively to conduct research for his books. So far, those trips have taken him to Costa Rica, which resulted in his story, “The Tribe.” While there, he had opportunities to interview the chief of one of the native tribes, as well as the chief engineer on the largest hydroelectric dam in Central America.

While in New Zealand for five weeks, he conducted interviews with farmers and ranchers, as well as government officials, to discuss the history of irrigation water in the country. This trip resulted in his story, “The Deer Ranch.”

Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for sixteen years, his stories “Columbia” and “The Vineyard” are set on the Columbia River and around the Grand Coulee Dam water-control projects in central Washington. All of the above-mentioned stories have hand-painted illustrations.

“The Glacier” is an action-packed, explosive novella based on a new mining war in Alaska, when gold nuggets by the thousands are discovered in valleys carved by receding glaciers. Various chapters are set in northern California and Nevada, Afghanistan, Costa Rica, and Indonesia.

Roman now has six books to his credit, two non-fiction and four fiction including two novels, BERNARD’S DREAM and THE HOAX.