John Edward Ames (born December 30, 1949) is an American writer of novels and short stories from Toledo, Ohio.
A critically acclaimed writer of western fiction, Ames began his career writing for pulp magazines before penning horror novels and stories.
In 2004 Ames wrote The Real Deadwood, a mix of history and buff lore about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.
Ames fled with most fellow residents of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina came ashore in 2005, but looming book deadlines forced him to return as soon as possible to his apartment on St. Charles Avenue, where he spent the next six months writing three novels.
[3] He presently writes under a “house name” for one of the longest-published western series in America and has also written a novel, titled Deadwood Gulch, released in 2006, as Ralph Compton, the deceased "USA Today bestseller of frontier fiction" writer.