Bio and Gallery



In the Great Smokies
Phil is a lifelong freelance writer with 300 articles and short stories published in national magazines including Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post, Grit, Harper's, Troika, New Hampshire Profiles, Overdrive, Heartland USA, MAKE, and several boating and aviation publications.

He was born and raised in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, and thus has an abiding love of the mountains, one reason his suspense novels are set largely in the Great Smokies, which he visits as often as possible.

He has worked as a draftsman, a water quality field technician, an inventor, an aerial photographer, and a graphic artist and president and co-owner of a graphics company.

Phil is an instrument-rated pilot, a Coast Guard-licensed master mariner, a motorcycle rider, an astronomy buff, and a fiddler. He's a voracious reader of everything and likes to walk the ocean beaches to exercise his body and his imagination. He lives in eastern North Carolina on a shore of the wide Neuse River, where he's at work on several short stories and his next novel.

Phil is a member of:
International Thriller Writers (ITW)
Mystery Writers of America (MWA)
Southeast Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA)
NC Writers' Network


  • On the Parkway with former USMC sharpshooter Jerry Boswell
  • Highest point on the BRP
  • With a gang of wannabe outlaws
  • Captaining the NC State research trawler
  • On an offshore delivery of a 62-foot sailing yacht
  • Flying Angel over eastern NC
  • Fiddling for the group Cold Biscuit
  • The Cold Biscuit classic country music group
  • With top gun author Lee Child at Sleuthfest in FL
  • Naomi among other flowers in Wilmington, NC
  • With Naomi in Santa Cruz
  • Naomi at the Golden Gate
  • Beautiful Yosemite
  • Glacier Point above Yosemite
  • Naomi in the Redwoods
  • Along the Avenue of the Giants in CA
  • Daughter Lisa and Grandson Michael
  • Daughter Lisa with a Kenyan orphan during a mission trip
  • Daughter Lisa, always smiling
  • With Naomi at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in W VA
  • On the Route of the Stars in Chile
  • Chilean Andes hike with Oregonian Rex and a tag-along dog
  • Santiago, Chile, cathedral
  • Rush hour in Vicuna, Chile
  • Statue of Nobel poetess Gabriela Mistral in her home village, Monte Grande, Chilean Andes
  • Village of Pisco Elqui, Chilean Andes
  • Universe from an Atacama Desert mountain, Chile
  • A Chilean Princess in Monte Grande Village
  • Naomi in Boone, NC
  • Mentee of 22 years, Aaron, '15 Chem E grad of NC State
  • Spyder-man
  • With Naomi at Portland Light, Maine
  • Grandson Michael on the back
  • Havoc, aptly named
  • Prehistoric pelican, favorite bird
  • Dawn on an ICW yacht delivery

© Phil Bowie
All Rights Reserved.