Just after I was born in 1964, my mother incorrectly wrote my name on the birth record as Thomas Author. My father caught the error, and I was named Thomas Arthur after my grandfather. I was a bright eyed blonde haired youngster, and I always had a vivid imagination. Once I started school in 1969, this vivid imagination handicapped me in an organized class. I was always being distracted by everything around me, and for that reason I found it very hard to concentrate. But I never found it hard to create. I drew, I doodled, and I kept myself busy while the teacher tried to teach! About 1973, at the age of 9, I developed some cartoon- like characters I dubbed "The Silly Birds." These cool little characters ended up in the margins of all my notebooks. In 1975, my family and I moved from the city of London to a farm located near Ailsa Craig. It was a great place in which to grow. Here I continued to write, doodle, and draw. In 1978 I actually won an art contest for an abstract piece that I had painted. I did enjoy reading though, my favorite authors in public school were Bill Peet, Richard Scarry, E.B. White and Enid Blyton. Later in High School I read Richard Adams, Thomas Tryon, Robin Cook, Margaret Laurence, E.L. Doctorow and O.T. Nelson. I became a huge fan of Judy Blume, and read all of her books, including the infamous 'Wifey.' I'm sure that Wifey influenced Travelogue in some ways. Judy Blume definately helped me understand women more. For whatever reason, it wasn't until High School that I decided that I wanted to write. I loved to read, and I loved movies. In grade 9 and 10 I began to get all kinds of original ideas. As I sat in class, trying to tune the teacher out, I began to work on these story ideas, developing plots and characters. In 1982, "Knossos: The Last Years," was my first fully developed story. It was based on the mythology of Knosses, and consisted of a 20 page treatment. There were also many other stories that were fragmented ideas that had a title and some notes. During the summer of 1983 I read aloud my story outline for an original film called "Cop: The Sensulators-Book One" to a group of friends, who received the story well. I was able to work on my writing more when I attended college in 1984. My major was Film Production, and I was able to work on scripts for my original ideas. These stories were "Cop: The Sensulators- Book One," "Serious Religion," "By the Book," and "Shoulder to Shoulder." In 1985, "Shoulder to Shoulder" was made into a short film, which I directed. This film premiered in April 1985 at the college film festival, and was also shown on the Movie Channel several times over 1987. Then as it often does, life seemed to get in the way. Between working for a living, two marriages, and three children, I found very little time for writing. As well, I got involved in music. I sang and wrote for several bands from 1993 to 2001. In 2002-03 I also did a stint in stand-up comedy. In 1994 I co-wrote a book on the Ryerse-Ryerson Family, and since then I have also done many public speaking engagements. I have spoken on Family Research as well as Small Business. (I worked in retail sales in Woodstock from 1992-2002) I'm looking forward to speaking to students about writing, as I've done once so far. However, I still continued to get story ideas, and I entered several local short story contests. I tried to stay focused, and in March 1997 I began my first novel, "Travelogue". The idea for the book came to me in a dream in the fall of 1996. Travelogue would end up taking me almost 10 years to write and edit. As of May 2008, I have now published 5 novels. My newest side project was writing some of the liner notes for the upcoming re-issue of the 1979 film 'Caligula.' I'm very excited by this! I currently live in Woodstock, Ontario, and am working on my 6th novel, 'The Anatomy of a Mermaid.'