Thomas McAuley: San Antonio Fiction Writer
I am Thomas McAuley, a San Antonio fiction author whose good fortune has allowed me to, for more than a decade now, work from home earning my keep designing websites for ICG Link, a Brentwood, Tennessee website design and hosting company.
I've been married to the same gal since '89 and have been a father of one since '92 and a father of two since '97. Therefore, my days are still pretty much ready the boys for school, work, boys' homework, spend time with above-mentioned wife. This leaves precious little time before or after that cycle to write.
But write I do. I'm not perfect, but I try to write every day, the exceptions being almost exclusively the writing-related distractions that follow.
I am a member of and the "web master" for the San Antonio Writers Guild. We hold first-Thursday-of-the-month meetings and nearly-every-Wednesday critique sessions. I rarely miss the main meetings but rarely attend the critiques since joining a more convenient, smaller critique group in '08.
I mentor students interested in becoming a writers. The experience has been enlightening and rewarding.
Since the beginning of '10, I have set aside Wednesdays to submit rather than write. The transition has not been without a certain degree of pain. Related to this distraction, I have also considered setting aside another day in the week to dedicated to building a platform, a loyal readership; however, at the pace I currently write, the jury is still out.
My family has probably been the first most important factor in my becoming a writer. My father was an engineer -- slide rule not train -- who pondered equations and contemplated gravity. He and I talked of little more than logic and physics. My mother was a sweet Ohio girl with a hidden pit bull switch. We talked about ruthlessness, frugality and the supreme importance of family. Both of my parents were avid readers and avid loners. My older sister was a saint. She was a skilled cellist and my comedic foil. She and I would entertain our parents with plays and humorous fighting. Oh, the scrapes and bruises I suffered.
From a strange, solitary upbringing in Colorado, Ohio, Iowa and Tennessee, I churned and churned. Ideas. Possibilities. Scenarios. Schemes. My happiest times during those early years were hours spent alone in my room, sketching, planning, crafting projects based on my unfiltered ideas.
But, as marriage, two sons and a full time job does well to shine light on the shortcomings of a solitary life, I grudgingly changed and continue to this day to emerge from my self-imposed shell.
I have written two novella-length adult stories and a few short stories. In '08, I wrote my middle grade book, Hilmer Gibb and His Honkin' Huge Bib, which I am sending out to agents.
In the Fall of '08, I received honorable mention in the Writers Weekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest for my piece, Spirit Into Speck, which would later be published in Tales of the Moonlit Path's October '09 Halloween issue.
Follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Email me. I have a contact form to make it easy for you too. I also invite you to dive into my writing blog and my writing samples. I try my best to post at least once a week. So far I've managed to do that with few exceptions. Welcome and I look forward to sharing my writing life with you all.
Thomas S. McAuley
