About Tom Gormley:
A native of Ohio, Tom Gormley graduated Ohio State University with a degree in Engineering and Colorado State University with a Master’s in Business. With over forty years business experience in high tech industries, Tom is now writing. An avid history buff, his first book, “A Korean War Odyssey”, tells of locating his wife’s uncle, long lost during the Korean War. His second, “INFERNO!”, is the story of the Colorado Marshall fire and the many miracles that surround it. Tom and his wife live in the Colorado countryside near the fire. They love to travel in their motorhome with their companion Havanese, Koko.
What inspires you to write?
Both INFERNO! and A Korean War Odyssey are based on events that affected me personally. The Marshall Fire occurred within six miles of our home and my wife and I spent years trying to locate her MIA uncle. But events are best understood when put into perspective with history. That's what I do – take interesting events and tie them to history to show how things fit together. My books tell what happened in a format that can be referenced now and in the future.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard have the best researched and written history books. S.C. Gwynne is a great historical writer. And W.E.B. Griffin’s military historical novels are fun to read.
Tell us about your writing process.
Research, Research, Research! I start with an important event that I think others will find interesting and then begin looking into what happened and what others have to say. Often, this can be found online, but more obscure research requires visiting libraries and government facilities. And of course, interviews play an important part, as does personal experience. Usually, multiple stories become threads that need to be woven together in such a way that will keep the reader’s interest while still moving the timeline forward. I usually end up with numerous virtual documents of seemingly unrelated stories from all these different sources that I then intertwine to make a mosaic to tell what happened. I always keep another separate document of these sources that becomes the start of the bibliography.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
After trying to gain traction with traditional publishers and agents, I started looking at self-publishing options. I settled on Trafford as they are the oldest and longest-lived self-publisher and offer a breadth of options for publishing as well as for promotions and marketing.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Hard copy books will always be available, but ebooks will become the standard in the next few years. Soon, it will be possible to make ebooks interactive so that additional storylines and details can be added as the reader and author desires. That way, a book can be updated and changed so that it grows and has more than a few years life.
What genres do you write?: non-fiction, history, Colorado history, biography, memoir
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Tom Gormley Home Page Link
Link To Tom Gormley Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
