Thomas was born in 1957 in a small town in Western Pennsylvania that had — and still has — one traffic light.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do there, and his family had few neighbors, so he learned to play quite a bit of make-believe – soldiers, cowboys and Indians, that kind of thing.

At the same time, he loved to read and watch old movies.

On Saturdays, while his dad played in a country western band, and Thomas stayed up to wait for him, he discovered horror movies (Karloff, Chaney, Lee)

Thomas is now the project manager for a small civil engineering firm in picturesque Charleston, South Carolina with his lovely wife, pug Luke, and tabby cat Chirp – and eight feral cats outside that put up with the humans because they give them two squares a day.

Since childhood, Thomas loved to create, play trumpet, sing, even dabble in genealogy, but nothing quite did it for him.

Over the years, he’d composed quite a few term papers and theses (there are a few ex-teenagers in this world who owe their English grades to Mr. Rydder and unfailingly earned an “A”).

Thomas’s wife knew this, and one day suggested that he try writing. What the hey, he thought, so he found a writing site called Hubpages and started getting the basics of writing a little from some of the inhabitants.

First he wrote a short story, and everyone liked it, so he wrote another one, however, it kept growing, and he kept getting more ideas, and it lengthened to 20 thousand words, then 30, then 40.

By the time finished it he had the rough draft of his first novel, except back then it was called “Werewolves and Flapjacks”.

Somewhere along the way Thomas decided to submit his work to publishers.

The result was his debut thriller:

The Clearing (See my Supernatural & Horror Bookcase)

After twenty years in the Marine Corps, Major Frank Cutlip comes home to the quiet hills of his beloved Pennsylvania to take up a new life as the sheriff of Allegheny County.



Professor Beth Lowe took up a post at Paxton University because she became enamored with western Pennsylvania’s charms, a more enduring love than she thought she would ever feel for a man.

When Beth’s dog is savaged by wolves, their peaceful lives are shattered, and their fates entwined.

On the brink of death, the dog not only survives but grows larger… and more vicious.

A thousand-year cycle of carnage is reaching its climax once more, and the peaceful wooded hills will soon be smeared with blood. 



Sheriff Cutlip leads his community in a hunt for the hidden terror, but then his own brother is bitten, his blood corrupted by the ancient evil.

The sheriff must confront terrible choices, and he can’t do so alone



The Clearing — a novel of ordinary people thrown together in extraordinary circumstances

Find out more about Thomas and his writings by clicking HERE.