Tom McAuliffe: There are too many great stories that need to be told.
Tom Patrick McAuliffe is an author living on Florida’s Emerald Coast with his wife Sharon and cat Gigi. He is a former photojournalist with the US Navy’s Combat Camera Group and a graduate of the DOD’s Mass Communications program at Syracuse University.
A magazine editor and writer with more than 25 years of by-lines, he has written several books telling the story of remarkable people, among which the champion armless golfer Tommy McAuliffe, teacher astronaut Christa McAuliffe, and Detroit Tiger and World Series champion Dick McAuliffe.
Tom is also a musician, realtor, and a scuba diver. He loves Italian food.
Blitz:
Name: Tom McAuliffe
Book title: Almost - The Road to the Grande
Genre: Non-Fiction
Release date: October 2023
Blurb/short description of the book: From 1966 to the early 1970s the Grande ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, was the epicenter of rock ‘n’ roll. From Led Zeppelin, The Who and B.B. King to hundreds of other less-known bands, it was a who’s who of popular rock music. This book examines the contributions of these lesser-known bands and of the local teen venues that helped the scene flourish.
Previous titles: Mr. Mulligan: The Life of Champion Armless Golfer Tommy McAuliffe, Nuts! The Life & Times of General Tony McAuliffe, Throttle Up! Teacher Astronaut Christa McAuliffe, Mad Dog! Detroit Tiger Dick McAuliffe, Charmed - From Motown to Combat and Back
Please tell our readers about yourself.
I’ve always been a writer… ever since I can remember. I think I was first published when I was about 15 years old in the local newspaper. I also worked on underground newspapers and did an internship at the world famous Creem Magazine. Later I was a photojournalist with the United States Navy’s Combat Camera Group, and later still a magazine Editor with more than 25 years of by-lines.
What inspired you to be a writer?
Many people sadly pass with the stories of their lives still inside them… I’m determined not to let that happen. There are too many great stories that need to be told.
Tell us about your writing journey so far.
I’ve produced six books in the last two years. Luckily, a few of them have won awards and seen credible sales.
I’ve also been fortunate to meet up in cyberland with wonderful people and resources, like Nevvie. She is the Editor’s Editor, and any author worth their salt would be well advised to engage her services. No one can see everything, and the ability to have a second set of professional eyes view your work and provide you feedback is worth every penny. Even with several beta readers, friends, family… There are still typos that sneak through. But to be frank, I am not really interested in having readers who want to get hung up on grammar and usage and allow that to get in the way of the story. For me, it’s always about the story, and yes, I tend to gravitate towards the Hunter S Thompson school of writing. I would also say that being a nonfiction author is more difficult than being a fiction author.
What is your writing process—from idea to final draft?
As far as my writing process goes, I always, always, always outline… And then the outline becomes sort of a table of contents… Or a roadmap, if you will, and I split those segments down and then fill in all the information related to that particular sub–subject, and the next thing you know, you have a book.
Many of our readers are fellow indie writers, some of them at the very beginning of their journey. What advice would you give them?
If there was one piece of advice, I could give aspiring writers, it would be… WRITE! You should be writing every single day!
One other area that I’d like to touch upon is the growing influence of artificial intelligence… I believe that AI has the potential to destroy many things, including independent authorship… As a community we should fight against AI being used to produce fiction and nonfiction alike. And we should label our works, as I do mine, that AI was not used in any way to produce our works!
To learn more about Tom McAuliffe and his books, visit his website: https://www.authortommcauliffe.com or connect on Facebook.
