Tom was born in “Enterprise” Alabama it was probably inevitable that he would be involved in the sci-fi industry at some point in his life.
In 1982 Tom and Mart Shearer founded the “Sapphire Records” label in South Alabama and released their first record through “Hieroglyph Publishing Company” in Jackson Mississippi. Tom has recorded with various artist in various studios, and has performed and worked with Eric Bloom (Blue Oyster Cult), Jimmy Jigger (Doobie Brothers), and Jim Rone (Doc Severinson’s Band).
Tom co-wrote several computer games in 1986 for the TRS-80 computers including the popular “StarLords” game. Later Tom was involved in the board game industry working on games like “Starfleet Battles”, Robert Aspirin’s “Myth Fortunes” game (published by “Mayfair games”), and more recently the “Ora-Moa” Polynesian CCG and “Off World Digs” Game . Tom is the original founder of “Service Bay 12, Inc.” Game developers (Atlanta) and has been a part of GGDA, AudioGiant, and IGDA.
After a long career in the Radio & TV broadcast industry, which included WCOV-TV, WKMX-FM, and many others, he left the broadcast industry and opened the “Gemstone Books & Games” retail store in Troy Alabama . This later set Tom on the road doing 40+ conventions and tradeshows a year as a retailer, guest speaker, and sponsor. While doing so many shows, He became well known on the convention circuit amongst the Convention directors, celebrities, and other retail and manufacturing companies attending. Many companies such as “WhiteWolf”, “FASA”, “Flying Buffalo”, WotC, would ask Tom to directly rep them, carry tournament prizes, and promotionals to the conventions that he toured yearly. The very first convention Tom ever went to was in 1979.
Tom also worked as a composer for games and film, and has worn many hats within the film & Media industry. He has worked on films with Faye Dunaway, David Carradine, Cassandra Gava, and many others.
Tom has also dabbled heavily in science and Quantum Physics and studied Marine Biology/Oceanography in college. Tom use to chat with “Dr. Edward Teller” (Father of the H-Bomb) on Room Temperature Superconductivity as a potential storage medium and has had other discussions with NASA scientist, particle physicist, and other great eggheads of our time. Tom actually has a design to produce Hydrogen almost freely, as well as a design to produce commercial level power from nuclear waste. Some say Tom is secretly building a spaceship since he actually has old NASA equipment in his warehouse in the back yard.
Tom has seen a lot of these entertainments and convention industries grow throughout the years, so if you get a chance to sit down with him, I’m sure he will be glad to tell you some great war stories of people and conventions and projects of long, long, ago… In a Galaxy far far away.
After all! Tom has traveled through this time period since the 60’s and he does hail from “Enterprise”…
