Born in Denver, Colorado, by the 7th grade author Thomas London was drafting full-length manuscripts. His parents, a musically-talented father and a mother who was an avid reader, encouraged his budding craft. As he entered high school, he found another catalyst in the classical setting of theatre. At the age of 20 he directed his first ful.... more
Born in Denver, Colorado, by the 7th grade author Thomas London was drafting full-length manuscripts. His parents, a musically-talented father and a mother who was an avid reader, encouraged his budding craft. As he entered high school, he found another catalyst in the classical setting of theatre. At the age of 20 he directed his first full-length original work, the well received Shakespearean satire, “Winter Tales,” which enjoyed a successful run in the Denver Theatre. London describes his theatre experience as invaluable to his life’s journey, as it exposed him to not just the performer’s timing, but also to the classics – an influence that would continue to enrich his writing for the rest of his career.
His experience in the theatre also taught him the sanctity of language - and the need to find quiet places to shape it. To this day, the author prefers to work in solitude, often renting cabins in Estes Park, Colorado, or cottages near Donegal, Ireland for the isolation they provide when deadlines loom. There, as the smoke from his pipe percolates around him, mingling with the scent of the Atlantic sea spray, he truly finds his voice.
“When adventures happen, they happen suddenly.” —Thomas London
In college, his thirst for an adventurous life remained unquenched and he headed off to join the military. It was there that he got his first hint of the grand scale of the world beyond his hometown, and it was during that time that he first travelled to his ancestral homeland of Spain. He immediately fell in love with Europe’s richly historic landscape. Captivated by the romance of another time, he knew then that his life – and his work - would only be truly fulfilled if it included an entire world view. His destiny decided, he returned to school and earned a B.A. in Marketing, attended the Colorado Film School, and later attained an M.A. in Entertainment Business.
“When you are taken out of your world, you find your character.”
He next embarked on a Wall Street career, working for several prominent firms including Merrill Lynch and Charles Schwab. He gleaned what experiences he could from the fast-paced environment, but never forgot the call of narrative writing. Fate intervened in the form of the dot-com crash, which served to end his financial career before it truly started. With investment jobs suddenly scarce, his business knowhow remained helpful as he navigated a series of employment pursuits - including selling insurance and starting a fairly successful vintage tee-shirt business – all the while continuing his work as a writer. It wasn’t long before that work paid off. His second feature-length screenplay, “The Salesman” won the Wildsound Film Festival, and was a finalist in the prestigious American Zoetrope competition. He continued on to write numerous scripts, some in active stages of development, including a spec script that trended in The Blacklist’s top 100.
His latest novel, “Splintered,” is a timely political satire, with an eerily-familiar villain in the form of a conniving Casino owner. A clever, modern day retelling of the classic Pinocchio story, “Splintered” is typical of London’s style, complete with multiple storylines, rich subtext, shrewd allusions, and all of the author’s wit and wisdom gleaned from his adventures around the globe, and harkening back to a simpler, more romantic time, a time that may, indeed, never have actually existed.
“A sentimentalist hopes things never change and a romantic hopes that they do.”
London currently resides in the bustling metropolis of Los Angeles, California, but makes sure to get back to his adopted home of Ireland as often as possible. His upcoming work, the espionage thriller “The Masada Option” is scheduled for release at the end of 2016.