Thomas White began his career as an actor. Several years later he found himself as an Artistic Director for a theatre in Southern California and the winner of several Drama-Logue and Critics awards for directing. As Tom’s career grew, he directed and co-produced the world tour of “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out Of Their Shells”. The show toured for over two years, was translated into seven different languages and seen by over a million children. Tom served as President and Creative Director for Maiden Lane Entertainment for 24 years and worked on many large-scale corporate event productions that included Harley Davidson, Microsoft, Medtronic Diabetes, and dozens of others. The Siren’s Scream is Tom’s second novel that follows up Justice Rules which was nominated as a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2010 Literary contest.
Tom’s latest book is the mystery/horror, The Siren’s Scream.
Visit his website at www.thomas-white-author.com or connect with him at Facebook.
Thanks for stopping by! What attracted you to the horror/thriller genre?
I have always been a huge Stephen King fan. From Carrie on, I have been enamored of his writing style, his easy, accessible dialogue and descriptions. His non-fiction book, On Writing, is my writing
bible. At one point in the book he says, “If someone writes, ’The sunset was indescribable,” tell that person to get another job because it is literally their job to describe the sunset.” Every time I write, I think of that phrase and when I am proofing my work, I probably stop two or three times and tell myself to describe the sunset. Consequently, the horror genre is always lurking right beneath the surface of my subconscious. It had to come out eventually.
Do you write in any other genres?
My first novel, Justice Rules, is a murder mystery set in the Pacific Northwest. An FBI agent investigates a murder that unravels into a giant web of deceit and intrigue. The tag line for the book is, ‘How far can you go before justice becomes revenge?’
What inspired you to write The Siren’s Scream?
As is true with many authors, the question I get most often is, “Where do you get your ideas?” And quite honestly, it is often the simplest of things that will set you off on a path. That was exactly the case with ‘The Siren’s Scream’. While sitting on a dock at a mountain cabin on a lake, I saw a small school of fish swimming beneath. A slight altercation between several of them caused one to flip over and scoot away. As the fish flipped, I saw the colors of its belly reflect in the sun and I was mesmerized. I’d seen this before, of course, most of us have, but the image of the colors flashing stayed with me. The idea of a creature living in the water began to blossom. Now, there is nothing original there, the legend of the mermaid is long and fabled and I struggled with the concept of creating an original take on the creature, a viable storyline, and how to present it in an intriguing manner for a few years. I’d started and stopped writing it many times. Every once in a while, I’d pull it out and make another attempt at creating something that wasn’t ‘calling sailors to their death’. And as they say, write every day because you can change something, you can’t change nothing and the process is what brings about results. Because of my many attempts I discovered that I had developed parameters outlining the kind of story I wanted to tell. I wanted it to be set in present day, I didn’t necessarily want it to be about sailors or the sea, and I wanted a twist or two that would engage the reader. Other than that, I was floundering. Then, at a family gathering, dealing with a particularly challenging sister, it occurred to me these creatures had an origin, a family, a lineage, a past; they had to come from somewhere, right? Once I began to explore that concept, one thing led to the other and the story began to take shape. After working to create this story over many years, finally, ‘The Siren’s Scream’ was born.
Can you give us your book blurb so others can find out what your book is about?
The Thornton Mansion, with the giant tide pool in the backyard has terrorized Santa Cruz for over a century. Throughout the years there have been dire and mysterious deaths connected with it. It is now Darcy Wainwrights turn to face the perils of the mansion. The mansion becomes her first sale as a novice realtor and she becomes intricately and inevitably connected to the house and the pool. It is the pool that beckons her, and it is the pool that would decide if she lives or dies.
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
Where can readers buy your book?
https://www.amazon.com/Sirens-Scream-Thomas-White/dp/1088067816
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sirens-scream-thomas-white/1142494493
Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview. What’s next for you?
I wrote a screenplay a few years back about time travel, another genre that fascinates me. I am currently converting the screenplay into a novel. Kind of backwards, I guess. The interesting part is that when you write a screenplay you write character and action. You set the scene as follows, A 1904 train station. It then becomes the art director’s job to visualize and create that location. And so it goes with costume, motivation, props etc., it’s all someone else’s job. Now my process is creating the environment of the story from the action written in the screenplay. It’s fun to do actually because I’m a director first so as I wrote the screenplay, I had visual images in my head for most of the story.
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