Tom Richards

Tom Richards was born in Chicago, Illinois 4 October, 1955 (making him 42. Fortunately - or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint - he still perceives himself as a 15 year old). Tom's father was an airline pilot, which meant that his family flittered around the United States, living in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, and Michigan. During his stay in Miami, Tom had the interesting experience of sitting through Hurricane Betsy - something that he'll never forget!

Tom definitely has a weird educational background: a BA from Illinois Welseyan University (majored in both Theatre and Political Science), an MBA from UCLA and an MA in communications from Dublin City University. In High School, Tom acted with Gary Cole (Midnight Caller, American Gothic), and also acted with Kevin Dunne (Dave with Kevin Klein) at Illinois Wesleyan. Tom gave up theatre to follow his business interests, but never lost his interest in things creative.

Tom came to Ireland in 1980 - fresh out of Grad School - on holiday, and here met a wonderful Irish woman. Five days after meeting her, he asked this similarly precocious lady (Bernadette) to marry him, proposing to her in a swimming pool - fully clothed of course - surrounded by children. The couple were married in Navan Co. Meath in December 1980, and moved to New York. After a brief stay there and in San Francisco, they moved back to Ireland in 1982, and have resided here ever since.

Tom and Bernie have lived in County Meath since their move "home", and have three children: Kristin (15), Cathy (13) and Jonathan (9).

Tom has been writing seriously since 1992: he's represented in the States by the Hollywood talent agency Shapiro-Lichtman. He is also the owner/operator of Storylines, a marketing consulting company. The company's client list includes CPC Foods International (makers of Knorr Soups and Hellmann's), CIE Tours International, Standard Life, Chivers, Irish Shell and many others.

Tom's other interests include Scouting (he is the Scout Leader of the 15th Meath Scout Troop), golf (duffing around the course, and counting the number of balls that he has lost), flying (when he can afford it), and the Internet (noting that electronic surfing is much safer than the aquatic variety).

Tom is also the Treasurer and member of the Executive Committee of the Irish Writers' Union.

Bibliography

• The Lost Scrolls of Newgrange (Poolbeg, 1994) (reached Number 2 on the Children's Best-seller list, Autumn 1994)
• Hotfoot (Basement Press, 1995) (reached Number 1, Children's Best-seller List, Christmas, 1995
• Hotfoot 2: Lucky's Revenge (Storylines, 1996)
• The Pirate's Den (Gill & MacMillan, 1996)

Short stories

• "The Coming" (Chiller, Poolbeg 1995)
• "The Final Bust" (Nightmares, Poolbeg 1996)
• "First Meat" (First Times, Poolbeg 1997)

Television

• Merlin
  Co-Produced by The Mobius Group and SeaGull Entertainment (producers of Baywatch and Fame); co-writer of 2 hour pilot television screenplay for international, prime-time transmission (United States, Europe, etc). Status: Screenplay complete, series in production, now shooting. Jason Connery (son of Sean) and Deborah Moore (daughter of Roger) are playing the lead roles.

  Works in progress include a movie version of his best-selling book Hotfoot; Wildlife, an animated children's TV series; Hotfoot 3: This Means War!; Atlantis Risen, a 165,000-word adult science fiction thriller; and NetKids, a 30,000-word internet adventure book for children.