Tom McDonald is a product of his environment. His writing reflects what he has experienced in his own life. He lists his favorite authors as Rick Bragg and Ferrol Sams. These authors have influenced him because of a common upbringing in the rural South during a time when life was slower and much simpler.
The youngest of seven children, McDonald received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Alabama and graduate degrees from the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa. He retired after 32 years of teaching and has since worked as a carpenter’s apprentice, cook, census taker, aluminum worker, and insurance salesman. In addition, his rural heritage has placed him in the immediate vicinity of horses, cattle, goats, donkeys, chickens, pigs, and dogs.
Tom McDonald’s writing manages to weave a myriad of experience into short stories that will make you laugh and cry, sometimes in the same sentence. Without missing a beat he will also inform the reader of the effect of faith and family on his life.
