William David Thomas intended to be an artist. He was most of the way through college when he learned, to his chagrin, that he was much more adept at research and writing than at painting. He thought of graduate school and art history, but instead joined the Peace Corps. They sent him to a small island in the South Pacific, where he spent three years teaching 5th to 8th grades. After that, Tintoretto, Degas, and Kandinsky seemed much less important. After returning to the US, he taught in an urban elementary school until budget cuts forced staff reductions. He spent the next 25 years writing for a few large corporations. He wrote training programs, software documentation, and user manuals. That was all nonfiction. He also wrote marketing materials, advertising copy, and executive speeches. Some of that was fiction.

He began writing for young people through a friend of a friend, penning books for the education/library market. His first book, a biography of the Myanmar political activist Aung San Suu Kyi, was published in 2005. He returned to working in public education but kept writing, turning out over 30 works of nonfiction for young people. He eventually switched to middle-grade fiction. Hum is his first novel. He lives with his wife in western New York, not far from the shore of Lake Ontario.

Visit William online.

Books by William David Thomas