“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” E.L. Doctorow

I was born in 1949 in Scranton, PA and graduated from Brooklyn College many years later. There’s not enough room here for what happened in-between, but I suppose there is room for some of it.

When I was ten, doctors discovered that a tumor was causing my terrible headaches. After surgery, they fitted me with strong prescription glasses. That led me to a marvelous discovery--suddenly I could read easily and actually enjoy it.

A year later, I broke my foot, ankle and leg in so many places that I was in casts--and mostly in bed--for more than nine months. That turned out to be another lucky break (begging your pardon) because I was eleven in an era when no kids had TV's in their rooms.

Month after month, I had nothing to do but read all the books a thoughtful teacher delivered every week. Thus began a lifelong love of history, biography and historical fiction--interrupted by a business career.

Before I wised-up and began to write for young readers, I wrote and directed corporate videos for twenty years. That was a broadening experience--I learned you can’t make the same claims about mutual funds and horse-grooming products. I also learned that the most rewarding way to work well with others is to be in charge

It took forever to go get up the nerve to actually write a biography. But I've certainly never regretted making the switch.

I wrote award-winning biographies of Dian Fossey and Alexander Graham Bell (out of print, sadly) under the pseudonym Tom L. Matthews.

Grierson's Raid: A Daring Cavalry Strike Through the Heart of the Confederacy was a joy to research and to write.

But I found my life's subject in the Magnificent Mystifier and Death Defier--Houdini through the biography, Spellbinder. Now with I hope that readers find the continuing fictional adventures of Nate Fuller and his mentor as exciting as I find writing them.

Other than writing, everything about Jazz except playing is joyful to me: listening, reading about, attending live performances. Everything.

For many years I played squash and tennis competitively. Sadly, orthopedic injuries curtailed those pleasures. Replaced by reading the New York Times (a major endeavor), spending an hour at the gym, Indian cooking, photography and digital manipulation of images, travel, gardening, and most important, humoring the whims of our venerable cat.

I live in Westchester County, New York with my wife, Barbara, and our cat, Dixie, who is younger but wiser than either of us (to her way of thinking).

If you are interested in an autographed copy of a book pictured here, write to me. I'm Tom.Lalicki@gmail.com.

Hard at Work on the Next Chapter, as captured by my incredibly talented life partner Barbara.