Jim Hetherington
When James Alexander Thom wrote about the lives of Native Americans, pioneers and explorers, the only way he believed he could bring authenticity to his historical fiction was to experience what his characters had.
He walked in the path of Lewis and Clark to the West and back. He fasted for a week to learn not only how it felt but how it affected his body. He reconstructed a log cabin using tools only from the period he wrote about. He broke through ice in a pond to experience walking in icy water.
“The body remembers an awful lot that the mind can’t find in a book,” he said.
In the early years before he became a full-time novelist, Thom honed his skills at newspapers in Indiana and Florida.
This journalist-turned-novelist ultimately found a different outlet for his writing – historical fiction. His novels preserve a once-forgotten history of Indiana, Native Americans and America, and gave him a new way of life. In , members of the Shawnee Nation, traditionally a closed society, were so appreciative of his research and writing about Chief Tecumseh in Panther in the Sky, they adopted him. “I’m more Indian than white man anymore,” he said.
Thom w
"James Alexander Thom is one of the finest historical novelist writing todayhe cares passionately about getting it right, and has a gift for illuminating those forgotten but fascinating corners of the American past"&#; John Sugden Author of Tecumseh, A Life
"He puts flesh and blood on forgotten names and breathes life into the stale past. He is probably, the most important author of American historic novels written today because he helps to interpret the distant past for the mind and interest of the modern reader."&#; Jack Weatherford Author of Indian Givers
Sign Talker, is a fictional account of George Drouillard, the french-Shawnee hunter and scout who led the Lewis and Clark expedition. "Anyone who thinks there's nothing left to be said about the Lewis and Clark expedition should read this book." John Sugdon Author ofTecumseh, A life
Warrior Woman: Now he and his wife, Dark Rain, have created a magnificent portrait of an astonishing woman&#; - one who led her people in war when she could not persuade them to make peace. Her name was Nonhelema, she was the Woman's Peace Chief of the Shawnee Nation.
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Thom, James Alexander
PERSONAL:
Born May 28, , in Gosport, IN; son of Jay Webb (a physician) and Julia (a physician) Thom; married Cody Sweet (an international platform lecturer), May 16, ; married second wife, Mari Silveus (a writer), May 28, ; married third wife, Dark Rain (a writer), Education: Butler University, B.A., Hobbies and other interests: Sculpture, outdoor activities.
CAREER:
Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, IN, business editor, ; Saturday Evening Post, Indianapolis, senior editor, ; communications director for state trade association, ; freelance writer, —. Lecturer at Indiana University, Military service: U.S. Marine Corps, ; served in Korea; became sergeant.
AWARDS, HONORS:
Golden Spur Award, Western Writers of America,
WRITINGS:
NONFICTION
Let the Sun Shine In (inspirational essays), C.R. Gibson (Norwalk, CT),
Spectator Sport, Avon (New York, NY),
The Spirit of the Place: Indiana Hill Country, photographs by Darryl L. Jones, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN),
Indiana II, Graphic Arts Center (Portland, OR),
NOVELS
Long Knife, Avon (New York, NY),
Follow the River, Ballantine (New York, NY),
From Sea to Shin
Thom and his wife Dark Rain find a comfortable perch under a year-old white oak tree at their home in Whitehall. As a child James Thom used to climb this tree. In the early days, James Thom was a reporter and columnist at the Indianapolis Star. "Even then I knew that my heart and mind were in the things I wanted to say in books," says Thom. He began a journey that took him back to his native Owen County, where he built a his log cabin home with his own hands. The journey also took him through swamps and forests to research&#; Long Knife, a novel about Revolutionary War. One thing that sets Thom apart is his commitment to research, something he takes very seriously. He believes that in order to talk or write about something accurately you have to experience it. Therefore, one can find him hiking old Indian trails and canoeing Mid-western rivers recreating the experience of travel. He traveled the entire route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition while writiing From Sea to Shining Sea to Sea convey the experience of the frontier soldiers in Long Knife, his first historical novel, he mastered the use of eighteehth-century tools and w
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