Tom Walsh

In becoming a writer, I've meandered over a path that I never could have foreseen years ago when I was a young man hoping to become a novelist. Time and circumstance have conspired to push me more towards non-fiction, as I've created most of my writing over the last decade to support my website, livinglifefully.com, through articles for the weekly e-zine that I publish as well as daily meditations and other essays to support certain topics. While I still love to write novels, I love the writing that I'm doing, too, and I hope to continue it for quite a while. I grew up in a military family, so my experience in life has to do with non-permanence. This trend has continued into my adult years, as I find that life sends circumstances my way that force me to choose between staying in a place where opportunities have dried up, or moving on and meeting new people and challenges. Currently my wife and I live in eastern Washington, where I teach high school. After I received my B.A. in Spanish many years ago, I moved to Europe, where I lived for three years--in Salamanca, Munich, and Barcelona. After coming home and getting my first Master's degree, I joined the Army and ended up spending two more years in Augsburg, Germany. The years that I spent in Europe have been among the most important in the formation of my world and life views. After many years of teaching college, I made the switch five years ago to teaching high school, mostly because there seemed to be more of a need for high school teachers than for college teachers. The change has been very valuable for me, as I've met some of the most important people in my life in my students and colleagues; while the work is harder and the vacations much shorter, I have no regrets at all about making the change. I have a doctorate in Teaching and Learning, as I've been interested in both all my life. I also have three M.A.'s: in Educational Leadership, English as a Second Language, and English Lit. I try my best to bring what I've learned about learning to my writing, so that a reader can benefit from my experience of life as well as from my writing.