About Tom Shutt
Tom Shutt writes paranormal suspense with generous helpings of humor and a sprig of mystery thrown in for good measure. Sometimes he dabbles in fantasy, but in all cases, he strives to push the boundaries of modern fiction in search of good answers to hard questions.
"I don't believe in good guys or bad guys. There are good people and bad people, and most of the time we're able to tell them apart pretty clearly. The person shooting at orphans is probably not the one we want coming out on top at the end of the story.
But what happens when those dividing lines aren't so cut and dried? I like my characters best when they're acting on ambiguous morals. The main character is an admitted killer. His best friend is a womanizer. The only stabilizing force in their lives is their partner (professional and romantic, respectively), and she doesn't fully trust either one of them. And everyone has a motive that drives them to believe that what they are doing is right and just and necessary."
Tom likes to dip his toes into sci-fi and fantasy as well, though his early stories always came back to the paranormal.
"Even as a kid, I knew writing was the path for me. In sixth grade, we would have little journals in Language Arts class, and we could write freely for five to ten minutes before each class and then choose to share or not share our stories. I was forced to share my stories each day, they were so good. Dirt-eating robots, strange monsters, heroes armed only with an old umbrella...all of it was absurd.
And then I got older, and my writing was still absurd and likely terrible. People loved it anyway. I took Advanced Placement Biology in my senior year, and on the actual test that was going to determine whether or not I would receive course credits going into college, I wrote about cells communicating via smoke signals. Yes, smoke signals. Like the ones used by Native Americans. The question itself concerned "cell signaling" and I, having been distracted by the girls sitting in front of and behind me, didn't have a clue what to write. So I went for entertainment. I wrote what I would've wanted to read had I been the guy grading these free response essays, and you know what? I got those credits."
He lives on the perpetually rainy East Coast with some cats, dogs, and an impressively large chin. His favorite authors are Jim Butcher, George R. R. Martin, Jonathan Stroud, and Eoin Colfer. He knows how to hide a body from the police, and the research for his novels has likely landed him on a few security watch lists. He enjoys reading, gaming (Halo, Civilization, BioShock, Call of Duty, Minecraft), playing pool, chasing deer, hunting deer, riding deer, and lying about what activities he does with deer. His favorite shows include Supernatural, Game of Thrones, iZombie, and anything created by Joss Whedon.
He can be found on Goodreads, Twitter, or through the use of a very skilled bounty hunter.
