Tom Jones was born in Akron, Ohio when it was still “The Rubber Capital of the World” and the acrid smell of sulphur in the air was a matter of civic pride. Like his grandfather and his father before him, he, too, was employed at Firestone Tire & Rubber as a young man. Following his graduation from Kent State University, he packed his Chevette, fled what was then rapidly becoming known as “the rustbelt” and (like his grandfather before him) headed to a boomtown—Houston.  After the collapse of the oil industry in Houston three years later, he found employment within the advertising industry in San Antonio for twenty years as a nationally award-winning copywriter. Ten of these years were at his own firm, Flying Terrier Creative Company, which was named after a stray dog with a broken tail that he adopted off the street. That dog’s name was Waldo, which inspired his first book, Waldo Maccabees, In the Footsteps of Christ—a fictionalized narrative of the ministry of Christ as seen through the eyes of His dog. Following the publication of Waldo Maccabees, Tom completed the award-winning non-fiction work On A Burning Deck, An Oral History of The Great Migration. Based on over 50 hours of oral histories, as well as 173 rare photos from archives, museums and personal collections around the country, On A Burning Deck is the only work to offer a complete portrait of one family’s origins in rural Kentucky, migration to Akron, Ohio, work in the rubber factories and eventual impact on local politics and government. Tom lives in New Braunfels, Texas, with his wife, Steffanie. To contact the author, he can be reached at: Info@OnABurningDeck.com