Todd Thorne

Louisiana Never Really Left Me

I was raised in Louisiana until I was fourteen, but even after moving away, Monroe, Louisiana, remained home in a very real sense. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins still lived there, so visits back were frequent. Louisiana became more than a birthplace. It became family, memory, sports, and identity.

As a child, imagination came naturally. A bucket of water and a paintbrush could become a masterpiece. A fire hydrant became my horse once I strapped on my Western pop guns. A towel became a superhero cape. Magnolia leaves became fancy cups while my German shepherd, Chico, sat beside me.

A Life of Places and People

Before adulthood I spent time in Corpus Christi, Texas; Thomasville, Alabama; Chesterfield, Virginia; Ruston, Louisiana; Denham Springs, Louisiana; Greeneville, Tennessee; and other places. Industrial construction later took me to Kingsport, Tennessee; Jesup, Georgia; Ticonderoga, New York; Texarkana, Texas; Greenville, North Carolina; Plymouth, North Carolina; and beyond. Later came thirteen years in a Tennessee factory, work in Glendive, Montana, and eventually western Illinois.

During that working life I met nearly every kind of person imaginable. I learned that people are rarely simple. Good people make bad decisions. Difficult people sometimes show unexpected kindness. Those observations eventually found their way into my characters.

Why I Write

I started telling stories almost as soon as I could talk. If I could make my mother laugh, I had accomplished my goal. By high school I was putting stories on paper. A college writing instructor who was also a published writer told me I had talent and should keep developing it.

Today I write from what I see in life. Small things can trigger entire fictional worlds. A personality trait, a town, a memory, or an ordinary moment can become the beginning of something much larger.

During my freshman year of high school, a boy named Chris who regularly sat with our lunch group was killed in a motorcycle accident on his way home from school. Years later, the emotional memory of someone being there one day and suddenly gone the next became the seed for the opening of Rheatown. The novel is not Chris's story, but the feeling of that empty place stayed with me.

Faith, Family, and Moving Forward

My family and I live our lives as devoted Jehovah's Witnesses, and faith is central to who I am. I have also lived through depression, failure, regret, heartbreak, and the deaths of people I loved. I watched my mother face bipolar disorder and later Alzheimer's disease and COPD. Several of my closest friends died before they had the chance to grow old.

But life has also given me joy: watching children grow, finding a wife who became my best friend, sharing unforgettable family experiences, attending the entire 2023 College World Series with my wife, and seeing teams I had followed since childhood win championships I once could only hope for.

Ada Forge Books

Independent publishing finally gave me a reason to reopen old rough drafts and finish what I had started. I admired authors such as Hugh Howey because he showed that a writer could build something independently and do it his own way.

Ada Forge Books grew out of that same idea. It exists to publish my work, but the larger goal is to help other writers who have a story and need someone to help them move it through editing, formatting, production, publishing, and into the hands of readers.