Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom McCaffrey.
Hi Tom, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m an attorney who has spent most of his professional life working in the entertainment field. However, before I began practicing law, I always wanted to be a writer. In 2017, I adopted a mule named Claire. Something about the mule inspired me to try my hand at a novel. In 2019, I wrote The Wise Ass. Its storyline is Goodfellas meets The Wizard Of Oz. The first publisher I submitted it to, Black Rose Writing, loved it. Since its publication in early 2021, the remaining two books in The Claire Trilogy have been published. They are all Amazon bestsellers in the Dark Humor category Finding Jimmy Moran, the prequel to The Claire Trilogy, hits the market on April 13, 2023. I’m hoping I can parley this popular series into a film or movie deal out here in Hollywood. Claire has assured me that her story is going to be a major success.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a long road. The struggle is spending your entire professional life being the legal flea on the creative dog, servicing artists in the creative world, knowing that you don’t want to be the flea anymore and that you would make a fine creative dog. The struggle comes from believing, over time, that you will never reach your dreams. So now that I have made the leap into the creative world, I am intent on bringing The Claire Trilogy and Finding Jimmy Moran to the screen. I’m not finished dreaming.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
When you spend almost four decades being a litigator, you learn to become an instant expert in pretty much anything you have to litigate. You also learn how to write on deadlines. Those skills allowed me to research, focus and write each novel over an average of two months each, working during the early morning hours from 2 am to 4 am. Being a litigator also taught me how to write in an authentic and convincing manner, which draws my readers into the story and makes them feel part of it. It is the same way I write legal briefs. I’m working to convince the audience that, no matter how outlandish the story I am telling them appears, they come away wanting to believe it is true. I am most proud of the way my readers have fallen in love with all of my characters, especially Claire the magical mule. What sets me apart from other writers is that I have a great ear for dialogue, and that because I wrote that first novel so late in life, thinking no one else would ever read it, I didn’t worry about all of the rules one hears applies to writing. I just sat down and wrote the story I wanted to tell. I’m also incredibly lucky.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Yes, that if someone has a dream, they should never, ever give up on it.
Contact Info:
- Website: Thewisenovelist.com
- Instagram: @wisecelt
- Linkedin: Tom McCaffrey
- Twitter: Tom@wisecelt
