Karlyle Tomms is an author who grew up in rural Ozarks poverty. He completed his master's degree in 1981. He has written for different regional magazines and newspapers over the years. He has often been selected to speak at professional and non-professional events, podcasts, and radio talk shows. However, he had never published fiction until completing his first novel in 2014. His general method for fiction has been to define a character and allow that character to tell their own story from a first-person perspective as though the character is writing an autobiography. Through his characters, he explores the psychology of the human condition and the various elements and entanglements of personalities. His novels incorporate the social and historical influences surrounding the lifetimes of his characters and are stories of overcoming social, emotional, and spiritual challenges. After retiring from a 42-year service career in January of 2023, Karlyle Tomms has claimed writing as his retirement career and dedicates himself, through his fiction, to stories that are ultimately about uplifting people and promoting acceptance and appreciation of diversity.
His work has been award-winning, and his novel, The Calling Dream, was a publisher's best seller. His first novel, Confessions from the Pumpkin Patch, released in 2014, won a New Apple Award for general fiction by a first-time author. Confessions from the Pumpkin Patch was endorsed by Merideth Sisco, author, entertainer, and composer who is known for her work on the Oscar-nominated film Winter's Bone, starring Jennifer Lawrence. She commented, "Karlyle Tomms has—a deft appreciation of personalities and a sweet degree of patience for those whom life is tossing about like a large unwieldy dryer load." His book, The Calling Dream, won a Firebird Award, and his latest novel, Edge of Smoke, was released on January 19. 2024. His previously published poetry book, The Gulls Are Always Laughing, is currently being revised into an autobiographical poetry book. Currently, he is working on screenwriting, converting his novels into screenplays, and has completed a sitcom pilot.
Unique traits: amblyopia
The Calling Dream Budget: $10M - $30M A sexually addicted televangelist battles himself over his sins of lust while he is tormented by recurring dreams of a red-headed woman who knows his darkest secret, the one he can never admit, even to himself.
Edge of Smoke Budget: $10M - $30M | Historical ⋄ Mystery A transwoman finds love but struggles with memories of abuse and her mother's murder. She is torn between love and her pledge to kill the man who brutalized her as a child.
A Printer to the Territory
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Film
by Jess M. Young
Bit part Film was used for many years as the introduction for tours at the Arkansas Territorial Restoration in Little Rock, Arkansas.
"The Calling Dream" won a Speak Up Talk Radio Firebird Award for general fiction and cross genre.
(2021)
2016 New Apple Award for General fiction e-book http://newappleliterary.com/2016ebookCat04.html
(2016)
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
(1979-1981)
Lyon College
(1973-1977)