Thomas King
By Gracie Schutte
Thomas Wayne King leads a creative life, one that manifests itself from novels to textbooks and songs to family stories. He’s been in the creating business since he was young and has no intention of slowing down the creative cogs in his head anytime soon.
“Almost everyone has creative ideas or thoughts, but they don’t act on them. My rule is … create every day.”
“I think everyone creates,” King said. “Almost everyone has creative ideas or thoughts, but they don’t act on them. My rule is … create every day. The corollary to that is make it tangible. … Create all you can, but in order to get to that, make whatever pops through your head tangible, get up and work on it.”
That’s exactly what King has done. Since retiring as a professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at UW-Eau Claire back in 2005, King has spent his time putting those creative juices to work—he’s even applied them in academia.
As a Speech Language Pathologist, King specialized in two areas of study in the field: professional and performative voice disorders and assistive technology. Back in the day, King’s work was some of the first of its kind, leading him to publish a textbook on assistive technology and human factors. Since then, he’s gone on to write more textbooks and revise others, and is considered an expert in the field.
“That requires a lot of creativity,” King said, “to come up with creative solutions. My work now is applying what I know from science, from clinical research and scientific experience in creative and innovative ways, then writing about it. That’s one side of my life.”
The other side, though, looks much different: it’s full of stories of the north, the environment, and vocal and instrumental songs. In his multiple series, King explores fiction and nonfiction, life and science in ways that are new, different, and local.
All of King’s books can be found and purchased on Amazon, including his Redpump Chronicles, Tales of the Northland, and my personal favorite Oh My Gosh…. Have We Got Squash! But be sure to keep an eye out, because King has more stories percolating.
“I’ve got so many more book ideas, I’m just trying to live long enough to get them all out,” King said.
The life of a creative, folks.