T. M. Skilton grew up in a large family, with four sisters and five brothers. His father returned from military service in World War II and settled the family in Venice, California. His father loved the construction industry and eventually became a general contractor. As a result, T. M. grew up around construction sites, helping his father and learning about the construction industry.

He enjoyed construction work, but life as an educator called him strongly, so that was his focus in college. Upon graduating, he received his teaching credential, but it was the very end of the end of the baby boom and school enrollments were plummeting. With the student population shrinking rapidly from its peak, there weren’t a lot of jobs available in education. With that path closed and a growing family of his own, he had to find another way to make a living, working as a carpenter, a bicycle mechanic, a library page, and a postal employee. Some people give him credit for inventing the phrase “going postal” back in the seventies, but they won’t say why.

T. M. fell back on his construction experience when no teaching jobs appeared, putting his teaching dream aside like so many others. After getting his own contracting license, he started a successful building business. Ten years later, the children of the baby boomers reached school age in droves and student populations began growing, creating a teacher shortage. He didn’t hesitate. He closed his construction business, took a huge pay cut, and started teaching with no regrets and no looking back.

After working in the classroom environment for three years, he realized he had an affinity for students with special needs. Returning to higher education, he got master’s degrees in Counseling and School Psychology and worked in those fields for several years. Unexpectedly, an opportunity appeared to step into school administration, and he took it.

This led to a series of roles in school management. Over the next several years, he administered pupil services, became a principal, ran an adult education program, and joined a compliance team that specialized in helping schools serve their special needs students better, eventually retiring to a full and happy life, full of ballroom dancing, archery, and swimming. 

When he was still in his teens, but teacher asked him and his classmates what they were considering for their future careers. All of his peers named specific career choices, but when T. M.’s name was called, he said what he wanted was a family and that any job would be fine as long as it helped him to reach that goal. Perhaps that’s why his work history is so long and varied. He has always said that he is a job gypsy.

And he did, in fact, reach his goal. He has been married to his lovely wife for over 50 years (and they dated for four years before marrying), and they have three wonderful daughters, three great sons-in-law, and five spectacular grandchildren.

For most people, that would have been the end of the story, but an old passion reasserted itself—writing—something he had tried his hand at long ago. That was before word processors, computers, and dictation software, and his dysgraphia had proved too much of an impediment.

After crafting several stories merely for his own edification, he shared his hobby with his crazy brother-in-law, who eventually convinced him he needed to publish his work. He took that advice to heart and made a serious and sustained effort to improve his writing skills.