Tim Sandlin

Biography

I was born in Oklahoma; spent my summer rite-of-passage years in Wyoming while Dad worked seasonally for Grand Teton National Park. I worked over 40 entry-level jobs including driving an ice cream truck, skinning elk, cooking in a Chinese restaurant, train inventory for the Forest Service, caretaker of rental cabins, gardener for the Rockefellers, pizza parlor manager, belt buckle buffer, and multiple dishwashing jobs. Throughout this period I lived most of the year on public lands, first in a tent and later in a Cheyenne tipi. The more mind-numbing jobs have helped me to hone my creative skills, but all of these experiences have helped me to learn to appreciate life and its inherent follies. I have published seven novels ( and Sunsets, 1987; Western Swing, 1988; Skipped Parts, 1991; Sorrow Floats, 1992; Social Blunders, 1995; Honey Don't, 2003) and the forthcoming Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty, and a book of columns (The Pyms: Unauthorized Tales of Jackson Hole, 1991). I wrote eleven screenplays for hire; two have been made into movies - Floating Away (based on Sorrow Floats), Showtime Cable Network, 1998 and Skipped Parts, TriMark Pictures, 2001. My last three Hollywood projects were bio-pics of Ron Popeil, Gorgeous George and a guy who got cosmetic surgery on a bet. Now, I'm back to literature, comparatively. I turned forty with no phone, TV, or flush toilet and spent more time talking to the characters in my head than the people around me. Now have eight phone lines, four TVs I don't watch, three flush toilets, and a two-headed shower. My wife and I recently adopted a little girl from China. I'm now living happily (indoors) with my family (wife, Carol; son, Kyle; daughter, Leila) in Jackson, Wyoming.