(Children's story writer) Tom Watson

Tom Watson lives in Chicago with his wife, daughter and son. He also has a dog, as you could probably guess. The dog is a Labrador-Newfoundland mix. Tom says he looks like a Labrador with a bad perm. He wanted to name the dog ‘Put Your Shirt On’ (please don’t ask why), but he was out-voted by his family. The dog’s name is Shadow. Early in his career Tom worked in politics, including a stint as the Chief Speechwriter for the Governor of Ohio. This experience helped him develop the unique, story-telling narrative style of the Stick Dog books. More important, Tom’s time in politics made him realize a very important thing: Kids are way smarter than adults. And it’s a lot more fun and rewarding to write stories for them than to write speeches for grown-ups.