Tim W. Jackson was born in Atlanta
and grew up all over the world.  He started
kindergarten in Indonesia, graduated high school in Egypt and was educated everywhere in between.

Tim grew up to the rumble of his father’s Southern storytelling voice and waves wombing across coral reefs.  His first coherent memories are of splashing in the warm waters of Pulau Putri in the Java Sea . . . or sitting on the boat with his mom, pouting because his dad and older siblings were having fun underwater on garage-cobbled scuba gear.

Raised with storytelling, Tim was an avid reader as soon as he was able to see Spot run and urge him on.  He spent much of his early life thumbing through books thinking, “I could write something better than this.”  After a stint at the University of Florida and a 10-year photojournalism career, he decided to put up or shut up and started making up stories about people and places that didn’t exist.  That led to Dallas, Texas and the graduate writing program at Southern Methodist University and a master’s degree in English.

Thus qualified to work as a waiter, a bartender, or apply for a Ph.D. program, Tim chose Secret Option D: run off to the Caribbean, teach scuba diving and drive a boat.  Working in the tropics was the perfect escape from dreary North American winters and restored the sound of breaking waves to his back doorstep.  It also left his evenings free to sit alone in darkened rooms making up lies.

He is currently working on his third Blacktip Island novel.  From hurricane-battered adventurers to misguided idealists to charming scoundrels, his characters’ successes and failures are tempered with empathy and a wry humor.

“Life can be confusing,” he said.  “Through my stories I try to sort it out and make some sense of things a bit at a time.  It works for me.  Hopefully it works for my readers, too.”

Tim's list of quirky jobs (required of any serious writer)

Include short-order cook, apartment maintenance man, photojournalist, English teacher, contract photographer, aircraft refueler, OSHA compliance coordinator, scuba instructor and boat captain. When not making up stories about people and places that don't exist, Tim drives a big boat and plays with fish in the Caribbean.