Tom Gates

I am a slightly warped writer, based in Los Angeles.  I started writing a few years ago while on a trip around the world and quickly discovered that a) a good portion of travel writing is crap and if you write travel from a genuine place, it works  b) i had this twisted voice that people gravitated towards c) i was suppressing this talent that I didn't know I even had.  

Now I write all kinds of stuff.  I've written about sushi and 9/11 and coming out and superheroes and condiments and airplanes and Def Leppard and AIDS and Star Trek and food trucks.  I try to get out of the way and not censor what is coming out of my brain, for better or for worse.

I self-released a book about the trip which has been #1 on iTunes' and Amazon's travel sections. I don't say that in an arrogant way, I say it in a Holy Shit way.   It's as much a memoir about my weird life as it is about the trip.   I've posted it on Wattpad for anyone to check out. It's called Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road.   

I'm now working on a Young Adult book called The Spotlight, which is being revealed on Wattpad. The rapidness of this reveal will be a directly result of how lazy I am at the moment.

If you put a gun to my head and asked me what my favorite books are, before crying a lot I'd blurt out:  Shantaram, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Will Grayson Will Grayson, High Fidelity, Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Stand, The Mosquito Coast, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, The Count of Monte Cristo, Perfume and Vurt.