Karlyle Tomms

Personal Bio

Karlyle Tomms is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter whose brand is diversity and resilience. His first two novels were award-winning, and the adaptation of his novel, ‘Edge of Smoke,’ was selected as a semi-finalist in the Santa Barbara/Palm Springs Diversity Screenwriting competition and as a quarter-finalist in the Table Read My Screenplay-Cannes competition. He grew up isolated and gay, with bullying and abuse in rural poverty in the 1960s while attending an authoritarian church. College led him to free thinking and self-love, outlined in his book ‘The Gulls Are Always Laughing-A Gay Man’s Journey to Healing and Spirituality. He wrote for regional magazines and newspapers before completing his first novel at fifty-eight and retiring from a 42-year career as a clinical social worker. He is an accomplished speaker and amateur actor. Through his characters, he explores the psychology of the human condition and the various elements of the entanglements of personalities. Incorporating the social and historical influences surrounding his characters, Karlyle’s stories explore overcoming social, emotional, and spiritual challenges. 

His novel Sunrise Over the Pumpkin Patch, about a small-town girl learning serious life lessons during the turmoil of the 1960s, was endorsed by Marideth Sisco, known for her work on the Oscar-nominated film Winter’s Bone starring Jennifer Lawrence. Marideth said of Karlyle Tomms’s novel, “Tomms guides us through the labyrinth twists and turns of one person traversing those challenging times with a deft appreciation of personalities.”