Blue Apple Books is honored to welcome Dr. Steven Tom for an Author Talk/Book Signing on Saturday, December 6 from 1:00-2:30 PM, as he celebrates the release of his newest book, 'The Aviator: A Biography of James R. McConnell, Lafayette Escadrille Fighter Pilot.'
Steve will meet & greet attendees and sign books in the store between 1:00 and 2:00 PM, then from 2:00-2:30 PM in our event space, he will give an author talk about both the subject of his book (James R. McConnell) as well as World War I aviation in general.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Tom is a retired US Air Force Officer with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. He served for over 20 years in the Air Force, supporting and participating in operations in the continental US, Alaska, Egypt, and multiple
islands and nations throughout the Pacific.
Steve also taught graduate level engineering courses at the Air Force Institute of Technology. After retiring from the Air Force, Steve joined a high-tech engineering firm where he designed products, gave technical presentations, and taught courses on digital control systems.
Steve’s background prepared him to write this book. His Air Force experience helped him understand the strategy and tactics of the first air war. His engineering background helped him understand the technical aspects of the ambulances Jim drove and the aircraft he flew. Steve has several years of teaching experience in the military and in the private sector, and this taught him how to describe complex topics in words that readers can understand and that hold their interest. This is the second biography Steve has written. His first, 'First to Fight' (Stackpole Books, 2019) told the story of Kiffin Rockwell, an American volunteer who flew with Jim McConnell.
Steve has also had success writing in other fields. He has written dozens of engineering articles which have been published in refereed and in general interest engineering journals. The editors
who published those articles praised his writing style, particularly his ability to explain complex subjects in simple terms. He is a contributing author to several engineering textbooks. He has
had history, fiction and humor articles published in Over The Front, Stymie, British Motoring, The Steam Automobile, and Moss Motoring magazines. Readers have downloaded more than
100,000 copies of his short stories from his Random-Writings web site. Before Steve began researching and writing serious books, he published 'Flaming Floorboards' (Amazon Press, 2013),
which described his adventures driving antique cars over a forty-year period. (Those adventures included having a car’s floorboards catch fire while he was driving.)
Steve has been interested in World War One aviation in general, and The Lafayette Escadrille in particular, for over fifty years. He is a member of the League of World War One Aviation Historians and the World War One Historical Association. He retired from his engineering position in 2015, and since then has spent thousands of hours doing intensive research in museums and university archives, corresponding with other World War One aviation historians, and writing about the Lafayette Escadrille.
Steve can be reached at
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