Danny Thomas grew up in East Tennessee in the 1950's and 1960's. After graduating from Clinton High School in 1966 and playing football for legendary Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama from 1966 through 1971, he worked as a teacher/administrator for twenty years in Durham, North Carolina. The family, his wife, Cynthia, two daughters, and a son, accompanied him to new jobs in Salisbury and Sanford. Upon retirement in 2006, the family moved to Winston-Salem where he began consulting work which allows him time for writing. He has twice been recognized by the West Side Story Contest out of San Francisco for his Alabama stories, "Cake Takers" and "Gladrags," and in 2011 he won first prize in the Hackney Literary Awards out of Birmingham with "Unbidden," a North Carolina story. His first novel, Clinch River Pearls, was published in February, 2013. The Thomas family divides time between home most of the year in Winston-Salem and summers at an island retreat in north Ontario. He is currently at work on his third East Tennessee book, a sequel to Pellissippi Ghosts, titled The Airplane Filling Station.