About Tom W. Parkin

A Brief Bio

I suppose my freelance writing career was born when a lacklustre editor at my hometown paper, the Revelstoke Review, published my first ‘article’. Front page!

I was in Grade 10 and failed to mention the name of the CPR official I had interviewed. I do remember him looking impatiently at his watch. Oh well. I then went off to UBC to learn more.

Years later, my first article with a photo spread appeared in Westworld, the BCAA member magazine. They liked it so much the association made a safety poster out of it. That encouraged me to quit a good government job and take up freelancing.

“Damn fool”, dad said.

Thereafter my interests focused on environmental and outdoor recreation topics, including adventure travel and transportation history.

“Well done, son,” said mom.

She liked reading Outdoor Canada, Nature Canada, BC Outdoors, Explore, and BC History. Editors at Canadian Geographic, BC Magazine, Equinox, and Victoria’s Times Colonist agreed, all using my material frequently enough that I could afford gruel and crusts.

As times change, so did publishers. I gained experience writing longer material as coauthor of Islands for Discovery, later republished as Haida Gwaii: The Queen Charlotte Islands.

I collected unique BC words and phrases for a small dictionary, WetCoast Words, and wrote and photographed an educational book for children, Green Giants: Rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.

Three other writers have included my work in their own books, including Judith Barker-Sandbrook in her anthology Thinking Through Your Writing Process (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1989).

Much more recently, on history topics, my efforts have been twice awarded by the Canadian Railway Historical Association (CRHA) in Montréal.

But enough of the fluff and puffery. Samples are available, if you want to read any of it, on the publications page.

Retired since 2018, today I am most interested in researching and writing on topics of western history. Magazines using my material of late include The Sandhouse, Canadian Rail, CP Tracks, and Branchline. All are in-house publications of western and national historical societies.

Let’s Collaborate

Editors and readers, including fellow writers, are welcome to discuss new ideas with me – get in touch through the contact form.