I was born in 1965 in Kingsport, Tennessee. My mother was a dedicated homemaker and incredible loving mother of three – of which I was the youngest and the only boy. My father, Tilmer Sr., worked at a glass manufacturing facility and was just the best dad a kid could have.
Growing up I enjoyed most of the same things other little boys born in the 1960s did. I loved to play baseball and ride my bicycle all over the hilly terrain surrounding my family home. Life was pretty good. Sure, there were only four channels to watch on TV (and one of those was a grainy UHF-based ABC affiliate.) But there was some magic contained in that quartet. Many hours were whiled away sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a monolithic console television set that was comprised of more wood than electronics. Beaming from its convex low-resolution screen were such fantastic offerings as “Batman”, “Looney Tunes” and “The Wild Wild West”. Many days, I would hop up excitedly after watching James West and Artemis Gordon foil the diminutive, but evil, Dr. Loveless. Off I would dash to my room where, in my closet, I would find the old cardboard box that had once housed the vacuum cleaner. This box held all of my most precious toys. Digging frantically, I would eventually find my trusty chrome-plated six-shooter cap pistol, reeking of burned powder from previous conquests. Minutes later, the pistol would be loaded with a fresh roll of red paper caps and I would blaze out the back door, across the patio and into the large, grassy back yard. There, in my soaring imagination, I would find the nefarious Dr. Loveless and bring him to justice, all the while humming “The Wild Wild West” theme song as loudly as possible.
I have since retired the old chrome six-shooter and my wild west secret agent days are behind me. Since graduating from Florida State University in 1987 with a degree in Computer Science, I have gotten married (and stayed married), fathered two beautiful daughters and worked in a variety of Information Technology roles across the southeastern United States. Today, I live in Knoxville, TN. I love to write and hate to edit. I love music and play the piano and guitar (both poorly.)