Tom McCarthy has won many writing/editing awards for his work in the publishing industry including:
Sports Illustrated Top Books of the Year: Facing Ali
Harvard University’s Goldsmith Award, Book of the Year: Embedded, The Media at War in Iraq
Esquire magazine’s Year’s Five Best Reads: Far Afield, A Sportswriting Odyssey
Readers Digest, Top Five Summer Books, King of Heists
American Library Association, Best Non-Fiction, In the Margins Book Award for America's Massacre: The Audacity of Despair and a Message of Hope
E-Captain: Best Books of the Year: Crossing the Bar, The Adventures of a San Francisco Bay Bar Pilot
Silver Medal: Independent Publishers: Best Regional Non-Fiction: For Sale: American Paradise: How our Nation was Sold on Impossible in Florida
Foreword, Best Sports Books: Cohn-Head
BookSense Notable Pick (March): Patriots Act: Voices of Dissent
BookSense Notable Pick (May): The Color of Love
Ben Franklin Award Finalist: Hell Is Over, Voices of the Kurds After Saddam
CASEY Award Finalist for Spitball, The Literary Baseball Magazine: A Tale of Two Cities
Runner’s World Best Books of the Year: Everyone’s Guide to Running and Be Iron Fit
Ben Franklin Award, Sports: Duty, Honor, Victory, America’s Athletes in World War II
Here are some of the books that Tom has written and edited:
Pirates and Shipwrecks: True Stories (Mystery and Mayhem) Oct 2016
The Greatest Special Ops Stories Ever Told March 2016
Survival: True Stories (Mystery and Mayhem) October 2016
Daring Heists: Real Tales of Sensational Robberies and Robbers (Mystery and Mayhem) May 2017
Weird Disappearances: Real Tales of Missing People (Mystery and Mayhem) May 2017
The Greatest Air Combat Stories Ever Told (October 2017)
The Greatest Coast Guard Rescue Stories Ever Told (August 2017)
The Greatest Sniper Stories Ever Told (May 2016)
Here are some accolades to Tom’s work from some of the authors he has worked with:
New York Times best-selling author Jim Bouton:
“I thank Tom McCarthy for the courage to go where others feared to tread. So far, none of our opponents has offered to buy stock in his company.” -Jim Bouton
New York Times best-selling author Melinda Roth:
“My thanks to Tom McCarthy, this book’s editor, whose belief in the book and continual encouragement and high humor kept me going through the worst of it.”
Emmy Award Winning Filmmaker Sprague Theobald:
“Thanks to Tom McCarthy, for being a great human being, a brilliant editor, and for making me look far better than I actually am.”
New York and Boston sportswriters John Harper and Tony Massarotti:
“A special thanks to Tom McCarthy, who embraced this idea from the beginning, and who remained patient, optimistic and unwavering in his support throughout.”
Sports Illustrated Award Winning Author S.L. Price:
“Thanks to editor Tom McCarthy for bringing it all home.”
Here are some reviews about books that Tom has worked on:
Opium Season - Joel Hafvenstein-
"The sobering dispatches in “Opium Season,” a wrenching account of lofty hopes and bitter disappointments, shed a dismal light on American efforts to improve the lot of ordinary Afghans. -New York Times
Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq: Bill Katovsky and Timothy Carlson
"The interviews crackle with immediacy." -The New York Times "Astonishing." -New York Daily News "It is my hope that this outstanding piece of work will reach the widest possible distribution and readership." - Dan Rather
Far Afield, A Sportswriting Odyssey: S.L. Price
"The sports reportage in this gracefully written book is strong enough to make the sometimes-dated events seem timeless." - New York Times "Far Afield is mostly a journey of self-discovery, honest and true without any of the usual sun-dappled barf. It reminds us that sports can tell us more about one another than just about anything else we do, so long as someone as able as Price provides the translation. -Esquire
Racing the Sunset: An Athlete’s Quest for Life After Sports- Scott Tinley
"Racing the Sunset is a helpful handrail not just for retiring athletes but also for anyone facing a difficult crossroads. While Tinley spoke with an impressive number of ex-athletes... the strongest passages here are his own vignettes." -Sports Illustrated
Full Count: The Book of Mets Poetry Frank Messina
“Frank Messina has become a classic.” -The New York Times
Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth: Martin Dugard
"A book that goes beyond pain, into the numbing realm of adventure racing." -Los Angeles Times
King of Heists: J. North Conway
“A page-turning account of one of the most brazen crimes of our time.” - Reader’s Digest
The Color of Love: Gene Cheek
“A mesmerizing yarn of growing up poor and white in 1950s North Carolina, surrounded by generations of wife-beating alcoholics.” - Publishers Weekly “A powerful story of love and forgiveness in the context of racial hatred during a tumultuous time in the South. -Booklist
Small Boat to Freedom: A Journey of Conscience to a New Life in America: John Vigor
"Not since Robert Manry's 'Tinkerbelle' in 1965 has there been a true sailing story as fresh and authentic as John Vigor's Small Boat to Freedom." -Washington Sunday Times
What a list of accomplishments for my new co-author! I am extremely pleased to be working with Tom McCarthy and with his tremendous experience and dedication, I am confident that he can bring my story “home” as well.
I want to thank you for your kind words of encouragement and support over the years, and more importantly for your patience. Your letters and emails of encouragement over this long process have kept me motivated and inspired to share my story with you. The process has been stressful, painful and quite emotional In many ways, and I hope that Tom and I can bring this to you the reader. The story continues to evolve and new chapters added as time goes by.
In the past year alone, I have participated in a major podcast that brought thousands of visitors to our Facebook page and website about our book as well as a new Investigation Discovery documentary about the case that should air sometime in the Spring or Summer of 2019. The WM3 case is as relevant today as it was back in 1993 and will continue to be for many years to come. I think that you will really appreciate the non-linear narrative that Tom and I have brought to the book, one that is not dissimilar to the first season, and the now airing third season, of HBO’s True Detectives. If you have been keeping up with season three which was filmed here in Arkansas, you have probably picked up on the similarities of the story with the WM3 case. Everything, from the locale, the victims on bicycles, three teen suspects who listened to Heavy Metal Music, and even the Satanic Panic. Perhaps the most interesting similarity for me however, is the fictional title to the book that appears in the film that is quite similar to the our working title of my book. It was written into the script and the author was one of the wives of the main character. The title to that book in the film is Life and Death and the Harvest Moon. I really like the show and the series, and I hope that you are enjoying it as well.
I know that many of you still have lingering questions about how the case--the Alford Plea in 2011 and especially how, and why, Jessie Misskelley falsely confessed-- and on more than one occasion. It is my desire to provide answers to these and as many of your questions about this iconic case that I can. I believe that you will be somewhat surprised about some of my observations about particular issues in the case and the startling revelations that our book will reveal for the first time many of which have never before been revealed by any other books or films about the case.
Another thing that I am looking to do after the book is published is the possibility of starting my own Podcast so that people may have a forum to discuss our book once it is published as well as other cases of injustice around the world. While we have made great strides in reforming our criminal justice system in the years since the trials of the WM3 back in 1994, there is still much work to be done. I would appreciate your insight and ideas into a new Podcast. Thank you, again, for your patience and for taking the time to subscribe to my Newsletter. Best wishes for the New Year and I will continue to keep you updated as we move along in the process at a much faster pace now in 2019.
Dan Stidham
January 21, 2019