Tom Davis writes about life in the American South in short stories, articles, and poems. Davis, a resident of Fayetteville, N.C., uses personal experience, imagination, and humor to tell stories about Southern people and events. Davis combines true elements, such as the names of actual persons and events that really took place, with descriptions of imaginary people and places. Davis's books include What Would You Like on Your Mashed Potatoes?, The Long and the Short, Pickberry Pig, and The Patrol Order. Davis's works are also included in A Loving Voice and A Loving Voice II, anthologies of read-aloud short stories. Davis also publishes extensively in newspapers and journals, such as The… Carolina Runner, Poet's Sanctuary, and Special Warfare, a professional military journal published by the Special Warfare Center. He has won numerous awards from Byline, a national magazine for writers.
Al Franken was born in 1951 and grew up in Minnesota. He got his start in show business in high school, when he began performing stand-up comedy. He attended Harvard University, but his comic talent went unrecognized by the school's famous Harvard Lampoon, which rejected him. Undaunted, Franken continued to do stand-up with a friend from high school, Tom Davis. Franken and Davis became celebrities when Lorne Michaels discovered their act and hired them for his new show, Saturday Night Live. In addition to doing the stand-up, Franken wrote many funny skits, including Chevy Chase's famous Gerald Ford bits, and created memorable characters like Stuart Smalley. Franken's ability to write comedy… translated into a best-selling success with his political satire, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. The book has sold almost one million copies. Franken was elected to the U. S. Senate representing Minnesota in 2009.