Thom (aka: Th.) Metzger is a novelist, investigative journalist, teacher and musician who has lived his entire life in western New York State (called by those in the know “The Burnt Over District.”)

 

Using the name Leander Watts, he has published five young adult novels, some of which delve into the occult lore of his region, and all of which are influenced by his career as a musician.

 

He has played saxophone, guitar and ontic trombone in a number of bands, including Health and Beauty, Mongo Fury, the Badenovs, Nemo’s Omen, The Fabulous Rectotem, The Behemoth Brothers, and the Invisible Stain Removers.

 

From 1999 until 2006 he was a feature writer and columnist for City Newspaper (Rochester, New York), publishing over one hundred articles, reviews and columns, including 55 installments of his Way Below Radar series.

 

His interests include: shape note singing (the oldest continuous musical tradition in America), glam rock, jazz, spaghetti westerns, four dimensional geometry, Mormonism, and (as founder of the Ziggurat Lodge of the Moorish Orthodox Church) he has been instrumental in keeping this esoteric tradition alive.

 

Thom Metzger has taught writing in the State University of New York system for thirty years.