Tom Watson Makes Literary Debut with 'Your Turn,' Now Available for Purchase

Award-winning Maine business leader Tom Watson released his debut memoir, Your Turn, on March 3, 2026. Told through a series of short, sharply observed vignettes, Your Turn traces Watson’s journey from launching a company out of his pickup truck in gritty 1990s Portland to surviving a near-death medical crisis decades later.

Paired with stunning, original illustrations by his daughter, Rose Watson, the book uses humor, wit, and visual storytelling to explore life’s most serious subjects—ambition, fear, mortality, family, and love—in a way that will have readers laughing one moment and unexpectedly moved the next. The result is an intimate, achingly funny portrait of what it means to be alive, and to love and be loved.

“We decided on the title Your Turn because at some point, the baton passes,” says Watson. “This isn’t a manual or a set of instructions. It’s just my small, honest snapshots—the wins, the mistakes, the moments that mattered. If they spark courage in someone else to take their own turn—at work, in love, in life—then that’s more than enough. We’re all just figuring it out as we go.”

An entrepreneur at heart, Watson founded what is now known as Reveler Development in Portland, Maine, in 1993—a full-service real estate investment, development, construction, and management company. Over three decades, he has helped shape Portland’s evolving landscape. In 2023, he was recognized as a Mainebiz “Business Leader of the Year.”

The book’s editor, renowned Maine writer Susan Conley, shares: “This book reads like a magic trick. How else could a laugh-out-loud ode to renovating tired apartment buildings in Portland, Maine, really be a love story about how to radically change your life? Tom’s deadpan humor carries the memoir, along with his ninja understanding of what makes people tick.”

In a narrative that winds its way through the author’s past work life and current rehabilitation from a life-changing medical event, Your Turn is an honest invitation to get real with ourselves. It reminds us not to take anything for granted in this lifetime, and that cities and people don’t come back to life on their own. We need a radio crew of friends and trusted ones looking out for us—people like Tom Watson crawling around in our basement trying to fix our busted water pipes. 

Tom grew up in Acton, Massachusetts, and received an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Boston University. He lives in Portland, Maine.

Illustrator Rose Watson was born and raised in the West End of Portland, Maine. She studied at UCLA and Technische Universität in Germany, and is currently working in Pure Mathematics at the University of Southern Maine. Rose is a lifelong violinist who studies at the Portland Conservatory of Music.

BOOK DETAILS

Publisher: Longfellow Communications

Language: English

Hardcover: ‎ 365 pages

ISBN: 979-8-218-89522-8

www.TomWatsonAuthor.com 

MEDIA INQUIRIES, REVIEW COPIES, AND IMAGE REQUESTS

Please contact Jessica James at jessica@longfellowcomms.com or 207.852.1304