identity | M Thomas Apple Author Page

How to clean your glasses (yawn)

August 7, 2025
MThomas

Daily writing prompt

Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.

Seriously, this is an “NBC Select” article: https://www.nbcnews.com/select/shopping/how-to-clean-your-glasses-rcna175677

I wear glasses. I have worn glasses since I was in elementary school 2nd grade — the “aviator” style made of cheap plastic that I frequently broke during recess kickball games and then had to tape together so I could wear them.

I have never figured out how to keep my glasses clean in the subsequent four+ decades of my life.

But I seriously doubt this is “newsworthy.” Cringeworthy, maybe.

Yet another Gen Z vague question?

May 8, 2024
MThomas

What was the last live performance you saw?

Last live performance of what?

I saw a baseball game last September. That was live. Does that count?

Oh. Do you mean “live” in the Japanese sense, i.e., a live performance by a musical artist?

As in a live concert?

At a club?

Or just that the musicians were alive and actually wrote their own music and played their own instruments rather than danced around and lip-synced?

Yes. I am a snarky Gen-Xer. Wave the flannel.

(FWIW I think the last live musical performance I’ve seen was in a Japanese club in Osaka around 2000 or 2001, and before that in mid-1999 in a club somewhere in Boston. It’s hard to get out when you have a family and need to actually go to work in the morning.)

Check out my author interview at Literary Titan!

April 1, 2024
MThomas

Trust and Friendship

Um

March 31, 2024
MThomas

If you could have something named after you, what would it be?

Hey, I came first.

I’m not the “doubting one,” but…

March 9, 2024
MThomas

Daily writing prompt

What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

View all responses

My middle name is actually Thomas. I chose to use “M Thomas” as a pen name out of respect for my father, who taught me how to write. As a professional communications writer, he was responsible for lots of public documents for the NYS DMV, including traffic safety reports, driver manuals, press releases from the Governor, all sorts of “my boss will feel the need to edit this, so I will deliberately leave behind something for him to do so as he doesn’t screw up the entire thing” document.

I may or may not have adopted this strategy in my own professional work (I certainly adopted the attitude…)

Another reason is because I had a baby brother named Thomas. He passed away before reaching five months old when I was not quite 11. It had a major impact on me as a child (and indeed as the adult and as the father I am).

I have no sons. It bothers me that I may be the last Thomas in our family. For a while, anyway.

Introducing the Bringer of Light!

March 8, 2024
MThomas

Hello, everyone, and thank you for reading!

This is a short (~8 minute) video I made to introduce the story Bringer of Light.

I’ll be posting a couple more videos in the near future about the characters, location, and science behind the story.

Check it out, and share freely!

Dear Diary – November 3, 1997

March 7, 2024
MThomas

There is nothing quite like the feeling sitting in a busy place produces, when it is quiet. The sense of empty vacancy seems more restrictive than if one were crowded, surrounded by should to shoulder hip-grinders.

There is no vibe. There are no walls of personality off which to bounce your own. How else can one tell one is alive?

What I am still not used to is…

March 6, 2024
MThomas

What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.

“Where are you from?”

I never understood why this question might rankle some people…until I moved to Japan.

I’ve been in Japan since 1999. “Where are you from?” was one of the first questions people asked me at the time, when I was teaching in junior and senior high schools.

No problem, I thought. I’m from Upstate.

“I’m from New York.”

Nods of understanding. “Ohhh, the Big Apple.”

Uh, no. Upstate.

“New York is a state?”

🤦‍♂️

Bringer of Light available for pre-order!

February 15, 2024
MThomas

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is nearly here!

Bringer of Light is finally set to be released on March 15, 2024! (Click the link to see a book synopsis and two brief excerpts; Smashwords also has an excerpt from the beginning chapters.)

Stop by Draft2Digital to see links to your favorite bookstore online!

UPDATE: I have some difficulty convincing D2D to distribute to Amazon. Therefore, I have decided to publish Bringer of Light directly on Amazon. Stop by here to order for Kindle (released March 15th). Paperback and hard cover are also in the works.

Dear Diary – February 12, 1998

January 20, 2024
MThomas

That’s what we are, really; a constant turmoil between past and future, the mixing point of who we once were and who we are afraid we may become. We are constantly becoming — yet we never lose sight of the past, or if we do, we do so deliberately…but our past lies in wait, crouches and hides unbidden, always ready to pounce out from the mind’s darkness to set itself against future hopes and desires. Our previous selves eternally war with our future selves; it is the center of this conflict where we exist, and it is because of this inner turmoil we stay alive.

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