M Thomas Apple Author Page

Science fiction, actual science, history, and personal ranting about life, the universe, and everything

Bringer of Light: Background Notes (1)

February 21, 2024
MThomas

It’s been well-known for some time now that the building blocks of life called amino acids can be found on asteroids strewn throughout the solar system.

It’s also thought that water on Earth is largely (or entirely) the result of comets and asteroids bombarding it (it remains debatable to what degree Earth already had water, but since when it formed the Earth was first molten lava and then dry as a bone, I think it far more likely that water came here from elsewhere, and science tends to agree).

I’ve already blogged about the origins of Bringer of Light, when I (finally) finished the first draft back in early September. In a sense, I’ve been constantly blogging the science behind the story.

But I haven’t discussed the characters at all. And despite what some old-fashioned writers may think (just finished a particularly badly-written snarky “why your books don’t sell” piece of trash that claimed science fiction shouldn’t have any emotions in it…say what? sorry not sorry), if the characters of a story aren’t interesting, there isn’t much point in reading a story.

So for the next couple of weeks, I’ll write a bit about the characters — the crew of the Artemis, the crew of the Sagittarius, the UN flunkies (sorry, career politicos) on Mars and Luna and so forth. There are lots of characters, and their interaction is complicated. Or is it?

I would get into my scifi influences at this point, but long blogs are slogs. So I’ll come back to that tomorrow!

Coffee time. Also to finish up at least one unrelated project and also the hardcover manuscript (which needs to be a different paper size than the paperback for some reason).

Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

Daily writing = this is necessary

February 21, 2024
MThomas

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite drink?

Coffee. Hot and keep it coming.

Today’s literary quote

February 19, 2024
MThomas

It is wise to have decisions of great moment monitored by generalists. Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos. They are a source of useless nit-picking, the ferocious quibble over a comma….The expert looks backward; he looks into the narrow standards of his own speciality. The generalist looks outward; he looks for living principle, knowing full well that such principles change, that they develop.

Frank Herbert (Children of Dune)

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.

White Dwarf the oldest star in the galaxy?

February 14, 2024
MThomas

A study published this weekend in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societyproposes that the oldest star in the Milky Way is a faint white dwarf that is about 10.7 billion years old and shining roughly 90 light years away from Earth.

https://www.popsci.com/science/the-milky-ways-oldest-star-is-a-white-hot-pyre-of-dead-planets/?fbclid=IwAR3smMe_OryfOHbM03X9HZIz9CcFu85LCsmGiNe5vaBh-7678xtPO4VOuxY

The Milky Way is old. Like, really, really old. One of the oldest galaxies.

This is probably what will eventually happen to our solar system. That’s right, everything will turn to rubble and get sucked into the dying Sun.

So, given all that, there’s only one thing for it…

This is the prompt that never ends…

February 13, 2024
MThomas

Daily writing prompt
What were your parents doing at your age?

“I’ll take ‘Barely Surviving’ for $100, Alec.”

That’s no (stealth ocean) moon…oh, wait…

February 12, 2024
MThomas

Mimas, the smallest and innermost of Saturn‘s major moons, is believed to generate the right amount of heat to support a subsurface ocean of liquid water

https://www.space.com/saturn-moon-mimas-stealth-ocean-world

Unfortunately the “stealth ocean” is only a few million years old, not nearly enough to harbor life.

But it demonstrates the fact that water may in fact be common in space, opening the possibility of finding life on celestial bodies with older (much older) water sources.

(FYI: Mimas orbits Saturn once every 22 hours, and is affected by tidal forces from Saturn that appear to have melted part of its icy surface.)

My latest attempt to troll as many fanbases as possible…

February 9, 2024
MThomas

Did I miss anyone? 😆👽🤖👾

Easy question. Easy answer.

February 7, 2024
MThomas

Daily writing prompt
Do you need a break? From what?

LIfe.

I need a break from life.

Just let me hide in a cabin in the mountains with coffee and WIFI and a laptop for writing.

That’s it.

A writing prompt that almost answers itself

February 4, 2024
MThomas

How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?

I would say “yes.”

How?

Failure influences my perspective on life.

Successes influence my perspective on life.

Deaths influence my perspective on life.

Births influence my perspective on life.

Travel influences my perspective on life.

I would list the above five as “significant events” in life. But “the passage of time” is a little more vague.

Four years doesn’t seem like a long time to me now, but it sure did when I was 18.

Even six years doesn’t seem all that long now. But to my daughter who graduates from elementary school this March, six years is half her life.

My perspective on this question is that it’s the people in my life that have changed my perspective.

Even my daughter gets this. She wants to visit Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the US again because, as she put it, “a little piece of me is still there.”

But that’s just her perspective. Or is it?

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