M Thomas Apple Author Page

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

In his house at R’yleh…

May 20, 2018
MThomas

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!

In his house at R’yleh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming…

…because of course his ancestral DNA was brought to Earth aboard an asteroid, as part of an ancient bombardment that seeded life…

Well, maybe not. It’s a controversial idea only in the sense that octopi are not aliens and no DNA can possibly have survived an asteroid bombardment hundreds of millions (or even billions) of years ago.

Still, asteroids seeding the universe is a fun idea for fiction writers. Which is the germ of my novel in progress…

https://qz.com/1281064/a-controversial-study-has-a-new-spin-on-the-otherworldliness-of-the-octopus/

Technology and control: The Eye in the Sky/I

March 25, 2018
MThomas

It’s been a few days now since the “big reveal” that a social science researcher sold information from 50,000,000 Facebook users to a third party company (which used said info for various campaign purposes, but that’s another topic for another blog….).

Somehow, we all managed to be surprised by this. What about our right to privacy? How dare our personal information be used without our permission!

How did we all get so naïve about technology and its control over us?

Continue Reading

Starving the smartphone addiction

March 10, 2018
MThomas

It’s been six weeks since I decided to take a break from Facebook. Back in mid-January I took a screenshot to show students how to figure out which apps they used the most (Line, by far, in case you’re wondering, followed by YouTube… not surprisingly, since my students are all Japanese).

It was a little shocking to see that I was spending over 8 hours a week on FB on my iPhone. My train commute is about an hour and a half each way, and I go to campus four days a week. So basically I spent 2/3 of my train time looking at FB posts.

Yuck. What a waste of reading time. Continue Reading

New Apple Award for Adam’s Stepsons

February 16, 2018
MThomas

2017NewAppleMedallionYes, yet another award for my science fiction novella, Adam’s Stepsons! This time, in the category of “E-book Science Fiction.”

The official rollout of the 2017 New Apple Awards hasn’t yet started (they announce winners in each category slowly over several weeks), but I felt I should announce it here anyway.

Competing against full-length science fiction novels, that’s not too bad!

I guess I really do need to write more. And more. And MORE.

Adam’s Stepsons awarded Pinnacle Best SF

December 29, 2017
MThomas

A late Christmas surprise!

img_9584Adam’s Stepsons won Best Science Fiction in the Fall 2017 NABE (National Association of Book Entrepreneurs) Pinnacle Book Achievement Award contest.

It’s gratifying to see my novella appreciated, but it would be even better to hear from individual readers.

If you have read Adam’s Stepsons, please don’t hesitate to write what you think about it – even if it’s just a single sentence – on Amazon, Goodreads, your own blog, Twitter feed, or Facebook page, anywhere!

 

Adam’s Stepsons Book Giveaway

October 14, 2017
MThomas

AS-RevisedFrontNEWwBadgeEnter for a chance to win ONE of TEN copies of the award-winning psychological scifi novellette Adam’s Stepsons!

Runs from October 13 to November 15 on Goodreads.

Click here for details on the story.

Click here to enter!

Adam’s Stepsons – BookWorks Featured Author

October 5, 2017
MThomas

BookWorks has selected me as their weekly “Featured Author.”

Please check out the BookWorks pages for me and for Adam’s Stepsons, where you will find a free Chapter 1 (PDF).

http://bit.ly/2fOVB4X

BookWorksFeaturedAuthor

Final Day for Adam’s Stepsons Giveaway!

May 17, 2017
MThomas

It’s the final day for the Goodreads Giveaway for Adam’s Stepsons!

Enter by 5/17 for a chance to win 1 of 5 signed copies of “a masterful novella”!

Screen Shot 2017-05-17 at 12.19.30 PM

Adam’s Stepsons: The Professor and Sam Adams

March 28, 2017
MThomas

beerfridgeThe main character of my new SF novella Adam’s Stepsons, Dr. Johann Heimann, was modeled after a professor at my undergraduate college named…ah…let’s name him Professor R. He had the biggest office on campus, and he kept Sam Adams in a small fridge tucked under his desk. And he shared them liberally with students who stopped by. And he told great stories about Chevy Chase. A perfect model for a fictional scientist.

Prof. R. was a teacher of social economics. Which is why he spent all his free time keeping careful track of tiny pieces of paper from the 17th to the 19th century detailing who was responsible for maintaining what part of what county and state roads in nearby towns.

By “careful,” I mean of course hundreds of cardboard boxes haphazardly stacked around his office and often mislabeled or labeled with handwriting so cramped that medical doctors would be proud. Couldn’t help wondering if Sam Adams were to blame. Continue Reading

Adam and his stepsons: Raising Seth

March 13, 2017
MThomas

AS-FinalFrontCvrIt’s been a productive couple of winter months. I got over my sickness (contracted from my daughters), finished the academic year (classes end in mid-January here), brought a group of students on a study abroad trip to Hawaii, and completed editing my long-awaited novelette/novella, Adam’s Stepsons.

Long-awaited in the sense that the nucleus of the story was written in 1994. So if anybody complains, “This has been done before,” you can tell them, “Yeah, but he did it first.”

Clones are nothing new in science fiction. In fact, the idea of creating human-like beings dates back literally thousands of years. The concept of the golem influenced ideas in Adam’s Stepsons; golems have been made famous in popular culture through D&D and fantasy games, but originally stem from Jewish mysticism. Continue Reading

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