M. Thomas Apple
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Originally from Upstate New York, M. Thomas Apple gave up his high school dreams of becoming the next Carl Sagan and instead studied languages and literature at Bard College and creative writing at the University of Notre Dame du Lac. Even after somehow getting hired to teach intercultural communication at a university in Kyoto, Japan, he is still trying to apply ideas from quantum mechanics to language teaching and research.
He lives in a quasi-traditional Japanese house co-designed with his wife and partially decorated by his two daughters, nestled in the foothills of the mountains and surrounded by lots of cedar and cicada. A holder of a 4th degree black belt (4-dan) in Shorinji Kempo, he also enjoys hiking and running, as long as his asthma behaves itself.
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Approaching Twi-Night
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Adult/General Fiction
"All you can do is play and make numbers in the minors. You know, all those statistics, all those numbers, they’ve all been done before. You’re not going to make it into the Hall of Fame or whatever. All you can do is make more numbers, right?" Journeyman relief pitcher Jonathan “Ditch” Klein was all set to be a replacement player during the 1995 baseball strike...until the strike ended. Offered a contract in the minor leagues, on the same Upstate New York ballpark he once found success in high school, Ditch has one last chance to prove his worth. But to whom? A manager with an axe to grind, a father second-guessing his pitching decisions, a local sportswriter hailing him as a hometown hero, a decade older than his teammates and trying to resurrect an injury-ridden career...Ditch thinks he may have a possible back-up plan: become a sportswriter himself. The only question is whether he is a pitcher who aspires to be a writer, or the other way around... Approaching Twi-Night sample REVIEWS: Readers' Favorite IndieReader Self-Publishing Review Kirkus Reviews Interview: The Adirondack Journal
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Notes from the Nineties
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Short story anthology, literary fiction, poetry
A beach in Ireland, a mountain temple in Japan, a hot summer drive in the Bronx, a dentist’s office in Michigan, a hospital in San Francisco, and a bus ride through the Hudson Valley. Notes from the Nineties ties these disparate stories together with poems and photos between, with raw emotions: rage, tenderness, vindictiveness, jealousy, terror, sorrow, loss, acceptance. Stories featured in this collection include: Cois Fharraige – A group of exchange students in Ireland finds there is more to do than study language Father Knows Least – A college baseball player at home during winter break discovers all is not well with family The Firebrand – What happens when you’re lost and your car breaks down in New York City? Kannuki – Self-disclosure is not necessarily the same as closure Boys Will be Boys – Family relations can sometimes be close…too close… The Lost Bunny Shrine of Annandale – Come with us into the Enchanted Forest. It’s not too dark… Pockets – What happened after that one party? Only Rose knows… Frank – He says he’s a liar…speaking frankly… The Four Teeth of the Apocrypha – Dentists and the occult should never mix The Green and the Grey – On the bus from Albany, a chance conversation between fellow passengers may be telling Training the Mountain Warrior – I did, actually, dangle my friend off a cliff in Japan. Seriously.
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Adam's Stepsons
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Science Fiction
Dr. Johann Heimann designed the perfect soldiers: superhuman in strength and intelligence, immune to sickness and disease, programmed to lead the United Americas to a quick victory in the Mars Colony War. But Heimann didn’t anticipate the military’s unrealistic demands, or his own emotional responses to his creations. And now Number Six is calling him “Father”! What exactly is going on during the clones’ personality imprinting cycle? As Heimann starts his investigation, Number Six grows in confidence and self-awareness…and both discover the project hides a secret even Heimann, himself, doesn’t suspect… Sample Adam's Stepsons
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