Tom’s short fiction is available at Amazon.com as part of the Amazon Shorts program. Each story is in digital format, so you can download it either as a PDF or view it on a web page. You get to keep the stories, and print them out if you want. You purchase each story for $.49.
Short Fiction
“Ireland is the most hauntingly beautiful country in the world; I had never experienced anything quite like it before making a trip there in my youthful days of folly and adventure. Belfast cast its magic (and dark) spell on me for years afterward. I tried to capture that spell in my novel Grok, but still couldn't, somehow, get it the way it truly felt to me. In this story, I write about Ireland from the point of view of a woman from California on her honeymoon with her new Irish husband who, like Ireland itself, has hidden things from her that have dangerous consequences.”
“Blood Orange began, originally, as a long, sprawling work of fiction about life in the small town of Rancho Skywood, which sits on the edge of Silicon Valley, where the clash between old and newly minted wealth, between old California and an emerging geek culture, is visible and ubiquitous. Against this backdrop, I heard the roar of a mountain lion, a powerful force of nature and protector of the natural order, and then I realized that the story (a novella) was about the struggle to adapt, and confront the dark side of Valley life.”
Click the stories to go to Amazon.com
“Robert Bly, the great poet and philosopher, influenced a lot of my thinking about how one deals with one's shadow in life. Bly says that you've got to find a way to ‘eat’ that shadow, if you're going to make any progress toward enlightenment and self-understanding. This story is about one's man's journey in that direction, how it happens in the distant land of Chile, how another land, and another culture can provide the ways and means to accomplish this most difficult task for anyone who seeks to come to terms with him or herself.”
Reviewer comments: “Maremaa is a hair's breadth short of masterful in his rendering of six days in the life of a spy's odyssey from Dublin to Belfast.”
Reviewer comments: “You're going to dig the way Saint Thomas combines the various elements in this little chinwag of his....”
February 25, 2009
Short Stories Available
Free PDF Download: An Excerpt from GROK, set in Zurich
“Marjan’s Tooth takes you to the mountains of Afghanistan as a Special Forces soldier on a mission of no return. You've been training hard for months on assignment. The leader of your team is the son of Marjan, a warrior whose father was killed by the Taliban and whose death - as well as the death of the great Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance - you've come to avenge. Danger is all around you, a beast of prey. To succeed, you must win the hearts and minds of the local tribesmen with whom the Taliban have been courting favor. And you must arrive at your target on March 21st, the first day of the New Year by Afghan custom and tradition. What if there is a change of plan at the last minute, or a "change of policy" predicated on dubious political motives? What happens then? Marjan's Tooth came to me in a fever dream some time ago, as my body soaked in sweat, and I struggled to see the light. I kept hearing a voice from beyond and it consisted only of four words: "Justice must be served."”
Reviewer comments: “Maremaa dishes out an amazing travelogue of brutal Afghani warfare, with the expertise of someone who might well have set foot on Afghan soil himself. He'll dare you to think otherwise.... Prepare to have your socks knocked off by this killer whale of a tale....”