Bøger af Tom Norton

Camp Sumter at Stevensville, Georgia in 1865 was the site of the most hideous occurrence during the Civil War. 30,000 Union prisoners on seventeen acres of hell on Earth. The atrocious conditions the prisoners experienced was the beginning of this fiction story based on actual conditions there and in America. Two emaciated Union captains escaped the camp and were compelled to kill two fellow Union prisoners in order to do so. Upon escaping, they were wanted by the Confederates during the war and then the Union Army after the war. A complicated scenario unfolded whereby the captains became involved with bankers and the captain's fathers when $50,000 dollars was entrusted to them and it was stolen. The thief went west with the money and the captains pursued the thief and the money on horseback all of the way to a gold mine in the Colorado Territory.

The story takes place in the future and after a long period of Earth's history. The story involves a creature named Roc, who lived below the surface of the ocean. For those who have watched, "Creature from the Black Lagoon," way back when in 3D, Roc and all of the other Yelics in his underwater community looked similar to that creature that one might say is similar to a highly evolved amphibian. This story takes place well after the demise of the human species and after multitudes of Earth changing events of which some may have caused the demise of the human species. How a creature like Roc could exist this far in the future without humans is conjecture in that a great flood could have killed all of the humans or a multitude of other events could have exterminated them. During this time and these events, some amphibians in the ocean evolved over eons to resemble humans to some degree in appearance, or a land animal evolved over eons that returned to the sea. Whatever the case, this resulted in an unknown number of Yelic communities under the sea.

The setting for this fiction story is the controversial global warming and how in the future year 2035, the U.S reacted to it. If it were to happen, what could be done about it? The answer is that at some point, nothing could be done about it. That being the case, the Earth would warm until life as we know it could not survive on the Earth's surface. In this story, there was no other option, you go underground indefinitely and this in all probability is not feasible, but an attempt had to be made. The existence of the human race was at stake. This is a depiction of that global warming event that describes the fundamental problems that occurred for the characters in the story and a hypothetical description of the global warming event as it occurred and its aftermath. As for global warming as a possible event, it has happened on the Earth before and the best evidence is that it was caused by greenhouse gases escaping for variety of reasons from the Earth surface. This major event was slow in occurring and took place millions of years ago and the temperature of the Earth increase for a period of 200,000 years and the Earth turned green with tropic conditions in the high north. No ice at the poles and increased ocean levels from the melted ice. That period was a best case scenario and how it relates to this story other than the effects of the event, is that for some yet undetermined reason, the Earth and the atmosphere corrected the problem.

Artificial intelligence is the simulation of intelligence by machines. It is designed to mimic the human brain process of gathering information and making decision on this information. The difference being that the artificial intelligence brain can perform this in an infinitesimally short period of time and the host equipment the brain is in can perform a desired command from the brain in a small fraction of the time it would take a human. The average person can see the potential problem with this technology. The artificial intelligence brain designed to mimic the human brain in effect will have the same issues a human brain has. The brain will have to be programmed not only to function to maximum efficiency; it will have to abide by human social limitations. The shortest distance, fastest and best way to go beyond a crowd of people with a car is through the people. The brain has to be programmed that it cannot kill people and a multitude of other restrictions. Even the thought of mimicking the human brain is scary. Whose human brain and thought process? The best artificial intelligence brain in the world may be owned and programmed by the most ruthless person in the world. At what point do artificial intelligence brains get so intelligent and efficient that they determine that they don't even need humans. The following story pertains to these problems.

The content of this book is an accumulation of responses to the current news as well as experiences working in Alaska and fishing in the northwest.

The content of this book 50,000 BC ----- FORBIDDEN KING consists for two complete books. 50,000 BC This story takes place around 50,000 BC and is a story of humanity at that time and the possible influence the humanity at that time had on today's people. It is about a Homo sapiens and a Neanderthal who by chance were thrown together to face their unknown future. In this story, these two people in a short lifetime experienced was what played out on the Eurasian continent that for Neanderthals and Homo sapiens took many thousands of years. FORBIDDEN KING This historic fantasy takes place in an era of kings, queens and castles. The setting is somewhere during a much simpler time when laws of monarchies and the church were absolute. The Forbidden King of Dristavia was just that; an event and king that were forbidden. The story is based upon an heir to the throne that throws a wrench into an otherwise stable society that had existed since the beginning of time.

This book, THE BEACH VISION, is a sequel to the earlier published book, THIS JUST ISN'T POSSIBLE. It is necessary to read THIS JUST ISN'T POSSBLE to understand the content of this sequel. This sequel continues the impossible life of Allen Meyers, who as a significant telepath, could mentally travel to any specific site he had previously visited and observe what is there and was happening. In the previous book content prior to this sequel and in the twenty first century, Allen had a troubled past with what he thought were serious mental issues. These mental issues resulted in Allen being involved in life threatening missions for a secret U.S. counter espionage and antiterrorist agency involving mental telepaths. Allen's life being saved twice by an event that just isn't possible, in seconds found himself on a deserted beach in California in handcuffs. Allen recognized the beach, but found himself watching a nineteenth century whaling ship pass by. Behind Allen, what used to be parks, highways and a large city, was now a wilderness.

In the spring of 1862, the war between the Union and the Confederates was raging. Slaves in the Confederacy for the most part had little idea what the war was about other than what was told to them by the plantation owners. At that time, runaway slaves was becoming more of a problem all of the time and increased when some slaves learned of free Negroes in the north. Negroes fought in the Union Army and some Negro slaves were pressed into service to fight for the Confederacy. This is a story of two young Negro slaves who were caught up in this conflict and wanted no part of it. They had been advised to head west, which proved difficult to say the least and they had absolutely no knowledge of the west and what they would encounter.

This book contains two stories that take place in America nearly two hundred years between them. The first story pertains to the technology of today and the dangers of this technology. The second story examines the dangers of the past in a troublesome time and a wild western America. INTRUDERS tells a story of weapons designed and deployed to protect America from its military enemies and the same was done by these enemies. Intruders and TRNs were the weapons to be used. It is a story of what can go wrong pursuing this path, even though it is necessary. BUFFALO SOLDIERS is a glimpse back in time when Negro soldiers from the Civil War were deployed to the Great Plains to protect the settlers during the expansion into the west. The story is that of a Civil War General and his young drummer and bugler who meet on the Gettysburg battlefield and their involvement with Buffalo Soldiers.

In the not too distant future, a radio transmission was detected by NASA that originated on a planet designated as M27. A planet in the goldilocks zone of the star Centauri some twelve light years from Earth. It was a repetitive message that was certainly transmitted by some form of intelligent life. The repetitive message had only recently been detected and could have been transmitted from M27 for years, centuries or eons. It was decided by NASA and the military, that a spaceship would be built that would carry two pilots on a round trip of twenty five years, although they would only age two years due to a suspended animation system onboard. They were to place the spaceship in orbital paths over M27 to perform reconnaissance of the entire planet with video and transmit the data to Mars, which would arrive eight years before the spaceship arrived. The mission did not go as planned.

The old saying, "One thing leads to another," for the most part is true and usually what it leads to is something worse than the first thing. This is quite true in this story that starts with a billfold found in London, while its owner was fishing in Saskatchewan, Canada. This story involves the Presidents of two countries, the CIA, the FBI, Navies, international players and major oil companies. It tells how they all came together on the same stage by the accidental discovery of oil off the coast of Yucatan, Mexico. Every aspect of involvement in their pursuits was in secrecy to enrich their financial goals or to prevent war and bloodshed. In spite of this, there was some humor along the way.

What started out as letters of reminisce between two mining partners resulted in the writing of this book. I thought I might share my experiences with others who may never have the opportunity to commercially mine for gold. Unfortunately gold mining is not limited to cleaning out sluice boxes. Of more importance is getting gold into the sluice box. Arriving at the time when you can clean out the sluice box is preceded by many experiences with your equipment, the local people and the mining crew members.

This story begins in the year 1923 and is about an orphan boy, who through no fault of his own becomes involved with criminal gangs. The large cities in the northeast United States always had a large criminal element involving prostitution, extortion and the numbers racket. It was no until prohibition in 1921 that bootlegging originated and became unbelievably profitable and in a matter of months organized gangs were formed that dominated different areas of the cities. These bootlegging gangs had bosses who by violent means earned that position in every gang. These bosses predominantly were the least educated and most violent members of society and were usually recent immigrants from Europe. Their lust for money and power created violent confrontations within each gang and between the different gangs all over the northeast. This period of time, known as the roaring twenties, was when the wealthy were filthy rich and with a new improving middle class. There was plenty of money for what some saw as the good life, which for the most part was one big party and opulent behavior. To support these people were the throngs of poor and struggling people providing services. Our young orphan went from the lower class of people to the upper class in a remarkably short time because of his involvement with the bootlegger gangs, but by character he was not inclined to be a gangster. He had to contend with the inherent danger of being involved with ruthless gangsters and killers as well as avoiding being arrested by federal agents. It was a life between two threats.

This book and its story was written for people with an interest in prehistoric times or wonder at the nature of the landscape around them. In fact, almost all of the landscape around us is the product of prehistoric times. Prehistoric because there were no humans to document the changes made to the Earth's surface or if there were people present, they did not have the ability to document it. This is a prehistoric people story, therefore it is an educated assumption at what people encountered during a period of time when the landscape was changing and there were people there to watch it. The geologic history that changed the surface of the Earth were numerous events and took place as long as four billion years ago, but the event in this story takes place in a mere flash of time when men and women more like us than we feel comfortable with, were living in North America. A landscape changing event happened in that flash of time that for the most part goes unrecognized and for the most part is of little interest to most people in America. Of course where one lives in America may heighten the interest of some if the present landscape is explained to them. Those Americans who live where the continental ice sheet was during the last ice age or near where it was, look at the results of these ice sheets every day whether they recognize them or not. This story takes place in an area of North America where the results of the ice age are dramatic and the surface of the earth was changed that would take the force of thousands of nuclear weapons to accomplish the same thing. Even with all of the Earth's dramatic altered characteristics that are present, to the average person these have to be pointed out and explained. Then the instructor has to convince his students that this was even possible. It is one of those things people can't get their head around. For those of interest, there are knowledgeable people who have tours showing people the results of the ice age and ice dams that broke and inundated and altering hundreds of square miles and unbelievably cut through hundreds of feet of solid rock for miles. My story simply ponders the question about any people that were present to witness these events.

The history of man before and after written language has proven that although of different cultures, there is a common denominator. This being the belief in a supreme being or Creator. Although these Creators have varied in description by various cultures, there is a possibility that they are the same entity. These variations in beliefs may have been due to misinterpretations of written beliefs or historic events. Exploration of the universe may answer questions we have yet to ask. THERE MAY BE A LARGER PICTURE THAN THE ONE WE ARE VIEWING.

The backdrop of this story is a time and conditions in the very near future that most people living today will experience. Regardless of the cause of climate change, it was raising its ugly head well before the twenty-first century. The rate of change in the warming climate increased dramatically in the twenty-first century and by the year 2050 the hand writing was on the wall, and it read, the Earth is losing its ability to sustain human life. The conditions at the time of this story are when mankind can still adapt to the ever worsening warming and the hurricanes and typhoons it spawned. The national and international communities are in a situation of cooperation as well as one of conflict due to the increasing warm to hot conditions and the impending doom to be faced in the future. This story plays out under these climatic conditions and concerns a scenario that may be given a great deal of thought in the near future. This isn't an end of the world story, it's a; we are on our way, story.

This is a story that takes place around the year 2270. Now it is just conjecture what the Earth, Mars and the Moon will be like at that time, but for the purpose of this story, the backdrop is one of many possible scenarios for the future, but possibly not far off. In this story's scenario that is not described in detail, the Earth itself has endured coastal flooding covering some of the coastal areas and there is mention of a contaminated area due to most likely a nuclear reactor accident. This has little to do with the story itself, but the Earth's society and infrastructure at the time does. Today we travel through towns and cities that have been there for a hundred or two hundred years and portions of the towns or cities look just like they did a hundred or two hundred years earlier. People are still living in these houses and the business buildings are still functioning. This being the case, it is not hard to imagine in the year 2270 there are buildings, businesses and housing that remain the same and the people there are little different than they were when the buildings were new. Like we see around us, advanced technology and infrastructure flourish in some areas of the society and not in others. The theme of this story pertains to early twentieth century mobs, gangs and hoodlums, the resulting movies made about them and the influence these movies have on a few in the year 2270. The other aspect of the story is the existence of human appearing androids in the year 2270, who just sit, performing a task day after day. They do not communicate other than when directed and have no personality. They are no more personable than a coffee pot, a refrigerator or a machine on an assembly line in Detroit doing the same thing day after day until they wear out. Due to circumstances, an murderer's accomplice is arrested and thrown into a situation, where by his wits, escapes and becomes involved with two androids piloting a space ship. They are little more than electronic devices and he is a wannabe early twentieth century mobster. A good deal of the story is about their interactions, which for the most part are humorous and the possibility that in the future this interaction might occur between humans and androids. And it is a story about their huge casino in space, the three named, Las Vegas.

The McMillan Saga 1862 is the story of a rural Irish farm family in Northern Ireland and begins in the year 1862 while a civil war is raging in America. The McMillan family awaits their farm being confiscated by the English during the long Northern Ireland/England conflict. Due to circumstances beyond their control, the two young men in the McMillan family become involved in a sinister plan by the Irish Fenians (a terrorist nationalist organization) and the two are targeted by the English Army as terrorists. Under vague and mysterious circumstances, the McMillan family and other threatened Irish families escape to New York City in America. Due to a mysteriously complex Fenian plan, the two McMillan boys find themselves enlisted in the Union Army under extremely dangerous circumstances. As part of the Fenian plan, their father, mother and two sisters are spirited away by train and covered wagon to whereabouts unknown out west. The story follows the two young men throughout their ordeal of not only being army deserters wanted by the Union Army, but also being pursued by the Fenians. In addition to these threats they had the wilderness of the west in America and Indians to contend with. Although a fiction novel, the backdrop of this story is based upon historical events that were present and occurring during the 1860's in Northern Ireland and America.

During the spring of 1918 on the Western Front, an accident occurred involving a large reconnaissance balloon with its two forward observers. The accident resulted in the large balloon breaking free from its mooring and was adrift to the east over German held territory. The accident was no fault of the observers, but for several reasons the U.S. Army declared that the observers were deserters. The story Balloonatics is about these two observers and their fate due to being set adrift over hostile territory as well as being wanted by the allies for desertion. They were in the precarious position of being shot by the enemy or being shot by the allies as deserters.

The backdrop of the story, "Macumba, Slave Ship Captain," is the slave trade during the eighteenth century when hundreds of thousands of African Negroes were rounded up and taken to the Americas under hideous conditions in slave ships. The story is about one of these slaves who was a village chief and with his people, staged a revolt on a Spanish slave ship heading for Brazil. The result of this revolt was over two hundred slaves being aboard a large square rig sail ship after the crew had been killed, and not knowing how to sail the ship, or in what direction. The ship was under full sail and at the mercy of the wind. Due to circumstances over which they had no control, the slave ship beached on an African beach far from their home villages with no means for them to get back to their villages. It is a story of hunger, thirst, slavery, and battles with muskets, spears and cannons. An encounter with a Dutch pirate ship and its captain resulted in Chief Macumba becoming a pirate captain with a Negro slave crew and many instances of danger at sea and in the lion country of Africa.

There came a time in the late twentieth century when the nations of the world reached a point of nuclear proliferation whereby the entire population of the Earth could become extinct due to a nuclear conflict. At the same time, the advances in astronomical observation abilities indicated just how many "Near Earth" objects would pass dangerously close to Earth. There was also the awareness of potential worldwide pandemics which could rapidly occur. Discussions took place at the extreme highest levels of the governments of the United States, Russia and China, who were deep adversaries. These discussions were only possible utilizing the services and accumulated wealth of a Dr. Jameson, who was an intellect extraordinaire and brokered many secret deals between these rivals. A plan was developed by him to save a population of 200,000 human beings from what he had convinced the three governments was absolutely inevitable. This was for decades the most extreme secret of all three nations. Only the U.S. President, Vice President and Secretary of State; present and past, and their Russian and Chinese counterparts new of this program. In the year 2019, Dr. Jameson was proven correct again. It was inevitable, but the events which took place beginning in 2019 were not as he had envisioned for the extreme secret project named "Waterfall," that was forced to be activated.

In the jungles of southern North America there are huge Aztec stone structures that were perceived by discoverers to have no useful purpose, but considering the amount of labor that was required to build these structures they must have been of tremendous importance. The Aztec society who built these structures was a society that possessed vast quantities of gold for personal apparel, religious figurines and religious ceremonies. Precious gold was there downfall the instant the nation of Spain became aware of these riches. Spanish Conquistadors came to Mexico to systematically conquer the Aztec nation and transport the gold to Spain. This fiction story is about people involved in that conquest and what a few hundred Aztecs did to preserve their religious gold figurines. The story also explores the question that if the Aztecs just disappeared, why are there millions of Mexicans of Aztec decent in Mexico today. This is a historic fiction novel based on the conquest of Mexico. The story includes Aztecs, Conquistadors, religious gold figurines and a desperate journey over hundreds of kilometers of jungle and desert to save these figurines. The story describes Hernando Cortes' extreme desire to have the gold and an equal desire by the Aztecs to keep it.

This book, "Captain and Macumba," is a sequel to an earlier book;"Macumba, Slave ship Captain." Reading of this book is not contingent upon reading its predecessor. "Captain and Macumba," is a continuation of events that befall an enslaved African chief who revolts on a slave ship and becomes captain of that ship. Due to circumstances, Macumba becomes the partner of a Dutch pirate and their adventures encompass the Atlantic Ocean as well as the Indian Ocean. The backdrop for this story is the slave trade in the late seventeen hundreds when slaves were captured in Africa and sold all over the world. The Captain and Macumba become involved in an adversarial role against the slavers and the Spanish navy who ruled the seas. This adversarial role included pirating slave ships and armed conflict with the Spanish navy and its army and the many Arabs and their ships that were in Africa rounding up slaves for the market.

The backdrop of the story, "Macumba and Captain, Slave Ship Captains," was the slave trade during the eighteenth century when hundreds of thousands of African Negroes were rounded up and taken to the Americas under hideous conditions in slave ships. The story is about one of these slaves who was a village chief and with his people, staged a revolt on a Spanish slave ship heading for Brazil. The result of this revolt was over two hundred slaves being aboard a large square rig sail ship after the crew had been killed, and not knowing how to sail the ship, or in what direction. The ship was under full sail and at the mercy of the wind. Due to circumstances over which they had no control, the slave ship beached on an African beach far from their home villages with no means for them to get back to their villages. It is a story of hunger, thirst, slavery, and battles with muskets, spears and cannons. An encounter with a Dutch pirate ship and its captain resulted in Chief Macumba becoming a pirate captain with a Negro slave crew and many instances of danger at sea and in the lion country of Africa.

High winds were not uncommon in Oklahoma, but in the 1930's something was different. The wind had turned to dust and blowing sand beyond anything imaginable. Being for the most part a rural Oklahoma setting with a few small towns, for many there was no escape or it was perilous due to sand drifts and visibility. It was a hell on earth with blowing dust and sand. Most managed to escape with damage to their health and made their way to California in pursuit of gold in the form of high wages for picking fruit at the large fruit orchards. That was just a different kind of hell for most Okies. For most they made enough to survive, but not enough to leave and there was nowhere to go and many others lived by charity from the more fortunate or scavenging. There were five Okies for every job regardless of what it paid. Unions tried to organize the pickers which resulted in bloodshed and tears. The masses of Okies numbering almost one million spread out over the agricultural areas trying to survive by any means possible and some out of desperation turned to crime to support their families. This is a story of two Okie families that tried to survive the dust bowl and California crop picking ordeal.

All of the stories I have written are of historic events in the past or set at the time of a historic event. Admittedly some were about the future and a conjectured event in the future. This story, "This is Nonsense, George's Ark" is a spoof. (A humorous imitation of something in which its characteristic features are exaggerated for comic effect.) This spoof is referring to Noah's Ark. Unlike other events I have written about, everyone knows of this event. As the real story of Noah's Ark went it's path, my story took a similar path as described in this story, but it did not work out as well. I believe the title explains the content of the story, because as written, it is nonsense. It is a simple story with the comic irony of what seems to happen to a lot of projects and the people involved. It is an earthy story. In this story you have a supreme being referred to as "He" and a pilot project for the great flood on Earth. This required a planet identical to Earth in geology only; a few basic no frills humans and an ark to see if the humans and the ark would survive. Also required was a large group of heathens to see if they would be destroyed by the flood; a few trees to build an ark and plenty of sunflower seeds.

This is the story of two young boys in the Republic of Texas whose parents were violently killed by Mexican banditos. Their father being Mexican and their mother Indian, they fled and were alone in the south Texas desert country with only what they were wearing. They were then confronted with surviving in the desert on grasshoppers and finding little water. With nowhere to go in the desert, they found themselves following a herd of cattle being driven to Cheyenne in the new Territory of Wyoming by cattlemen who would shoot an Indian on sight. Due to circumstances, they were secretly befriended by a very salty woman chuck wagon driver who was questionably a woman by the cattlemen driving the herd. This association continued on the way to Cheyenne and afterwards. The boys, ten and twelve became somewhat of living legends in the Wyoming country for their bravery and efficiency at eliminating bad Indians and criminals.

This book is a glimpse into the lifestyle of the children of a small rural community in Missouri and the year is 1917. The content of this story is drawn from what I know of the year 1917 and what I have learned from relatives who lived during this era and near the location the story takes place. As there was little difference in rural lifestyle from 1917 to 1933, there are still a few older people around who may appreciate this glimpse back in time.

The backdrop of this story is a time and place in American history that for the most part average Americans have little knowledge of. Of course, the local history of an area is better known by the area's residents and history classes in schools emphasize local history. The story takes place at the time of the battle of the Alamo in Texas country that at the time was out west. For the most part, about all Americans know of this time period was the battle of the Alamo, because this was a time before covered wagon trains heading west, cowboys, gold rushes and the wild west as learned from media productions. In this time period, what we now call the Continental United States consisted of only one third of North America being states, another one third claimed by the United States and one third was the country of Mexico. This was a time when Indian tribes in the west were not fighting with the white population because of the plague of settlers coming into the west and occupying Indian land. Some fought the scattered few whites for cultural reasons and conflicts between whites was just what one could expect with two or three people riding through aboriginal lands. The first big push by white Americans into the west was into an area the whites called Texas, then being part of the country of Mexico. This created problems with the Indian tribes and certainly the country of Mexico. This story of two young men starts with a ramification of these events.

The content of this book depicts a small period of time in the lives of children on poor family farms during the period 1910 to 1917. There are two stories in this book, involving different children in different locations, but their lifestyle was remarkably the same as well as being the same as thousands of other farm children at that time. The intent of the stories is to convey the message that there were millions of children with individual personalities, emotions and personal experiences that lived in this country and they are not blocked out by a wall we call the past. We older people of today can give these children life and personalities again by remembering what was told of them by our parents and grandparents. If we cannot imagine the personalities and experiences of these children of the past, we at least should have heard enough about that time period and our familiy for us to at least imagine how their life must have been.