Guest Blogger: Tom Weston, Author of Fission

Our special guest today is Tom Weston, author of the historical novel, Fission. I've read Tom's young adult novels, First Night and The Elf of Luxembourg, both of which have a large amount of history in them, so I wasn't surprised that Tom's next novel was an historical--one of my favorite genres.

I had wanted to review this book, but my TBR pile is the largest it has ever been, and it wouldn't have been fair to request it knowing how backed up I am on reviews. I will, however, be getting to this book sometime in the future, as it sounds fascinating.

Lise Meitner:



a physicist who never lost her humanity

First they tried to deny her.

Then they tried to destroy her.

But she survived to discover nuclear fission and spark the race for the atomic bomb.

The clue is to be found in her headstone. No, it isn’t the physics. For, as much as I like science, the scribbling of mathematical equations on blackboards and the clicking of Geiger-counters does not make for riveting story-telling. What drew me to the Lise Meitner story is the humanity.

Imagine a story of hate and greed, intrigue and danger, war and destruction, the slaughter of the innocents on a biblical scale and the collapse of empire. And imagine at the centre of it all one little woman, brilliant but shy, victimized but resolute, betrayed but ultimately vindicated. What a story that would make! Well, you don’t have to imagine it, because that is the Lise Meitner story. And I didn’t have to invent any of it . . .

. . . it’s all true.

2 Women (not named Lise) who should have received the Nobel Prize by Tom Weston

In my novel, Fission, I tell the story of Lise Meitner, who discovered nuclear fission, but watched another get the Nobel Prize for the discovery. In fact, Lise was nominated for the Nobel no less than 15 times, for the fission discovery but also for her work prior to that discovery – and ignored by the Nobel Committee every time. At the heart of the story is a complicated web of sexism, bigotry, power and politics. But her story, alas, is not an isolated case. Many other women should also have been honoured with Nobel Prizes for their contributions science. Here are 2 of them.

Emmy Noether (1882 – 1935):
If Lise Meitner was the mother of the atom bomb, Emmy Noether could be called the mother of algebra. And if you’ve ever complained about algebra at school, you have Emmy to thank. She was a contemporary of Meitner and shared with Lise the disadvantages of being female and Jewish in Nazi Germany. She published under a male pseudonym and was only able to lecture at the University of Göttingen by scheduling classes under the names of her male colleagues. When the Nazis banished her from the classroom, she continued to lecture in secret in her apartment. She fled Germany for the USA in 1933, but died 2 years later after complications from surgery. The Nazis wasted no time in ‘disappearing’ her from the science books. Apart from inventing the field of Abstract Algebra, she should have won a Nobel for her work on General Relativity and a second for Quantum Physics, but the Committee condemned her as a mathematician and therefore ineligible.

Rosalind Franklin (1920 – 1958)
In 1962, James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel for ‘discovering’ the structure of DNA, which they shared with the world in 1953. What they should also have shared was the fact that their discovery was based on the then unpublished work of Rosalind Franklin; work which they took without her knowledge, and for which they did not credit her, although she was a colleague. She even corrected the errors in their models for them. When word leaked out that Franklin was about to publish, Watson and Crick rushed out their version – a single page, without citing any proofs or credits. Watson and Crick beat Franklin to the Press by 11 days. Fortunately for the Nobel Committee, by 1962 Franklin was no longer alive and therefore ineligible.

Originally from England, Tom Weston now resides in Boston, Massachusetts. His works include the fantasy based, Alex and Jackie Adventures, and the collection of short stories, Tales from the Green Dragon Tavern.


Find Tom on the Web:


Web Site: http://tom-weston.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tom.weston.readers
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tomwestonmedia
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12869740-fission
Trailer for Fission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RCp6MCS_LrQ

About FISSION:
FISSION (Historical Fiction): published 2011 by tom weston media. Available in Hardcopy, Paperback and eBook:
Hardcopy: 329 pages, 6″ x 9″, ISBN 978-0-981-94135-6. MRP $26.95
Paperback: 329 pages, 6″ x 9″, ISBN 978-0-981-94137-0. MRP $10.95
eBook/Kindle/Nook: ISBN 978-0-981-94138-7. MRP $6.95

Find Fission at amazon.com (including Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/0981941354
Find Fission at Barnes & Noble (including Nook): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fission-tom-weston/1104968444
Support your local book store: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780981941370
Purchase an autographed copy of FISSION from the publisher at: http://www.tom-weston.com/purchase-fission/
A portion of all sales of Fission, no matter where purchased, go to the ‘Because I am a GiRL’ campaign by Plan, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children since 1937. Visit PlanUSA at http://www.planusa.org/content1619891 or get involved with your own national/regional Plan office.

Lise Meitner: a physicist who never lost her humanity by Tom Weston, Author of Fission

Today's special guest is Tom Weston, author of the historical fiction online series and upcoming novel, Fission.

In a world that tries to deny her because she is a woman, tries to kill her because she is a Jew, Lise Meitner rises above it all to discover nuclear fission and spark the race for the atomic bomb.

But, with the world now at her feet and a Nobel Prize almost in her grasp, her betrayal by the man she trusts the most may prove the hardest test of all.

Lise Meitner: a physicist who never lost her humanity by Tom Weston

So says the headstone at her grave in Bramley, England. It seems an odd, sleepy, backwater sort of place for her to be buried. She was born in a Vienna of imperial pomp and circumstance. She spent thirty years in Berlin. She moved with the rich and famous and powerful: President Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Einstein and Max Planck, to name a few. She made the discovery that would hurl us into the nuclear age. For an all too brief moment, she was the most famous woman in the world. And yet, the rest (as Hamlet said) is silence.

The inscription on the headstone was chosen by her nephew, Otto Robert Frisch. Along with her good friend, Niels Bohr, Frisch spent many years trying to wrong the rights that were done to Lise during her life, to get the world to recognize and honour her scientific achievements; and while she is still far from being a household name, it is thanks to them, and to the determination of biographers as Ruth Lewin Sime and Patricia Rife, that the world has not entirely heard the last of Lise Meinter.

The clue as to why I picked up the story is to be found in the headstone. No, it isn’t the physics. For, as much as I like science, the scribbling of mathematical equations on blackboards and the clicking of Geiger-counters does not make for riveting story-telling. What drew me to the Lise Meitner story is the humanity.

Imagine if you would a story of greed and betrayal, intrigue and danger, war and destruction, the slaughter of the innocents on a biblical scale and the collapse of empire. And imagine at the centre of it all one little woman, brilliant but shy, victimized but resolute, and ultimately vindicated. What a story that would make! Well, you don’t have to imagine it, because that is the Lise Meitner story. And I didn’t have to invent any of it – it’s all true.

Lise shunned the spotlight; she would probably have disapproved of my version of her story, dismissed it as too gaudy, but I think her story is now much more important to the rest of us than it is to her. The world’s powers may have been content to let Lise rest in silence in the village of Bramley, but humanity is such a scarce resource that we cannot afford to lose any examples of it. If humanity is to flourish, Lise’s story and others like it need to be told, repeated often, and kept in our hearts and minds.

My version of the Lise Meitner story is called fission. I feel so strongly that this story needs to be told and shared that I have made a serialized version of fission available on-line for people to read, free of charge. Obviously as a writer, I want my story to be read by as many people as possible, but more important is to get as many people as possible to know the name, Lise Meitner.

Regards,

Tom Weston

Tom Weston’s work includes the fantasy based Alex and Jackie books, First Night and The Elf of Luxembourg. His latest project is fission, a novel based on the true life story of scientist, Lise Meitner. Prior to its scheduled paper publication in 2011, fission is being serialized online for Tom’s fans. To find out more about Tom and his work, or to read fission, please visit http://tom-weston.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/tom.weston.readers.

First Night by Tom Weston -- Book Review

On New Year's Eve in 1688, a curious young Puritan girl died of smallpox in Boston. Over three hundred years later, sisters Alex and Jackie O'Rourke join their Aunt Anne and Uncle Jim for First Night in Boston.

When Sarah Pemberton's ghost appears and asks Alex and Jackie to help her defeat charges of witchcraft brought against her, the sisters' night takes a turn that brings them through Boston's rich history. Can they help Sarah and still have enough time to meet back up with Aunt Anne and Uncle Jim?

In this mysterious and exciting story, author Tom Weston has created a cast of engaging characters that teenagers will easily relate to. California blondes, Alex and Jackie each have their strong points and flaws, but overall they are charming young women caught up in helping Sarah, who has been charged with witchcraft and sharing the Devil's Book.

Jackie is chosen as Sarah's advocate, and travels back in time to defend her before three magistrates. Other characters we meet are Sarah's parents, Hannah and Thomas, who are forced to testify against their daughter, and Captain Ayres, a friend of the Pemberton family. Captain Ayers gave Sarah an Inuit bracelet right before her death in 1688.

First Night's strength is definitely its characters, I just wish the all-knowing narrator would have allowed them to carry more of the story. Instead of having Alex and Jackie experience Boston's history, much that is revealed about the area is discussed by the narrator; and in the first chapter, which is about Sarah's death, the narrator intrudes with future events and plagues that the characters would have no knowledge of.

Though a lover of history and a life-long resident of Massachusetts, I felt overwhelmed by the amount of historical detail. Does the reader truly need to know the entire history of a building or location in order to enjoy a story?

The best parts of First Night, and those that kept this reader turning the pages, were those places where Sarah, Alex and Jackie moved the story along. And the ending was superbly done and satisfying.

First Night by Tom Weston is a fun ghost story that many readers will enjoy.


Title: First Night
Author: Tom Weston
Publisher: Tom Weston Media
ISBN: 978-0-981-94131-8
SRP: $10.95 (U.S.)

First Night, being a Walking Tour with Alex and Jackie by Tom Weston

Our special guest today is Tom Weston, author of First Night.

Alexandra O'Rourke, aged 16, is not a happy camper. It's New Year's Eve. She should be partying in San Diego with her friends, but instead she is stuck in Boston, with just her younger sister, Jackie, for company. As if that wasn't bad enough, she is being haunted by Sarah, the ghost of a seventeenth century Puritan. Oh, and there is the small matter of the charge of witchcraft to be sorted out.

Armed only with big shiny buttons and a helping of Boston Cream Pie, the sisters set out to restore the Natural Order. Can Alex solve the mystery of the Devil's Book? Can Jackie help Sarah beat the sorcery rap? And can they do it before the fireworks display at midnight? Because this is First Night - and this is an Alex and Jackie Adventure.

Having lived all my life in Massachusetts and having been to Boston multiple times for field trips and sporting events, I asked Tom to discuss some of the landmarks and familiar areas readers will find in First Night.

First Night, being a Walking Tour with Alex and Jackie
by Tom Weston

While First Night is a fantasy, I wanted to set the story in as real a world as possible. Cue Boston - although it would be more accurate to describe Boston on New Year's Eve as surreal.

Part of my aim was to feature Boston as a character in the book. So I dropped a great deal of ink on the history of the city. There are more than 70 landmarks referenced, many of them in detail.

I have to admit, I did worry if all this history throughout the novel would detract from its pace, but I have been gratified by the reactions of the readers: from Bostonians (of both the ‘I-never-knew-that-existed’ and the ‘been- there-done-that’ variety) to out-of-towners, who have been kind enough to write me that the book has made them want to visit the city and follow in Alex and Jackie’s footsteps.

And the good news is: many of the landmarks featured in the book (except, of course, for the ghostly Court of Spirits) are within walking distance of each other. Indeed several of them form part of Boston’s famous Freedom Trail. In the story, Alex and Jackie manage to visit all of these sites in just one day. While this is technically possible (I know, I did it), to do so comes at the expense of a great deal of enjoyment and discovery. So if you visit Boston, I would suggest that you employ a more leisurely pace than that used by the girls.

I have been accused of favoritism in my selections. Indeed I left out so many worthy attractions that I could fill several Alex and Jackie sequels. But I hope that the reader will agree that I chose based on history and connection to the story, not because of personal preference. That said, if I had to highlight any particular landmarks of those featured in First Night, I would choose the following:

The first is the Granary Burying Ground: where the real child, Sarah Pemberton, was laid to rest in 1688. I won’t say where exactly - go and discover. It may seem macabre to list a graveyard as your number one tourist attraction, but the history of Boston (and America) stems from the people buried here, and it contains many names that will already be familiar to you. And this is where the story of First Night had its genesis, during a visit one earlier New Year's Eve. Before I put pen to paper, I knew that this would be where the story began and ended.

The second is the Old South Meeting House: another Boston gem that I discovered one New Year's Eve (thank God for those buttons). Small, sparse and unassuming – a cathedral it isn’t. But with its little museum dedicated to revolution, democracy and civil rights, it is both humbling and inspirational at the same time. That this also turned out to be Sarah’s church was a happy coincidence.

So if you find yourself in Boston, grab a map from the Visitor Center and follow the Freedom Trail, and don’t forget to say hello to Sarah.


Originally from England, Tom now hangs his hat in Boston, Massachusetts; with occasional spells in such faraway places as London and Luxembourg. Tom has a degree in Computer Science, and he claims to speak three languages: English, American, and Visual Basic. Before turning his hand to fiction, Tom had a successful career as the CEO of a systems consulting company, conference speaker, and writer of industry articles and business books.

As well as the novel, First Night, Tom has also written the screenplay, Fission, based on the true story of scientist, Lise Meitner, and the race for the atomic bomb. While Fission has yet to find a home in Hollywood, it garnered enough critical acclaim, including being named as a finalist at the London Independent Film Festival, that Tom was encouraged to keep on writing, resulting in his latest work which is, of course, First Night.

You find Tom online at www.tom-weston.com.