fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Tom Sweterlitsch (born 1977)[1] is an American writer, known best for the time traveling novel The Gone World and for a bleak cyperpunk novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies. (January 2022)

Tom Sweterlitsch
Born	(1977-10-21) October 21, 1977 (age 44) Iowa, United States
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	American
Genre	Science fiction

Publications

In Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Tom Sweterlitsch addresses the cultural shift of the recent years in a dystopian version of the United States. Facing depression, the main protagonist spend too much time in virtual reality, mourning his pregnant wife, dead in a nuclear terrorist attack that destroyed Pittsburgh.[2] He also addresses the problems raised by highly personalized advertising.[3][4][5]

In The Gone World, Tom Sweterlitsch uses time travel in a new way : people can travel only in the future, creating a temporary possibility that disappears when the traveler comes back. That technique is used for solving crimes out of the heat of the moment. Unfortunately, the protagonists discover the end of the world is getting closer and closer to the present as they explore the future.[6][7]

Inspirations

He was introduced to fiction while playing tabletop role-playing games (Dungeons & Dragons) when he was teenager. He discovered a vocation of being a storyteller while remixing a novel from the Dragonlance Saga in 6th grade.[8] He was playing as a game master or if he was a player as a paladin.[9]

The science fiction authors that influenced him are J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, Alice Sheldon[7] and the movies of Paul Verhoeven.[9] He is also influenced by Edgar Allan Poe[9] et Raymond Chandler.[10] He mentioned also William Gibson, Jeff VanderMeer and Stephen King. Outside of science fiction, he mentioned that Dante, Emily Dickinson, Dostoevsky and Flaubert are important to him.[11]

More specifically, for Tomorrow and Tomorrow, he was inspired by The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares and by The City & The City by China Mieville.[11] For The Gone World, he was inspired by conversations with « his late father-in-law, a U.S. Department of Defense physicist with whom he discussed time travel, and his brother-in-law, a real-life NCIS agent whom he once asked how time travel would affect criminal investigations. »[10] He also mentioned Dante, The Sandbox by Edward Albee and a crucifixion painting by Salvador Dalí.

Personal life

He has a master's degree in Literary and Cultural Theory from Carnegie Mellon and worked for twelve years at the Carnegie Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

Born in Iowa, he was raised in Canton, Ohio. Then he moved to Pittsburgh where he is living currently with his wife and daughter.[10]

Bibliography

Novels and novellas

• Tomorrow and Tomorrow (2014)
• The Gone World (2018)

Short Fictions

• The Disposable Man (2012)
• The Sandbox Singularity (2018)
• Neuro-Dancer (2020)

Movie scripts

• Rakka (2017), with Oats Studios.
• Firebase (2017), with Oats Studios.
• Zygote (2017), with Oats Studios.

References

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