Short Fiction Podcasts http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/Podcasts.html To get a taste of Tom’s short fiction and to hear his voice, you can listen to any one of these podcasts. Tom reads the first few pages of each short story or novella. Look for complete readings of his short fiction in the future. Enjoy! iWeb 1.1.2 http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/Podcasts_files/montmarde%20copy.png Short Fiction Podcasts http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/Podcasts.html 60 To get a taste of Tom’s short fiction and to hear his voice, you can listen to any one of these podcasts. Tom reads the first few pages of each short story or novella. Look for complete readings of his short fiction in the future. Enjoy! To get a taste of Tom’s short fiction and to hear his voice, you can listen to any one of these podcasts. Tom reads the first few pages of each short story or novella. Look for complete readings of his short fiction in the future. Enjoy! “White,” Part 3 of “Blue, Black &amp; White” http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/E2F78B22-F2C9-4476-B7D2-2BB950668C07.html http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/E2F78B22-F2C9-4476-B7D2-2BB950668C07.html Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:13:00 -0700 <a href="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/E2F78B22-F2C9-4476-B7D2-2BB950668C07_files/%22White,%22%20Part%203%20of%20%22Blue,%20Black%20%26%20White%22.m4v"><img src="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/Images/51Lop7JAt2L._AA280_.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; width:150px; height:150px;"/></a>In Part 3 of “Blue, Black &amp; White,” we find the two main characters from the previous parts of the story, Peter and Firoozeh, strolling happily along Columbus Avenue in San Francisco's bohemian No 00:05:38 In Part 3 of “Blue, Black &amp; White,” we find the two main characters from the previous parts of the story, Peter and Firoozeh, strolling happily along Columbus Avenue in San Francisco's bohemian No In Part 3 of “Blue, Black &amp; White,” we find the two main characters from the previous parts of the story, Peter and Firoozeh, strolling happily along Columbus Avenue in San Francisco's bohemian North Beach. It's Christmastime, and patches of snow are falling like cat's feet on the narrow streets of the city. There's even snow for the first time in over one hundred years on the twin towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. Firoozeh is expecting, plump and cherubic as a belly dancer, while Peter, once alienated and grief-stricken, is now wrestling with the prospect of impending fatherhood, only a few months away on the calendar. Yet there are other forces at play. Is the woman following behind them really Natasha, the ex-KGB agent from Tallinn? If so, what is she doing in the city? Is she with Vlady and the infamous Ironman? And what about that antique Leica camera which served Peter so well on his trip to Estonia and Firoozeh on her trip to Tehran? Does it, somehow, have magical powers? Firoozeh's image, meanwhile, is being projected everywhere: on billboards, posters, and advertising campaigns. In the eyes of the fashionistas and the chic, she's become something of an icon, a woman of the age, worldly yet innocent, even if she's not quite recognizable as a mother to be. But in the end it's all about the camera who has it and who wants it and the secrets from the past, present, and future the instrument holds. “Bones of the Amazon,” Part 1 http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/BEFC0675-8245-4F79-A5C2-DD67E366C0E6.html http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/BEFC0675-8245-4F79-A5C2-DD67E366C0E6.html Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:12:04 -0700 <a href="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/BEFC0675-8245-4F79-A5C2-DD67E366C0E6_files/%22Bones%20of%20the%20Amazon,%22%20Part%201.m4v"><img src="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/Images/51Z2S73YKWL._AA280_.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; width:150px; height:150px;"/></a>Lulu Petite is a food critic for the local Palo Alto Sentinel who loves good cooking and makes a point of reviewing every restaurant in the Valley wearing a disguise to ensure she is served the same f 00:03:41 Lulu Petite is a food critic for the local Palo Alto Sentinel who loves good cooking and makes a point of reviewing every restaurant in the Valley wearing a disguise to ensure she is served the same f Lulu Petite is a food critic for the local Palo Alto Sentinel who loves good cooking and makes a point of reviewing every restaurant in the Valley wearing a disguise to ensure she is served the same food as any of her readers would be served. As the heroine of my three-part serial, "Bones of the Amazon," she is a woman in her early forties with a lot of moxie and all the curiosity of a feral tomcat. One Sunday afternoon she is invited to a barbecue at the Woodside estate of a famous Silicon Valley venture capitalist whom she has recently profiled in the local paper and whose gourmet cooking and skills at entertaining are legendary. A doctor drowns in the pool at the party under mysterious circumstances, and the pool is shut down. But thanks to the impulses of our venture capitalist's trophy wife, a new pool, of Olympic size, no less, is dug up in the weeks that follow. What is found in the course of the digging is the subject of the story, and has far-reaching consequences, especially when an archaeologist appears on the scene and is met by the elders of a California tribe of Native Americans who want the excavated poolsite filled back in. Lulu Petite does her own kind of digging to find answers, her nose for food and her hunger for the truth serving her well, indeed. “Marjan’s Tooth” http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/2A263826-6D4A-4669-83A0-8B73F793C991.html http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/2A263826-6D4A-4669-83A0-8B73F793C991.html Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:11:07 -0700 <a href="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/2A263826-6D4A-4669-83A0-8B73F793C991_files/%22Marjan%27s%20Tooth%22.m4v"><img src="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/Images/Marjan%27sTooth-cover-smaller.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; width:150px; height:150px;"/></a>"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 00:05:23 "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 "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." “Belfast Diaries” http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/52DCF0BD-4011-412E-A099-E446BCCB3BD7.html http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/52DCF0BD-4011-412E-A099-E446BCCB3BD7.html Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:09:51 -0700 <a href="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/52DCF0BD-4011-412E-A099-E446BCCB3BD7_files/%22Belfast%20Diaries%22.m4v"><img src="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/Images/51H5TTP9FPL._AA280_.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; width:150px; height:150px;"/></a>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 ma 00:02:41 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 ma 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. “Blue,” Part 1 of “Blue, Black &amp; White” http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/84800A7F-519B-4141-B0AA-5864746167F8.html http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/84800A7F-519B-4141-B0AA-5864746167F8.html Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:48:12 -0700 <a href="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/84800A7F-519B-4141-B0AA-5864746167F8_files/%22Blue,%22%20Part%201%20of%20%22Blue,%20Black%20%26%20White%22.m4v"><img src="http://web.mac.com/tom_maremaa/iWeb/tommaremaa/Podcasts/Images/510d5Jd8tNL._AA280_.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; width:150px; height:150px;"/></a>Reclaiming the past, making it your own, both the good and the bad, is one of the themes that runs through the first part of this three-part series. Blue is at once a color of the rainbow and a state 00:04:32 Reclaiming the past, making it your own, both the good and the bad, is one of the themes that runs through the first part of this three-part series. Blue is at once a color of the rainbow and a state Reclaiming the past, making it your own, both the good and the bad, is one of the themes that runs through the first part of this three-part series. Blue is at once a color of the rainbow and a state of mind. To be blue is to be down, to feel in this story the grief and loss of a loved one. That's what I felt in 1996 when I travelled to Tallinn to return my mother's ashes to the country of her birth and to reconnect with the surviving members of her family. The country was just emerging from the yoke of Soviet rule and getting its first heady taste of free market capitalism. It was a somber, serious time of transition. Yet there was much excitement in the air, the promise of good things to come. Peter Lund, the alienated hero of Blue, discovers this during the shadowy days of his journey to native soil - in the most unexpected way. He meets a remarkable woman who guides him through the dark corridors of the past, and in the end, seemingly by accident or design, opens the door to the future just enough to let in the fresh light of another color.