H-ton Alum Matt Sobin Pens Science Fiction Novella
Matt Sobin is a writer and he’s hoping for a big break soon. A member of Huntington High School’s Class of 2004 he recently penned a science fiction novella and he’s close to landing a publishing contract that would put his work in mainstream outlets and book stores.
“I am participating in a contest on the publishing website Inkshares.com,” Mr. Sobin said. “Writing fiction has long been a passion of mine and becoming a published author is a lifelong goal. I’m now closer than I’ve ever been to achieving that goal.
Mr. Sobin earned an undergraduate degree at Tufts University in 2008. “I lived in Huntington for about 20 years and my parents and brother still live in the area,” he said. “Eventually I moved to New York City and then San Francisco for work. I have been a project manager in litigation support for the past seven years.”
The Huntington alum has never forgotten his hometown. “I return to Huntington to visit my family a couple of times each year,” Mr. Sobin said. “Huntington was the beginning of my journey and a number of my teachers greatly influenced me as a writer and logical thinker.”
Mr. Sobin is encouraging folks that are interested in his genre to pre-order either an eBook or signed paperback copy. The eBook is $10 and the paperback, which also comes with the eBook edition is $20. Those who sign into the Inkshares website with an e-mail address and wait for an automated email will receive $5 in credits. So, the eBook can be discounted to $5 and the paperback to $15. (The e-mail could take about 10 minutes to arrive.)
Visit https://www.inkshares.com/projects/the-last-machine-in-the-solar-system for more information and to help Mr. Sobin win the contest and become a published author.
It is even possible to help Mr. Sobin and obtain his eBook for free by using Inkshares provided credits. It may take a few extra minutes, but many will find the time worth it.
To obtain a free eBook follow these steps:
1. Follow the link to the Inkshares webpage and click “Sign In” at the upper right corner. Then create an account using your e-mail address, Facebook or Twitter.
2. Recommend The Last Machine on Inkshares using the buttons for social media: Inkshares, Twitter, Facebook or e-mail.
3. Open your e-mail; the one you used to sign-up or the one connected to Facebook or Twitter, if you signed up using one of those accounts.
4. After about 10 minutes you will have two emails from Inkshares. Each email contains $5 in credits.
5. Click on the “Claim” button in each email.
You are now ready to place your eBook pre-order entirely with Inkshares supplied credits.
“Writing has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember,” Mr. Sobin said last week. “After moving to San Francisco, I spent two years writing my first novel. A work of literary fiction, it has yet to be published. Then I began to focus more on short stories and poetry. I had three poems accepted into the 2015 Alameda County Fair poetry competition.”
The Huntington alum began working part-time for literary agent Peter Beren midway through 2014. Mr. Sobin became “close friends” with one of the agent’s clients, Jack Katz.
“Jack, 88, has been instrumental in taking my creativity to the next level,” said Mr. Sobin about his good friend. “It has been a real privilege to work with a master of the craft. Jack has illustrated 30 of my poems (we hope to release a collection later this year) and has done a number of amazing drawings for The Last Machine in the Solar System.”
Mr. Sobin and Huntington social studies teacher James Graber have been communicating with each other as the alum shares information about his writing pursuits and the ongoing contest.
“The story of The Last Machine in the Solar System is about a robotic artificial intelligence that has outlived human civilization by multiple billions of years,” Mr. Sobin said. “The machine has had an incomprehensible length of time to consider the demise of man and his own existence. I first had the idea for the story a few months ago while watching a show on the science channel. The program followed and analyzed the expected natural progression of the solar system, focusing on the life cycle of the sun and the impact on the earth and the other planets. It was fascinating. In my own mind, and perhaps for many people, the expectation is that humanity may be long gone by then. But what if it wasn’t? Or what if something from humanity, an intelligent creation, had been designed so that it survived and witnessed the end? That gave birth to the idea for The Last Machine. From there the plot was conceived quickly and written in about one month.”
Like any writer, Mr. Sobin hopes to get his work before as many pairs of eyes as possible. “One theme that I’d like readers to consider is the nature of human dependency,” he said. “We’re dependent on food and food is dependent on solar energy. I’m intrigued by the idea of a species progressing to the point that it cuts the cord of dependency from the star to whom it owes its existence. An incredibly difficult task, which would require a great deal of cooperation by the species (maybe humanity). Potentially, it is the ultimate question of independence.”
Mr. Sobin will know the outcome of the contest soon. The alum hopes his hometown and alma mater puts him over the top and on his way to realizing his dream.