Michael D. Smith

Michael D. Smith was raised in the Northeast and the Chicago area, then moved to Texas to attend Rice University, where he began developing as a writer and visual artist. His Jack Commer, Supreme Commander science fiction series is published by Sortmind Press. In addition, Sortmind Press published his literary novels Sortmind, CommWealth, Jump Grenade, The Soul Institute, and Akard Drearstone, as well as his novella The First Twenty Steps. Smith's web site, sortmind.com, contains further examples of his novels and visual art, and he muses about writing and art processes on his blog, www.blog.sortmind.com. His novels include: The Jack Commer Series: Book One, The Martian Marauders, 2020. After the evacuation of the Earth's population to Mars, Captain Jack Commer and the crew of the Typhoon I spaceship fight native Martian terrorists led by their new human Emperor, the evil socialist Sam Hergs. Book Two, Jack Commer, Supreme Commander, USSF, 2020. Jack Commer brings poor negotiating skills to the war with the fascist Alpha Centaurian Empire, losing his United System Space Force crew to alien brainwashing as he and his wife are tortured on a barren planet. Book Three, Nonprofit Chronowar, 2020. The 2028 conference of The Committee to End Suffering on Planet Earth is ruined when former space pilot Joe Commer inadvertently time travels from 2036 to find himself lecturing the Committee's nonprofit ladies on the coming breakdown of the solar system and the destruction of the Earth itself in 2033. Book Four, Collapse and Delusion, 2020. As former Typhoon II ship’s engineer Phil Sperry struggles with his decades-long treason to the human race, Supreme Commander Jack Commer and his wife Amav journey to the paradise planet Andertwin for a painful visit with their insolent and reclusive son Jonathan James, survivor of an abduction by Alpha Centaurian security forces and now the author of a bestselling novel about the collapse of the Centaurian empire. Book Five, The Wounded Frontier, 2020. A star thirty-four light years away abruptly vanishes, leaving the infrared signature of a Dyson sphere 967 million miles wide. Supreme Commander Jack Commer readies the untested Typhoon V for the Iota Persei system, assigning talented but reluctant physician/engineer Laurie Lachrer to his crew and cajoling navigator Will Connors, beset by decades-old combat trauma, into postponing his retirement for one last risky mission. Book Six, The SolGrid Rebellion, 2020. When the solar system adopts the buggy SolGrid telepathic network designed by former Space Force officer Patrick James, Jack Commer’s charismatic but troubled son Jonathan James rises in opposition to what he considers brainwashing. But when he storms an orbiting museum and not only steals Typhoon II, Jack Commer’s ancient 2030’s spaceship, but also kidnaps Z’B, Emperor of the Martians, Jack begins to understand that his son’s pirate crew is staging an armed rebellion against Sol. Book Seven, Balloon Ship Armageddon, 2021. Jack Commer’s murdered son Jonathan James finds himself recreated as a bio-robot of the Wounded, a race that destroys stars for kicks. Eight hundred years later he rises to captain Balloon Ship Armageddon on a toxic waterworld in the Large Magellanic Cloud, but he’s terrified by the ancient, inexplicable star map in his cargo hold that warns of an abrupt termination of the universe. Other novels: CommWealth, 2020. The Forensic Squad theatrical troupe breaks CommWealth's Four Rules of property sharing, and several actors find themselves leading a suicidal revolution against the government. The Soul Institute, 2020. Himal Steina fulfills his dreams of sanctuary when he becomes Writer in Residence at The Soul Institute and falls in love with one of its numerous faculty goddesses. Jump Grenade, 2019. Berserk at missing his five hundredth point in a row, psychopathic Junior Dropout Basketball League star Billy Bolamme kills a taunting radio announcer with hand grenades, then blows up an entire sports arena to erase all witnesses to his crime. Sortmind, 2019. Oliver and Sam, high school art students whose fathers head the reviled Citizens Against Telepathy, struggle with friendship, love, and family--as well as rumors of alien invasion and the malfunctioning, reality-altering Sortmind app. Akard Drearstone, 2017. At their Texas commune in May 1975, the four members of the Akard Drearstone Group begin to feel the onslaught of national fame as twelve-year-old Jan Pace, daughter of a commune couple, falls in love with the narcissistic, paranoid bassist Jim Piston.