Plymouth Author Publishes First Book

God particle? What's that?

Just ask Tom Schuett.

Tom Schuett's "Collider" combines religion and a real world science experiment.

The Plymouth resident would tell you that essentially the God particle is the particle that gives all other particles mass and is part of the collision that caused the Big Bang.

It's all at the core of his recently published book "Collider," which focuses on how science and religion collide in a tangle of spies, lies all caught up in an elaborate game of cat and mouse.

Schuett said the story's location showcases CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, which has a large Hadron collider that could produce the God particle and try to recreate the Big Bang. But if scientists are successful, it could tear up the foundations of how religion explains the start of existence.

According to online reviews: in the book, we meet Sam Joseph, a man whose life's purpose is to make CERN successful, but the whole idea behind the project has more than ruffled the feathers of 12 cardinals with enough influence and power to hire assassin Max Schultz. The assassin is no one to mess with, but CIA agent Seth Hodge plans to try. The globetrotting game of cat and mouse begins.

Schuett has always enjoyed storytelling, live theater, movies and reading books. It took him six months to write "Collider" and another 18 to 20 months to go through the process of editing, publishing and promoting. 

"After reading the crappy books and watching the so-so movies I've seen recently, I said to myself, 'I can do better than this,'" Schuett said and chuckled.

The idea behind the book came from a combination of Schuett's interest in books and movies like "Angels and Demons" and being raised in a very conservative Christian family.

"Where'd we come from, how'd it all start?" Schuett said. "There was a beginning. Hawking even said matter comes from somewhere."

The universe is still expanding and it all comes back to collision, he said.

For Schuett, his inspiration for "Collider" was born in a moment of creative fervor and a desire to understand more about the world we live in.

Family, friends and strangers who he got to know provided feedback from the first manuscript of "Collider" to the smooth, paperback or electronic versions. The process was gradual, even for self-publishing.

"I wrote a quarter of the book then talked to a local entertainment attorney and he read it and said, 'Wow, that's really good,'" Schuett said. "He sent it to an agent and they wanted more."

Building a local following has been a challenge.

"And there's still a stigma with self-publishing," he said. "The book has been through many different versions, too."

A creative writing professor at the University of Minnesota helped edit the book from 100,000 words down to 83,000. Schuett said he is grateful to the many people who have provided inspiration, help and moral support.

He sees writing novels as a start-up business instead of a hobby.

"I will definitely keep writing," Schuett said. "Writing a book is like building a business, getting it all on paper and published is like getting a product out to your consumer."

For more about Schuett and his work, visit www.tomschuett.com.