Floor of Heaven by T. D. Hamm

ovithanos

Dec 5

"He screamed once, falling face down through the stars, through the gold-inlaid, dizzying, beautiful, sickening…."

The three crew members of the Ad Astra looked at one another, grinning weakly, in the whispering silence after the motors had kicked off. This was the culminating point of a half-century of preparation; behind them was the satellite launching station—ahead of them, a faint red dot, was Mars.

Thelma Evans (nee Thelma Dorothy Shafer, aka Thelma Morgan) was one of the residents of the Slan Shack in Battle Creek, Michigan, in the 1940s. She was born in New Mexico in 1905 and married Edward Hamm in 1923. By 1930, they were living in Fresno, CA with their son. By 1950, she was living in Fresno but was separated. In the 1950s and '60s, she wrote short fiction for the prozines bylined Thelma D. Hamm and T. D. Hamm, and (Forrest J Ackerman claimed) was an uncredited collaborator on the works of her husband.

First published 1961
Ovi Publsihing 2023