Thirteen-year-old Toby Williams lives with his parents on US Space Station Oasis, orbiting the Moon in support of Moon Colony #1, an infinitely sustainable biosphere. Destined to be a refuge from the effects of overpopulation, environmental pollution, and climate change on Earth, Oasis has become the symbol of mankind’s survival as a species, and an invaluable prize worth taking by an international criminal conspiracy. As the only human ever conceived and born in space, Toby yearns to visit Earth before it’s too late and experience the wonder of running barefoot in the grass, or learning to skip stones across the placid surface of a pond, or building a tree house with his dad. He also dreams of becoming a Space Command pilot like his hero, Captain Brett Larsen. But his plans for the future collapse around him when he finds out that he can’t learn to fly in space, and because all parent volunteers for Oasis duty signed contracts committing them to an indefinite period of service, he can’t visit Earth. Unwilling to accept the unfairness of being trapped in space due to no fault of his own, Toby begins scheming to change his destiny. Events soon spiral out of control with arrival of the point man for the conspiracy, whose mission adds an insurmountable obstacle to Toby’s dream. The intruder takes a hostage; plants a bomb in the reactor room; demands a shuttle, loaded with a space fighter, and a pilot for his return to Earth. When Toby learns that Brett has volunteered to be the pilot and agreed to sacrifice his own life to prevent the takeover of Oasis, he comes up with a desperate plan to stowaway on the shuttle, do whatever it takes to save Brett’s life, and prevent the loss of his family’s Oasis in the sky. From the cockpits of a space fighter and a shuttle, to deep within the core of a space station, to night aerial combat as seen through the eyes of a fighter pilot, the novel Oasis tells a story about the power of dreams and the indomitable spirit of a teenager who refuses to accept the destiny imposed upon him by others. My website toshmcintosh.com includes the tag, "Aviator and Writer." Here's the backstory on choosing it: In 1992, while flying for Continental airlines at near the bottom of the first-officer seniority list, on reserve or getting the least productive schedules, bored out of my skull, and compelled to make better use of all the sit time in airports and motel rooms across the country, I decided to buy my first laptop to try my hand at writing a novel. Chose a Mac PowerBook 180 with an "active matrix" screen, which a salesman suggested would be easier on the eyes when scrolling through pages of text. To illustrate the difference between that and passive matrix, he suggested that I type some pages and compare the difference. I used a floppy disk to transfer the pages between the two computers, and took it home. The first sentence became the opening of the novel OASIS , which I wrote over the course of the next few years, a 254,000-word behemoth, about a 13-year-old boy living with his parents on a space station orbiting the Moon. For the next 11 years, during which I resigned from Continental and began flying private executive jets, I tried unsuccessfully to get a literary agent and contract with one of the Big 6 (at the time) Legacy Publishers. The effort involved 12 major revisions and trimming the manuscript to a less-bloated 186,000 words. In March 2003, I took the advice of an instructor at the Writers' League of Texas to try another novel, targeted at the mystery genre. I wrote the first draft of PILOT ERROR in 31 days, and once again sent out query letters to literary agents. It took almost 8 years to reach the first step on the ladder to legacy publishing, which is for an agent to respond to a query letter, writing sample, and synopsis by requesting to see more. In one week, I sent out 3 full manuscripts and 1 partial. In March 2011, I'd finally had enough of clawing at the gates of the castle and removed my novel from consideration by the last of the four agents. From then until November 2011, I taught myself how to format the interiors and design the covers of the print and eBook editions of the first novel in the series and indie-published them. In July 2014 I published RED LINE , the 2nd novel in the series, and in September 2017 began the 3rd novel TEST FLIGHT. Unfortunately, a serious case of writer's block halted progress, fueled by none other than self-doubt that I could finish what I had started. It took far too long for me to realize that a common recommendation for curing writer's block is to begin a new project. In this case, however, another option finally broke through the fog. Why not dust off OASIS, and I won't have to convince anyone that it's worthy of publication? Opening up the manuscript for the first time since 2008 began a final revision that culminated in publication of the print edition on August 14, 2020, and the eBook edition on Septembe