The new novel · Spring 2027
Heredity
Sixteen-year-old Paige Austin has always known she is different. Brilliant, and wary of her father’s violent temper, she learns the truth about her conception and tracks down the sperm donor her mother chose: Asher Salzman, a geneticist driven by his own troubled childhood to study whether science can alter violent traits. Their meeting draws two households into a tangle of old secrets.
Sharp, funny, and unsettling, Heredity is a novel about nature, nurture, and the resilience that helps families survive.
From Atmosphere Press.
About Tom
Tom Baum is a novelist, screenwriter and playwright. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the producer Carol Baum.
He wrote the screenplays for Carny, The Sender and The Manhattan Project, and for television he wrote Witness to the Execution, episodes of Nightmare Cafe with Wes Craven, and both wrote and directed for HBO’s The Hitchhiker. His plays have been produced in Los Angeles, New York and around the country. His new novel, Heredity, comes out in spring 2027.
Books
Stories & Interviews
Short fiction
Interviews
| Legends of Film podcast | Nashville Public Library, 2019 · Listen |
Film & TV
Feature films
| The Manhattan Project | 20th Century Fox, 1986 |
| The Sender | Paramount, 1982 |
| Carny | United Artists, 1980 |
Television
| Journey to the Center of the Earth | USA Network, 1999 |
| Shattered Mind | NBC, 1996 |
| Witness to the Execution | NBC, 1994 |
| Nightmare Cafe | NBC, 1992 |
| The Hitchhiker | HBO, 1985–87 |
| Secret Weapons | NBC, 1985 |
Produced full-length plays
| Human Services | Northern Kentucky University, 2017 |
| Front Door Open | Greenway Court Theatre, Los Angeles, 2015 |
| Breach | Elite Theatre, Oxnard, 2015 |
| Endangered Species | Detroit Repertory Theatre, 2014 |
| Shock Therapy | Lilian Theatre, Los Angeles, 2008 |
Newsletter
She Said/He Said · A Substack newsletter by Carol & Tom Baum
SHE SAID/HE SAID: A Hollywood Producer and her Writer husband talk shop.
SHE SAID/HE SAID are the conversations a Hollywood Producer and her Writer husband have behind closed doors: What we love, what we hate, and the secrets to success in Hollywood.
Recent Posts
- Carol and Tom talk about his writing process.
- Carol and Tom talk about Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye
- Carol discusses a few of her own.
Contact
For production rights to the plays, interviews, or anything else, send Tom a note here.