Adam Platt
Querying Author

Sycamore Hollow

My yet-to-be-published, sci-fi novel

A speculative mystery grounded in the real world and anchored by relatable characters, with a high-concept premise, a propulsive plot and enough charm and plausibility to draw in a mainstream audience.

Currently querying literary agents.

Without warning the world goes dark. Modern technology ceases to function. Forced to seek answers on a bicycle you crest a hill to find a crater where the city used to be.

A platoon of soldiers suddenly loses communications during a training exercise in the desert. Isolated and confused, they begin a journey full of danger and revelation.

In a perilous, new world the rugged terrain of Sycamore Hollow offers shelter and possibly redemption to those lucky and resourceful enough to stay alive.

About Me.

From Science to Science-Fiction

I am a biomedical engineer by training and have spent the last 20 years working in DNA sequencing, designing machines that decode genomes and inventing related applications for the technology. When my most recent company turned off the lights, I took the opportunity to write down a story that’s been kicking around in my head for a few years now. The result is Sycamore Hollow, a science fiction novel and the first of what I envision to be a trilogy.

I’ve done a great deal of writing during my career, mostly scientific papers, patents and the like; this is my first serious attempt at writing fiction. I am also dyslexic and thus a slow reader and a terrible speller. Hence, the url for this website is a phonetic rendering of “Adam Writes” because spelling is just a collusive conspiracy put on by the neurotypical majority who easily memorize arbitrary groupings of even more arbitrary symbols; my neurons are far too interconnected to have space for such things. And the URL with the correct spelling of Adam Writes was already taken.

Luckily there’s more to writing than just spelling and dyslexia is not uncommon within the profession (nor is it uncommon in engineering.) F. Scott Fitzgerald was dyslexic. So were Agatha Christie, Jules Verne and Edgar Allen Poe. And John Irving, Octavia Estelle Butler, W.B. Yeats and Lewis Carroll.

I currently live in Nashville, TN with my wife and three kids.

Patents and Publications (Scientific)

Publications in Nucleic Acid Sequencing

Ozsolak, F.; Platt, A .R.; Jones, D.; Reifenberger, J; Sass, L.; McInerney, P.; Thompson, J.; Bowers, J.; Jarosz, M.; Milos, P. Direct RNA Sequencing. Nature, 2009 461:814-818 [LINK]

Bowers, J.; Mitchell, J.; Beer, E.; Buzby, P. R.; Causey, M.; Efcavitch, J. W.; Jarosz, M.; Krysmanska-Olejnik, E.; Kung, L.; Lipson, D.; Lowman, G. M.; Marappan, S.; McInerney, P.; Platt, A. R.; Roy, A.; Siddiqi, S. M.; Steinmann, K.; Thompson, J.F. Virtual terminator nucleotides for next-generation DNA sequencing. Nature Methods 2009, 6: 593-595 [LINK]

Platt, A.R.; Woodhall, R. W.; George, A. F. Improved DNA sequencing quality and efficiency using an optimized fast cycle sequencing protocol. BioTechniques 2007, 43: 58-62 [LINK]

Patents for Applications of Nucleic Acid Sequencing

Hout, David, Dahlhauser, Eric., Platt, Adam., Inventors; Insight Genetics Inc., Assignee. Methods and compositions relating to next generation sequencing for genetic testing in alk related cancers. US Patent # WO2014052613 A3. Sep 26, 2012. [LINK]

Platt, Adam, Inventor; SeqTech Diagnostics LLC., Assignee. Methods and Systems for Detecting Genetic Mutations. US Patent #US20160340722 A1. Jan 22, 2014. [LINK]

Platt, Adam, Inventor; SeqTech Diagnostics LLC, Assignee. Methods for Antibody Identification and Quantification. Worldwide Patent # WO2022221706A1 April 26, 2021 [LINK]