Childless

I’m happy to announce my 20th book and it’s a novel!  It’s called Childless.  I’ve been working on this novel for the past twenty years.  It tells a gripping tale about a childless child psychologist who gets kidnapped by the U.S. government and learns of a plot by the Institutes of Health to declare childhood as a medical disorder and then to eliminate it from the human genome!

I wrote this novel because I found nonfiction inadequate to express the outrage that I feel about what is being done to children in our culture.  Children are being exploited, abused, labeled, pressured, neglected, and traumatized, and most of this is going on below the level of public discourse. I’ve written Childless as a darkly comedic and satirical tale to raise awareness in readers about the danger that the disappearance of childhood represents to society. At heart what is at stake is the very survival of the creative spirit within all of us.

Key Themes in Childless:

In the book, genetic engineering is a key plot point in the novel, and in particular, the resurrection of what are called human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) by both the heroes and the villains.  If you’re interested in what human endogenous retroviruses are and how they can be resurrected from the human genome, here is a video where you can learn about how I integrated HERVs into the book:

• Video: The Use of Human Endogenous Retroviruses as a Key Plot Element in Childless

If you’d like to gain some background on what these HERVs are and how they might be resurrected from the human genome, here are two online technical scientific articles you can read:

• How to Resurrect an Extinct Retrovirus
• Resurrection of human endogenous retroviruses during aging reinforces senescence

I also use the concept of neoteny (Latin for ”holding youth”) as a major theme in the novel.  For more information about the importance of neoteny and how it’s used in Childless, read my blog post here

• Video: Childless and the Use of Neoteny as a Plot Device

I’ve written two nonfiction books on neurodiversity, The Power of Neurodiversity, and Neurodiversity in the Classroom.  In this novel, I incorporate several neurodivergent characters into the plotline, including a geneticist with schizophrenia, a child with progeria, a young woman with Williams syndrome, and a young man with Aspergers.  As the narrative proceeds, they use their strengths to confront challenges they encounter.

• Video: My Novel Childless and Its Neurodivergent Characters

In addition, I’ve created several other videos that feature Childless in one way or another.

• My New Novel is Out! Childless by Thomas Armstrong
• The Disappearance of Childhood: 15 Indicators of Childhood’s Demise in America
• The Journey to Publishing My First Novel at Age 72
• 12 Tips for Writing Your First Novel
• Finding a Marketing Niche For My Novel, or, What (the Hell) is My Genre?

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