Thomas published two of the stories in Doing Time: Notes from the Undergrad prior to compiling the anthology. "Pet Stories" appeared in the September 1996 Seventeen magazine, and "Box Nine" was posted on the Austin Chronicle Web site. His short story "The War Chest" in Twelve Shots (Harry Mazer, ed. 1998) features a high school student whose community service assignment is at a nursing home where he listens to an elderly veteran's war stories and copes with his use of a historic gun.

Several characters from Doing Time: Notes from the Undergrad were featured in Thomas's novel, Slave Day (1997). His keen sense of teenage and school culture and talent for presenting unique, authentic voices was displayed in his first novel, Rats Saw God (1996), in which Steve York presents his self-analysis in a first-person narrative. He also has to complete a specific assignment, albeit writing a personal...