Tails of the North - [ Published ]

Authors notes on Tails of the North.

This is really a two part  radio play (or two separate plays), which I wrote for a group that I belong to. I wrote the first one in a couple of weeks and we revised it for six more weeks. The second one was written nearly two years later and was performed as written.

While the first one was originally written as a stage play with a lot of emphasis on sight gags, it was rewritten as a radio play while the second episode was only written as a radio play. The sight gags for the first one are included.

Science Fiction? Not a chance. But it is fiction, and you should be able to judge by the cover that there is a modicum of comedy involved; well, actually quite a bit. The main character is the famous mountie, Sargeant Pressley, and in the first  episode, he is tasked with finding the bank robbers, all the while being plagued by Nellie, who seems to be in constant distress, and the lack of a tent.

The second episode adds a whole new set of characters, with some cameos of characters from the first episode. In this episode our hero runs into all sorts of people from his past while trying to find a single missing person. Things quickly spiral out of control and the usual calm and collected Sargeant Pressley is assaulted from every angle by meddling and political wrangling. In the end he finds out that his new assistant is none other than... But that would be giving it away, wouldn't it?

So, I guess you will just have to read it to find out, won't you.

Well? "WHAT DO YOU THINK?"

Toll Booth - [ Published ]

What to expect...

 How would you feel if your boss offered you the use of his vacation cabin in Hawaii and you arrived at this cabin in the woods instead? The key fits the lock and they have a nice quiet week alone. But what about the strange tracks outside the cabin? What is lurking just outside the door?

The buss picks you up to take you to a luxury resort but gets detoured to the frozen tundra of a small island in Alaska and then to the deserts of Africa. Now that's something to write home about.

What would you think when you open your door, expecting a nice warm and sunny view, and find yourself looking down into the mouth of an active volcano?

These adventures and several more await you within the covers of this book.

Authors notes on Toll Booth.

This was my second endeavor and another idea that had been bouncing around in my head for quite some time. Again, I stuck to moderate Science Fiction utilizing matter transmission mixed with a little time and dimensional travel. Odd as it may seem, the story decided to go in a different direction that what I had in mind; and that frustrates me to no end!

The whole premise here is that a small company has hit upon the secret of matter transmission whereby they could move commuters from one point in the country to almost any other point in the world. You could live where ever you wanted and essentially work anywhere else. No, it wasn't exactly the idea I had, but this implementation worked out better than my original idea.

I set other parameters as well, one of which was that it would be a series of short stories in the same vein as a series of Twilight Zone episodes; usually with an unexpected twist at the end. The other parameter was that it would use the same main characters throughout. Oh, I suppose you could call it the "Adventures of Reuben and Marcus", but that would be an oversimplification.

So far, the main comment is that it is to short. Well, I can always add more stories. I attempted to publish a rougher version of the first story, "The Golden Ticket", on another web site without much success. Perhaps that choice was not the best place to try it out, and it was a rough draft.

If you're wondering where the concept for this story came from, let me tell you that like most kids, I use to read comic books; especially space themed ones. There was one story about a young man way in the future that restored an old car from the 1910's. Once he had it running, he took it out for a ride and one dark night in the woods the road became very old looking with grass growing down the center. He didn't watch where he was going and went off the road and hit a tree. He woke up to the farmers daughter tending him... Whatever, the main idea here is that he moved back in time. When this idea resurfaced in my mind I envisioned that depending on which branch of the road you took through the woods you could go anywhere in the world. It was only a short jump from there to turn it into a matter transmitter and eventually, a time machine. The progression resulted in the series of short stories that I call "Toll Booth".

Anyway, I enjoyed the project and I may revisit it again some time in the future.

As for you the readers, "WHAT DO YOU THINK?"

Little Ann - [ Chasm of Time Series ]

Litttle Ann - Chasm of Time Series

This is the latest version of the cover and is somewhat different from the original only in what it doesn't have. This one is just as good and simpler.

11/29/2014
It has been a year since I last updated this blog. I have just recently found the time to revisit this book and possibly address some of the issues I've heard comments on.

I have gone completely through the text and made some minor revisions here and there. Most of the changes were modest; I found very few misspellings and only a couple of grammatical errors. After a few tweaks I'm satisfied with the story. Again, its beginning and ending were predefined by "For Lorne", the original manuscript it was cut from. I don't have a publication date yet, it will probably go in as an updated manuscript. I also plan to redo the cover as it is way to complicated; I tried to reference to much on the cover, it needs to be greatly simplified.

So, if you're a fan of this book, you should also be interested in what happens to Little Ann afterwards. Does she meet her intended, and has she met him before? These burning questions and much more will be revealed as her story continues in "Beyond the Chasm of Time".

12/28/2017
The following is still mostly accurate but many changes are taking place with other parts of the series. See the Chasm of Time Series blog for more info. At some future point I will rearrange and remove some of the older portions dealing with this series.

There are now   5 distinct books comprising the Time Chasm stories; chronologically they are:
Time Chasm: Volume One:
1: "Beneath the Double Suns" which tells the story of the beginning of the empire; 
2: "Colony", which tells of the ill-fated flight of the For Lorne; 
3:"Little Ann", a short story about Ann Lyndes and her life growing up as an orphan; Ann grows up to be one of the main characters in "For Lorne" and "The 5th Agent"
Time Chasm Volume Two:

"For Lorne and The 5th Agent" written separately now combined as "Beyond the Chasm of Time"