The Carsons in transition

As I pondered possible titles for this book, the third in the Carson Chronicles series, I occasionally considered something flippant and direct. I considered The Siblings Take a Break or The Carsons Take a Breather, because, in many respects, the protagonists do just that.

After fleeing floods, fires, wars, corrupt officials, and vengeful gunmen in 1889 and 1918, the five time travelers, ages 18 to 28, attempt to refresh and regroup in the 1940s. They seek safety and peace of mind in their native Arizona as they continue their search for their missing parents -- college professors they have followed through time for a year.

I went with another title, one with more symbolic meaning, because I quickly realized that the siblings' respite was not a respite at all. In Indian Paintbrush, the Carsons, young adults from the modern day, merely find new trouble. They encounter challenges and change amid the deceptive calm of America's home front during the Second World War.

For Natalie and Caitlin, the two sisters, change means starting romances with wartime airmen. For Cody, the youngest brother, it means fighting injustice at a camp for Japanese Americans. For Adam and Greg, the oldest brothers, it means building new families with wives from other eras. For all, it means burying old ghosts, accepting new realities, and confronting mortal threats in a time when possessing knowledge of the future could get you killed.

Though Indian Paintbrush is much different than most of my earlier works, it offers many of the same trappings. There are car chases, celebrity encounters, coming-of-age moments, and a thorough examination of a day gone by. Fans of The Mine, Mercer Street, and Hannah's Moon, my other World War II books, may appreciate the glimpse of the war at home. Readers who enjoyed The Mine, The Show, and The Mirror may like watching a vibrant family grow.

Set mostly in Phoenix, Arizona, in the winter and spring of 1944, Indian Paintbrush continues a sweeping historical saga that began with River Rising and The Memory Tree and will continue with at least two more books. The novel, available in Kindle format, goes on sale today at Amazon.com and its twelve international sites.

The road from Kindle to print

Since February 2012, when I released The Mine, my first novel, I have put the cart before the horse. While many authors, traditionally published and independent alike, publish books in print before migrating to audio, ebooks, and other media, I did just the opposite.

After publishing The Mine as a Kindle book nearly seven years ago, I let it sit for more than a year before converting it to audio through Podium Publishing. I let another four years pass before bundling the novel with The Journey and The Show in the Northwest Passage boxed set.

It wasn't until this month that I decided to do what I probably should have done in the beginning. At the urging of two readers, I converted my oldest manuscript into my newest print book. The Mine is now something I can put on a shelf.

I hope to follow through with the remaining four books of the Northwest Passage series this winter and then convert the American Journey and Carson Chronicles novels to print (and audio) by the middle of 2020.

In the meantime, I will still put the cart before the horse and release new Kindle books as fast as time and circumstances allow. The next one, Indian Paintbrush, comes out later this week.

Remembering the Great War

In one of the most poignant scenes in The Show, featured on BookBub today, time traveler Grace Vandenberg tells a distant relative that World War I will end on "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month." Spoken in October 1918, in the waning weeks of what was then the most destructive war in history, the words comfort a woman who is worried about the fate of a brother fighting in France.

Today marks the hundredth anniversary of that day, when the Allies and Germany put down their guns, cooled their rhetoric, and began the arduous and unpleasant work of settling a conflict that claimed more than nine million combatants and seven million civilians.

Those who know the history of Veterans Day, observed in the United States tomorrow, know that the important holiday resulted from the armistice signed in a private railroad car on November 11, 1918. Though the name and even the observation date have changed over the years, the significance of the holiday has not.

I chose to set two novels -- The Show and The Memory Tree -- in the autumn of 1918 because I consider that time period both fascinating and relevant to what's going on today. Despite a hundred years of armed confrontations, including the biggest one of all, nations still struggle to resolve their differences in peaceful ways.

(Today's date also has some personal relevance. A beloved uncle, my father's oldest brother and a veteran himself, was born on November 11, 1918, and given the middle name Peace.)

Though my contributions cover the home front in 1918, many other works focus on the war itself. I highly recommend Jeff Shaara's To the Last Man and Joseph Persico's Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour, in addition to several classics on the war. One of the best lists of these works can be found at Barnes & Noble.

Those more interested in Hollywood portrayals of what contemporaries called the War to End All Wars may want to consider the list of iMDB's ten best World War I movies. I would recommend numbers 1, 4, 5, and 10 on that list and throw in Flyboys for good measure.

A photo essay of the western front, published last May in The Atlantic, offers readers a glimpse of the war zone today. I encourage anyone interested in this period of history to check these resources out.