Time Box series

In 1895, H.G. Wells produced the definitive work on time travel. Entitled The Time Machine, it featured a device that propelled a scientist to the distant future and the regressed world of the Eloi and Morlocks.

Since that time, authors and screenwriters have created countless different machines to send human beings and other objects through the corridors of time. They have reinvented Mr. Wells' wheel.

In the Time Box series, I took my turn. I built a five-book set around portable devices that send a modern family to some of the most interesting and challenging periods in American history.

In the series, Mark Lane, a noted physicist, acts boldly when he learns his corporate partner wants to use his inventions for evil purposes. Using his time boxes, he takes his wife (Mary) and four children to 1865 and begins a thrilling and dangerous journey.

Like the Carsons in my third series, the Lanes are an interesting lot. Mary peddles cosmetics. Son Jordan is an Army captain. Laura and Jeremy, the middle children, are college students. Ashley is a seventh grader.

Individually and collectively, the Lanes find love, adventure, and purpose in 1865, 1893, 1927, 1941, and 1963. As they wander from coast to coast, they find everything they need except peace.

Silas Bain makes sure of that. The ruthless hit man, my first true villain, stalks the Lanes from the first book to the last in an attempt to retrieve the time boxes and return them to Robert Devereaux, a calculating billionaire who runs a Virginia corporation named Janus Enterprises.

Though I researched the books heavily, I completed the series in less than two years. I took advantage of COVID layoffs to finish the project months ahead of schedule. With a few spoilers, here is a look at the Time Box collection, which I consider my best five-book set.

THE LANE BETRAYAL (2020): I released The Lane Betrayal on February 29, 2020. Four weeks after returning from Virginia and Washington, D.C, the book's primary settings, I hit the publish button on Leap Day, a calendar comet that appears every four years.

I also ventured into the world of suspense. For the first time as an author, I wrote a bona fide thriller. I threw the Lanes and Silas Bain into the drama and turmoil of the final weeks of the American Civil War.

Historical figures add spice to the narrative. Abraham Lincoln appears in the novel. So do Mary Lincoln, Edwin Stanton, John Hay, Walt Whitman, and John Wilkes Booth. All interact with at least one of the time travelers.

While in D.C., I visited Ford's Theatre, the setting for Chapter 65. It was a relatively small facility, a venue that had been remodeled in the 1960s. Even so, I could feel the history between its walls. I could see the Lincolns in the presidential booth and a festive audience watching the comedy Our American Cousin mere days after Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox.

I loved writing a story set against this backdrop, but I loved developing my characters even more. In The Lane Betrayal, readers see Jordan begin a tender relationship with a pretty war widow and Laura, a nurse, befriend a legless soldier at a hospital. They also see Mary Lane as a tough-as-nails mama bear and Silas Bain a conflicted killer.

Crammed into just 12 weeks, The Lane Betrayal is my most compact story. [Let Time Fly, by comparison, unfolds over 29 months.] The Civil War book also features one of my favorite covers and one of the best audio narrations, thanks to veteran voice artist Todd Menesses.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 78, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton considers how to deal with the meddling wife of a federal prisoner.

The secretary asked himself if he had the stomach to prosecute and possibly hang a woman for a capital offense. He wasn't sure. Though Mary Lane was probably as guilty as Mary Surratt, she was a far more sympathetic figure. She was the kind of woman who could play with the press and perhaps muddy an open-and-shut investigation.

THE FAIR (2020): In The Fair, I raised my game. I sent not only a hit man after the Lanes but also a serial killer. I added even more suspense to a novel set mostly in Chicago and Virginia City, Nevada, in 1893.

I also gave my time travelers very different experiences. While Mark, Mary, and their three youngest children seek fun and thrills at the World's Fair, Jordan heads west to clear his head and deal with the loss of a lover.

The Lanes make friends in The Fair. Laura finds a bestie in Irish illustrator Prudence O'Leary and Jeremy a girlfriend in frustrated socialite Ivy Trudeau. Out west, Jordan literally bumps into his future wife, a shy, beautiful librarian named Jessie Cole. Mark, Mary, and Ashley make their peace with an exciting era. For the first time, the fugitives from 2021 consider settling down.

Then Silas Bain and H.H. Holmes, a man who killed at least nine people in his Murder Castle, complicate things. Each reminds the Lanes that life in the nineteenth century can be as horrifying as it is pleasant.

I enjoyed writing The Fair. I liked drawing Prudence, Ivy, and Jessie and exploring the buildings, exhibits, and rides of the World's Columbian Exposition, arguably the greatest public spectacle in history.

As in The Lane Betrayal, the Lanes see a president speak. Several weeks after watching Abraham Lincoln deliver his storied second inaugural address, they watch Grover Cleveland open the Chicago World's Fair with a rousing speech. They witness history up close.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 27, Jeremy Lane weighs the pros and cons of starting a relationship with the Rose DeWitt Bukater of Chicago.

Jeremy gazed at the critic in his glorified canoe and wondered once again where they were going. Though he wanted to spend every minute of every day with the sassy charmer, he questioned if he could. Ivy was not a girl he could date. She was an engaged woman who met him in secret once a week in a public place. She was a moth flying ever closer to a flame that could consume more than her reputation.

SEA SPRAY (2020): When I write a book, I try not only to tell a story but also to capture an age. I attempt to give readers a comprehensive feel for a time, a place, and an era. I aim to bring the past to life.

Sea Spray, the second of my quiet, reflective novels, is my unabashed ode to the Roaring Twenties. Set mostly on Long Island, New York, in 1927, it provides a feast of the celebrities, music, themes, and customs that defined the time. Charles Lindbergh is part of the book. So are Babe Ruth, George Gershwin, flappers, bootleggers, socialites, speakeasies, and ticker-tape parades.

Like the Carsons in Indian Paintbrush, the Lanes hit the reset button in Sea Spray. They try to live a normal life in a not-so-normal time. They seek peace and happiness in a deceptively tranquil decade.

Sea Spray is also my "sisters" book. Laura and Ashley Lane, secondary characters in The Lane Betrayal and The Fair, take center stage in this one. Laura manages relationships with Ted Price, her charming neighbor, and Randy Taylor, her 2021 boyfriend and a man who tries to protect the Lanes from Robert Devereaux, Silas Bain, and harm as they traipse through the past. Ashley, now 14, forms an endearing friendship with Ted's sister, a bright, mischievous classmate named Maddie.

Though Sea Spray has its lighter moments, it is a somber novel that deals directly with death and grief. Two protagonists lose loved ones who literally die in their arms. Others cope with the aftermath.

Like Indian Paintbrush, another series bridge, Sea Spray ends on a sobering but hopeful note. With a twist that complicates the most important relationship in the series, it propels a family saga forward.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 55, Mary Lane finds more than great music and great company at a July 25, 1927, concert in New York City.

Mary clapped with the others as Gershwin stood and bowed and further cemented his place as a music immortal. Then she glanced again at each member of her wonderful family and started to cry. She realized that she had finally reached the destination she had sought for more than a year. She was not just happy. She was home.

THE REFUGE (2021): In early 2021, I packed my bags. I mentally and physically prepared for my first trip to Hawaii, where I hoped to research the setting of the fourth series book. Unfortunately, the Aloha State, battling the COVID-19 pandemic, did not accommodate my plans.

So I did what I did with The Fair and Sea Spray. I learned about a place from afar. I read books, perused articles, and watched movies about Oahu in 1941. I did what I could to research the setting of The Refuge, which many readers consider my best novel.

In the book, the Lanes fight back. Tired of being hounded by Silas Bain, they seek both refuge and advantage when they travel from 1927 New York to 1941 Hawaii. While most of the family settles in the isolated village of Laie, Jordan scours Oahu for Bain, who — acting on Robert Devereaux’s orders — plans to alter the events of December 7 and delay America’s entry into World War II. The travelers try to save themselves and their country from two evil men from the future.

Each character grows. Mark and Mary befriend a Hawaiian family. Jordan and Jessie have a baby. Jeremy and Ashley start relationships. Laura wrestles with an unplanned pregnancy. Even Silas, the merciless killer, finds romance with a charming heiress. Back in the 2020s, Robert, Randy, and others try to manage events at Janus Enterprises. All act in big ways and small as an infamous date draws closer.

I grew as well. While researching The Refuge, I learned much about Oahu's geography, culture, cuisine, wildlife, place names, economy, and history, including the events before, during, and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I completed a master class on an island.

Though I did not go to Hawaii in 2021, I did accomplish something as a traveler that year. I learned a lot about Baja California on a trip to Cabo San Lucas and applied much of what I learned in The Fountain, a book set partly in Mexico. I plan to visit Oahu this summer. With my wife, I will see places I could only imagine when I wrote my nineteenth novel.

Favorite Quote: While viewing ships at Pearl Harbor in Chapter 15, Silas Bain meets a stranger conducting his own surveillance mission.

Silas smiled as Tadashi Morimura, aka Takeo Yoshikawa, turned and walked away to points unknown. He did not fret over curtailed conversations or missed opportunities. He knew they would speak again. Unlike Takeo, an officer at the Japanese consulate, he knew that their relationship was just beginning. He would manipulate the diplomat, one of the most famous spies of World War II, for as long as he could.

CROWN CITY (2021): Unlike with Oahu in The Refuge, I did not have to rely on media to understand the principal setting in Crown City. I was able to visit the venue — Coronado, California — in person.

As I noted on April 3, 2021, I was able to walk the streets and see the hotels, houses, beaches, and shops in person. I was able to get a firsthand look at the only one of my many book settings to get its own novel.

In Coronado, aka "Crown City," the Lanes make their last stand. They settle their business with Robert Devereaux, Silas Bain, and other enemies at Janus Enterprises.

They also establish roots. Jordan and Jessie get a place of their own. Laura has a baby and marries Randy. Jeremy weds Sarah Gustafson, his flame from The Refuge. Ashley shines as a freshman at Crown City High School.

In this novel, one of my favorites, I close loops, tie loose ends, and solve problems that began in The Lane Betrayal. I bring another family saga to a memorable conclusion. I do so against the lively backdrop of the Beach Boys' California and the presidency of John F. Kennedy.

As in The Refuge, the Lanes eye a future date with sadness and dread. Like they did with December 7, 1941, they make their peace with November 22, 1963. Even so, they don't roll over. They forge a new and productive path with their knowledge and tools as time travelers.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 87, Craig Henderson, a Lane ally, tries to save his wife and ailing daughter from their troubled life in 2023.

A moment later, Craig pulled his family close, said a quick prayer, and brought his old life to a close. He reached down to touch the beta box, the oldest, simplest, and most reliable of the world's time machines. Then he closed the deal. He pressed a green button. He triggered a device and started a process. He took the first step in his journey to the future, a magical place where hope and cures and miracles awaited.

By the time I released Crown City in November 2021, I was burned out. I had written twenty novels and four exhausting five-book series and was ready for a serious change. Then my wife, Cheryl, an avid reader, suggested that I cut back: "Why don't you write trilogies instead?"

The next week, I dusted off my notes from Cabo San Lucas, read a few articles about Ponce de León's Fountain of Youth, and began plotting a very different kind of series. In the months to come, I would write not only about time travelers but also about old people who become young. I started down a new path. Next: The Second Chance series.

Carson Chronicles series

In the American Journey series, I told five time-travel tales from the perspective of five twenty-first-century families. In the Carson Chronicles series, I told five from the perspective of one.

For the first time, I sent the same protagonists to markedly different decades, places, and situations and showed how they changed over a span of several years. I entered the wonderful world of saga.

The Carsons of Flagstaff, Arizona, are a family of achievers. Parents Tim and Caroline are professors, oldest son Adam an engineer. Greg and Natalie, the middle children, are an English teacher and a television reporter. Twins Cody and Caitlin are standout high school seniors. For all in the autumn of 2017, life is good.

Then Tim and Caroline disappear on a hike, leading Adam, 27, to search for answers. After learning that his parents are secret time travelers who may be stuck in the past, he leads his siblings on a rescue mission that takes them to 1889, 1918, 1944, 1962, and finally 1983. He commences a cat-and-mouse chase for the ages.

In the Carson Chronicles, I employ not a basement passageway as a time portal, as in the American Journey series, but rather "magic membranes," huge translucent sheets that pop up near strong magnetic fields every three months. I give time travel a creative spin.

I also test the Carsons by putting them in five pressure cookers, stories that test their courage, humanity, and ultimately their resilience as they seek to reunite. I push a family hard for more than two years.

With a few spoilers, here is a look at my third series, a five-book set I published between September 2017 and September 2019.

RIVER RISING (2017): In my eleventh novel, several readers asked a simple question: How could five time travelers, with the benefit of a quality education, settle in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in early 1889 and not know one of history's greatest floods was headed their way?

After speaking to many others, I settled on an answer. The Carson kids did not know about the flood because they grew up in Arizona. Like me and others educated in the West, they learned more about pioneers, railroads, and gold rushes in high school than a mostly localized deluge thousands of miles away.

Even as a history major in college, I had only a rough notion of the event. I knew more about a flood that damaged Heppner, Oregon, in 1903 than the one that hit Johnstown in 1889. Needless to say, I remedied my ignorance. For several months, I read books, watched documentaries, and even traveled to Pennsylvania to learn about the disaster. As a result, I was able to describe the flood like someone who lived through it.

River Rising was my first foray into the 1800s. Set in a century when even phones and cars were novelties, it was the first of my novels to show the shocking limitations of an age. It would not be the last.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 96, flood survivor Natalie Carson wanders through acres of rubble in what was once a thriving community.

The conditions were bad enough. On the morning of June 1, 1889, Johnstown was a sea of squalor, devastation, and hopelessness. In every direction, once sturdy buildings, some fifty feet high, lay in ruins. Fires burned on water. Broken bodies mingled with broken boards. Hungry rats ruled the streets. The stench of death was everywhere.

THE MEMORY TREE (2018): If I broke new ground in River Rising, I plowed a field in The Memory Tree. I scattered my protagonists across two continents, explored different cultures, climbed several family trees, and built a story around a minor character from an earlier book.

In my twelfth novel, the Carsons travel far and wide in 1918. Adam goes to Minnesota, Greg to Mexico, Natalie to France, and Cody and Caitlin to Pennsylvania, where they reunite with Emma Bauer, a 47-year-old matriarch they met as students in Johnstown. All push boundaries galore in pursuit of their missing parents.

The elders do things too. Tim and Caroline meet their ancestors in Duluth and Ensenada. Caroline delivers her own grandmother.

In The Memory Tree, I told a tale set against World War I, the Mexican Revolution, and the Cloquet Fire, a blaze that killed 453 people and displaced 50,000. I threw everything into a 140,000-word novel with 24 settings with ten protagonists.

Along the way, I borrowed from the stories of Andy Hoeme, my maternal grandfather, who lived like Indiana Jones in Baja California, Mexico, from 1918 to 1920. I posted a bit about him on his 120th birthday.

In 2021, illustrator Michelle Argyle revised The Memory Tree's original cover. She did what others did for The Mine and The Mirror.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 103, Greg Carson assesses the pistol-packing firecracker he marries in El Paso on December 17, 1918.

The bride wore white. Standing before her groom, a minister, Adam, Natalie, and thirty guests on a spacious patio that faced the mountains, she wore a white cowgirl dress, a white cowgirl hat, and white cowgirl boots that shimmered in the afternoon light. Greg laughed to himself as he stared at his beaming, pint-sized wife-to-be. Though he thought her Annie Oakley getup was a little over the top, he did not complain. He thought Patricia O'Rourke was the most adorable thing on earth.

INDIAN PAINTBRUSH (2018): In Indian Paintbrush, the first of my "quiet" novels, I set aside natural disasters, turmoil, and even travel and gave the Carsons a break. I let them settle in one place (Phoenix, Arizona), recharge their weary souls, and live a fairly normal life.

Even so, I did not free them from the challenges of the home front during World II or the complications of romance. The younger siblings find employment and love in the middle book of the series, set mostly in 1944.

Natalie and Caitlin find happiness at a training base, where they clean aircraft and befriend dashing pilots Nick Mays and Casey McCoy. Cody finds it at a Japanese internment camp, where he delivers supplies and woos a pretty, spirited teenager named Naoko Watanabe.

Indian Paintbrush is my most thoughtful story, but it is not devoid of spice. It features my best foreplay scene, a car chase worthy of Smokey and the Bandit, and a poignant encounter where Nick comforts a grieving character by quoting lines from Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality," my favorite poem. I repeat the "splendor in the grass" passage in a similar scene in Sea Spray, my other "quiet" novel.

The Carsons grow in Indian Paintbrush. Adam and Bridget O'Malley, who marry in River Rising, have a daughter. Greg and Patricia conceive a child. Natalie finds her life mate. The time travelers move on.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 85, Adam Carson tries to drive his family to a Pennsylvania time portal before local police can stop him.

For the next minute, Adam pushed the Chrysler, Nick shot at the cops, Cody pressed his wounded arm, and five other adults looked on in terror. Only Camille, sweet little Camille, managed to cope like a pro. She slept in Bridget's arms like she hadn't a care in the world.

CAITLIN'S SONG (2019): In the Carson Chronicles, each of the five siblings gets a novel. Adam dominates the narrative in River Rising. Greg and Natalie do much the same in The Memory Tree and Indian Paintbrush, respectively. Caitlin gets her turn in book four.

So do college life, the Cuban Missile Crisis, serial killers, and moral quandaries. Each subject receives a thorough examination.

While in 1972, Tim and Caroline learn that Caitlin was murdered in 1962 in Boulder, Colorado, where the Carson children have set up an unplanned residency. Unable to travel to 1962 to save their daughter directly, they race to 1941 to prevent the conception of her killer, the product of a rape. They try to alter a horrifying timeline that seems set in stone.

Because of its dark themes, Caitlin's Song was a difficult book to write. To get it right, I researched subjects I would have preferred to avoid. I built a suspenseful novel around a prospective Ted Bundy.

Caitlin's Song is more than a crime story. It is an often humorous look at college life in 1962, one that covers dating, dorms, and fraternities. Caitlin and Cody, new freshmen, come of age in the book. So does Dennis Sawyer, a fellow student who joins the Carson entourage.

Fun Fact: In each of my 26 novels, the title appears in the text — sometimes often, sometimes not. "The mine" is mentioned 37 times in The Mine. In Caitlin's Song, "Caitlin's song" is referenced only once. Dennis Sawyer utters the words before serenading Caitlin with Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" at a campus talent show.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 62, Cody Carson, a college freshman, leads twenty boys in a "panty raid" at a nearby girls dormitory.

"This is it, guys," Cody said. "Beyond that door lies twenty rooms, forty girls, and enough panties to fill a department store. When you reach each room, knock twice, give the greeting, and take what the ladies give you. If they shut their doors, let them be. We're not looking for trouble. We're looking for underwear we can use as party props in February."

CAMP LAKE (2019): My fifteenth novel begins with a dream. In 1983 in Phoenix, where the Carson siblings have settled again, Cody has a nightmare about Emma Bauer, Naoko Watanabe, and Molly Perdue, three pretty girls he has loved and lost as a time traveler.

The spirited ladies serve as Cody's jury in his Old West trial for "heart rustling." Emma offers love and forgiveness, Naoko indifference, and Molly unbridled scorn. All tell a "judge" that their former flame has much to answer for.

Though the dream has little to do with the rest of the book, it does serve a purpose. It reminds Cody that romantic relationships are dicey undertakings that offer promise and peril.

Like his siblings in earlier books, Cody finds both in equal measures. In Camp Lake, he discovers that even the love of one's life can come with serious strings.

Inspired by my experience as a camp counselor in Maine in 1983, Camp Lake is the final novel in a five-part family saga. It is a book that features old and young versions of Tim and Caroline, whom Cody, Caitlin, and even Dennis Sawyer meet as camp counselors.

It is also a tale of love, regret, heartbreak, and hope, a story that introduces readers to Karen O'Reilly, a bubbly counselor who catches Cody's eye at camp, a beautiful young woman with cystic fibrosis.

I dedicated Camp Lake to Douglas Susens, my wife's cousin and the namesake of our son Douglas, who is mentioned in my American Journey retrospective. Though Doug battled cystic fibrosis, he attended our 1986 wedding and even participated in wedding weekend activities, such as a float of the Boise (Idaho) River. He died in 1987 at age 23.

As with The Journey and Hannah's Moon, I drew heavily on personal experience in writing Camp Lake. I needed only to consult memories and stories I collected at Camp Cobbossee, a prestigious summer camp that still operates on the wooded shores of Cobbosseecontee Lake.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 35, Caitlin learns that Cody, her twin and fellow counselor, shares an interest with their married brothers.

"This is unreal," Caitlin said. "It's beyond unreal. I mean first we had O'Malley. Then we had O'Rourke. Now we have O'Reilly. It's like my brothers are chemically addicted to Irish girls."

Though the Carson Chronicles series contains enough tragedy and hardship to fill a truck, it ends on a positive note. The Carsons reunite, the family grows, and Cody and Caitlin get their HEA's. Camp Lake casts a warm eye toward the future. Like the first four books, it ends, fittingly, with the word "forward." Next: The Time Box series.

American Journey series

If the Northwest Passage series was chaos, the American Journey series was order. For the first time as an author, I brought rhyme and reason to a collection of books. I built a series the right way.

I did so by tying five very different stories to a single protagonist, a secretive, personable physics professor named Geoffrey Bell. From 2015 to 2017, I wrapped a saga around a person and a portal.

The person was Bell, a childless, 52-year-old academic who looked and acted like Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka. The portal was a chamber in Bell's Los Angeles mansion, a subterranean passage that led from the basement to the backyard and became a wonder when activated by crystals.

Starting and ending the series in California was a deliberate decision. Though four of the books are mostly set in Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, and Tennessee, I wanted all to have ties to the Golden State. I wanted to retain possibilities and West Coast storylines I had worked out long in advance. Though my characters wander across America in the 20th and 21st centuries, they inevitably return to Los Angeles.

Jeanette Bell, Geoffrey's wife, also plays a key role. She softens her husband's rough edges, embraces the many travelers who access the time portal, and guides her spouse when his health fails at the end.

Building on the example I set in Wallace, Idaho, when writing The Fire, I made research pilgrimages to four settings in the American Journey series. I visited Galveston, Princeton, Evansville, and Chattanooga and gathered much from each trip. I learned about the fifth setting — Pasadena, California — through movies, books, and websites.

Here is a candid look at my second series. As with last week's Northwest Passage retrospective, beware of occasional spoilers.

SEPTEMBER SKY (2015): My sixth novel features a big story and a small one. The big story is the 1900 Galveston hurricane. The small one is the evolving relationships between reporter Chuck Townsend; his college dropout son, Justin; and the people they meet in the past.

I wrote September Sky with "epic" in mind. From the first page to the last, I wanted to overwhelm readers with history, suspense, storylines, thrills, and characters they would long remember. I aimed for lasting impact.

I started with a good foundation. As many know, the Galveston hurricane was more than a storm. It was a tempest that killed at least 8,000 people and nearly wiped a city of 40,000 off the map. That said, the characters, especially the secondary ones, carry the novel. Charlotte Emerson and Emily Beck, the Townsends' librarian love interests, bring spirit and compelling life stories. Wyatt Fitzpatrick, Chuck’s distant ancestor, shows grit and savvy as an innocent tycoon accused of murdering a lover.

When I visited Galveston in 2014, I saw reminders of the hurricane, including a massive seawall that stretches ten miles on the Gulf side of the island. Workers raised the city itself up to 17 feet in the years following the storm. Museums, memorials, and surviving structures still tell the tale of the natural disaster, one of many in my novels.

Favorite Quote: This passage, the beginning of Chapter 77, is perhaps the best I've ever written. It summarizes Emily's situation to a T.

Emily took a swig and passed the bottle to her mother. She didn't like whiskey. She didn't like the taste or the smell or what it did to men on a Saturday night. But when you rode out a hurricane with your parents in a dead woman's bedroom, you learned to like a lot of things.

MERCER STREET (2015): Speaking of violent weather, I finished Mercer Street on the "dark and stormy night" of July 4, 2015, and honed it in the aftermath of Hurricane Joaquin, which caused serious flooding in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where I vacationed that October.

Of course, Susan Peterson, mother Elizabeth, and daughter Amanda walk into a bigger storm when they travel to New Jersey in the deceptively quiet months before World War II. Though the ladies find love, adventure, and purpose, they also find intrigue and danger.

Like September Sky, Mercer Street offers readers a feast. Set mostly in Princeton in 1938 and 1939, it gives them Albert Einstein, Orson Welles, The Wizard of Oz, the New York World's Fair, Eleanor Roosevelt, admirals, diplomats, college life, and young men with Nazi ties. I loved writing about The War of the Worlds broadcast, the fair, and the doddering genius who set the world of physics on fire.

I needed 294 days to produce Mercer Street, second only to September Sky's 307. When I finally released the book on October 22, 2015, I did so not at home, as with my other books, but rather at a Starbucks in Huntsville, Alabama. Daughter Amy proofed the last chapter and gave me a final okay and a hot coffee. It was publishing in the digital age.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 51, Amanda Peterson assesses an unexpected breakfast guest, her grandmother's newest friend.

Amanda watched Einstein sit down and then pulled up a chair opposite him at the table for four. She took a moment to study the man and found him to be exactly as advertised – disheveled, uncombed, and a little distracted. He wore a shaggy blue sweater, baggy gray pants, and hair that wouldn't quit. Even at age sixty, he looked like his caricature.

INDIANA BELLE (2016): As an author, I like natural disasters. I have written about the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the Big Burn of 1910, the 1900 Galveston hurricane, the 1889 Johnstown flood, the 1918 Cloquet fire, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

In Indiana Belle, I gave the 1925 Tri-State tornado its due. I began my third-shortest book with a storm system that killed 800 people, injured 2300, and turned large parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana into kindling.

Then I ventured into the world of flappers, bootleggers, and the KKK and sent two characters to a distant, Orwellian future. I dove into mystery, intrigue, and hard science fiction. I also set a story from coast to coast, expanded Professor Bell's personal story, and used a photo of a real person on my stock-art cover. I gave graduate student Cameron Coelho and society editor Candice Bell a ride to remember. In countless, creative ways, I broke new ground.

I loved drawing Candice, Geoffrey Bell's great-aunt. She was as much fun to write as Virginia Jorgenson and Annie Carpenter, my other fearless female journalists. Like Virginia and Annie in The Mirror and Annie's Apple, she gave a story added spirit, depth, and beauty.

I end Indiana Belle with a letter that spans time. In the message, Cameron defends his life choices to his handlers. Jake Maclean does the same in Let Time Fly. Some ideas are too good to use just once.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 14, Cameron notices a fellow refugee as he rides out the 1925 Tri-State tornado in a lighted storm cellar.

Cameron lowered his eyes and stared at the floor as a spider raced toward the door. He watched it closely as it stopped near his foot and appeared to weigh two unpleasant options — death by tornado or death by shoe. Like a deer in the headlights, it stayed where it was.

CLASS OF '59 (2016): Like many, I am fascinated with the 1950s. I watched Happy Days as a kid and loved movies like Grease, Back to the Future, and Pleasantville. I pictured heaven as a malt shop filled with jukeboxes, red vinyl booths, and Fonzies and Peggy Sues.

[Speaking of "The Fonz," is there an American male over 50 who did not jump – or dream of jumping – over four or five trash cans on his chopper bike in the 1970s? I know I did.]

In any case, I love the Fifties. So when I finally got a chance to squeeze a 1950s story into a series, I seized it. I threw everything into a novel that was a sheer pleasure to write.

In Class of ’59, Mary Beth and Piper McIntire, sisters from 2017, meet Mark and Ben Ryan, brothers from 1959, through the magic of Professor Bell’s Tunnel of Love, setting off a romp filled with romance, danger, angst, and adventure. They find their own Happy Days.

If this story sounds familiar, it should. I flipped the script in the Stone Shed trilogy and sent two brothers to the past. Only the names (Noah and Jake Maclean, Abby and Rachel Ward) and dates (2024, 1776) were changed to protect the innocent. I loved using this trope.

In addition to sock hops, gangsters, and a cameo by Marilyn Monroe, Class of ’59 features a LOT of time travel. My amorous couples travel between 2017 and 1959 at least a dozen times. In most of my other books, the main characters travel only once or twice, if at all.

Bloopers: I must report two. First, the discs in the jukebox on the cover are CD-ROMs, not vinyl records. [I still like the cover.] Second, when Donna Ryan, Mark and Ben's mother, joins her sons in the future, she forgets to bring Charlotte, the family cat. You can't win them all.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 34, Piper tells Mark about a time when Mary Beth defended her from a pack of grade-school bullies.

"She threatened them. She said, 'If you don't leave my sister alone, I'll have you all spayed and neutered.' Mary Beth didn't even know what the words meant. She heard them on a TV commercial. But her warning worked. The bullies never bothered me again."

HANNAH'S MOON (2017): As an author, I am often reminded to write what I know. In Hannah's Moon, I did just that. I told the tale of Ron and Claire Rasmussen, a couple battling infertility. I began by showing the two cradling their first child — a stillborn son named Ronnie.

On November 8, 1993, my wife, Cheryl, gave birth to a stillborn child — a four-pound, 18-inch, 33-week-old boy named Douglas Kyle. We endured a hardship that no parents, even in literature, should ever have to bear.

I needed three weeks to write that first chapter. Even with a solid command of the subject, I needed time to describe a hospital scene that demanded patience, care, and detail.

When I finished, I used my experience as an adoptee and an adoptive father to guide Ron and Claire in what became one of my best novels. I turned life into art.

Of course, Hannah's Moon is more than a sentimental journey about parenthood. It is a thriller set in 1945, a book that details the hopes and fears of Americans in the tense final months of World War II.

Hannah Rasmussen, Ron and Claire's adopted daughter, is the star of the show. Inspired by Tabitha Stephens, the towheaded toddler in the 1960s sitcom Bewitched, she was the first character to get her name on a book. [See Caitlin's Song and Annie's Apple.] I dedicated the novel itself to my daughter, Heidi, whom Cheryl and I adopted in 1992.

Though most of Hannah's Moon's is set in Chattanooga, seven chapters are set on or near the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser that sailed into history in July 1945. I spent several weeks researching the doomed ship, which remains the most compelling of my book settings.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 62, I describe the guests that greeted helpless sailors, including Ron Rasmussen, on July 31, 1945.

The sharks that came on Monday did not go away. Many struck in groups, terrorizing sailors for hours. Others hunted alone, picking off individuals with reckless abandon. Some gave warning by approaching along the surface. A few struck without notice from the depths. By sunset on Tuesday, the cold, conscienceless killers had maimed or consumed dozens of men and harassed or terrified countless more.

In the American Journey series, I pushed boundaries, pushed myself, and opened doors for future works. By the time I published the last book, I no longer looked at novel writing as a hobby. It was a passion, one with a life of its own. Next: The Carson Chronicles series.

Northwest Passage series

Otto von Bismarck once said, "Laws are like sausages — it’s better not to see them being made." The 19th‑century German statesman knew it is often best to focus on a finished product and not its construction.

The Northwest Passage series is my string of sausages. Cobbled together between 2012 and 2014, it is a collection of books only an author and perhaps understanding readers could appreciate.

When I wrote The Mine, my debut novel, I did not anticipate a second act. I expected to move on to the next item on my bucket list and leave writing behind. Then I got the notion to proceed. I wrote The Journey, a mostly unrelated story, and then The Show, the afterthought sequel to The Mine. By the time I finished The Fire and The Mirror, which continued the tales of the Smith and Johnson families, I had a hodgepodge on my hands.

The novels do have some things in common. Each is set in my native Pacific Northwest. Members of the Smith and Johnson clans mingle a few times. And Joel Smith appears in all five stories. Readers see Joel as a college student in The Mine, a toddler in The Journey, a young husband and father in The Show, a middle-aged professor in The Fire, and a grandfather in The Mirror. Cindy Smith, Joel's mother, is the only other character to appear in every book.

I broke down this series once before. On March 20, 2014, I answered common questions from readers. I won't do that today. Instead, I will try to answer uncommon questions and offer new information. With spoilers galore, here is my second examination of a splendid collection.

THE MINE (2012): Though The Mine is mostly set in Seattle, it begins in Helena, Montana, a town I know well. I moved my family to the storied gold-mining community in June 2000, barely two weeks after Joel Smith visited it in the novel. Unlike other settings in the book, I did not have to research this one. I lived in it, worked in it, and played in it.

Helena, as I wrote on July 4, 2014, is a special place, filled with Gilded Age mansions, quirky shops, and alpine scenery. I picked the city as a major setting because I wanted Joel and later Grace Vandenberg, his love interest, to see what I saw every day. I also wanted Joel's shocking transition from 2000 to 1941 to take place in a simpler, less hectic environment.

Joel, as readers know, handled the transition with aplomb, much to the chagrin of those who wanted him to grieve more about what he had left behind. Needless to say, I struggled with this. Though I wanted to present Joel as a disciplined problem solver, a man who did not easily break, I could have made him suffer more. Most people, suddenly torn from everything they have ever known, would not be able shake off crushing adversity so quickly and easily.

I faced other challenges, of course, including some I documented in The Mine's tenth anniversary post. After confronting the realities of crafting a novel, I added fifteen chapters to the first draft, changed story arcs, and updated props and attire. Aluminum foil became tin foil. Chocolate chip cookies became Tollhouse cookies. Grace's wardrobe on a trip to Mount Rainier was changed from a blouse and blue jeans to a dress.

I also changed the ending. In my first outline of The Mine, Grace reunited with Joel as an old woman, much like Jane Seymour with Christopher Reeves early in Somewhere in Time. After much thought, I decided to have them reunite in 2000 as young adults. A few critics dismissed the ending as a deus ex machina. I still consider it perfect.

Favorite Quote: In this Chapter 48 passage, a favorite among readers, Ginny Gillette tells Joel Smith that her best friend is worth pursuing.

"Grace may never be someone you can read or understand. She may never be someone anyone can understand. But she will always be worth the effort and the wait. Beneath that delicate exterior is a strong, resolute woman who does nothing halfway. Never take her for granted and never underestimate her. She will amaze."

THE JOURNEY (2012): My second book is something of an outlier. With 244 pages, sixty chapters, and two protagonists, it is by far my smallest work. It is also the only novel set in a fictional community.

Inspired by my high school years in the rodeo town of Pendleton, Oregon, The Journey was the first of my books to draw heavily on personal experience. In describing the carhop restaurants, drive-in theaters, school dances, classrooms, teenage customs, and even weekend nights "cruising the gut." I needed only to consult my memories and yearbooks.

The Journey was also the first of two books that introduced older characters to their younger selves and the first of seven set at least partially in an American high school. It tells the tale of Michelle Preston Richardson, a 48-year-old widow who is rudely propelled back in time to her senior year of 1979-80.

It also tells the tale of three major events that dominated news cycles that year: the Iran hostage crisis, the Miracle on Ice, and the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens. As an 18-year-old living in Oregon, I vividly remember all three events, particularly the eruption, which hampered the Northwest for months and affected how residents lived, worked, traveled, and, in my case, fared in a track and field meet.

On May 19, the day after the eruption, my high school hosted an invitational for the also-rans who failed to qualify for district. As usual, I ran the 1500 meters. As usual, I ran fourth in the six-man race through the first two of the four laps. But I didn't remain fourth for long.

Beginning in the third lap, the runners ahead of me dropped out of the race. Affected by the invisible but noticeable volcanic ash that permeated the warm spring air, they wandered off the track, dropped to their knees, and gagged or vomited. I pressed on. Equipped with a slightly better air filter, I seized a rare opportunity and outsprinted my remaining competitors to win a running race for the only time.

Favorite Quote: The first paragraph of Chapter 57 was a hard one to write. For the first time, I said goodbye to a novel's protagonist.

In the last minute of her life, Michelle Preston Richardson Land noticed and appreciated the beauty around her. She took in butterflies and flowers, a chipmunk on a log, majestic hemlocks and firs, and a young deer that had stopped to look at her from a few feet away. They were all amazing creations that she wanted to savor one last time.

THE SHOW (2013): I wrote The Show in five weeks. In a burst of NaNoWriMo energy in November 2012, I penned 92,000 words and produced a sequel that was as out of order as a caboose at the head of a train. I produced a third book that should have been a second.

I also produced a book that put me at odds with readers for the first time. In The Show, where Grace Vandenberg Smith stumbles through a time portal and travels from 2002 to 1918, my protagonist, then a married mother of two, makes two unpopular choices. She starts a relationship with a caring U.S. Army officer and literally pushes her parents, a young couple in 1919, into the 21st century.

Many readers ripped Grace's decisions as selfish and reckless. I believe they were practical, understandable, and most of all, defensible. Though Grace loved and missed her husband and daughters, she had no reason to believe she would ever see them again. She was a "single" pregnant woman in an unforgiving age. Captain Walker offered her love, marriage, and a home. Later, when Grace sees a chance to return to 2002, she ends the relationship but complicates another. She reclaims her parents, who died in a 1937 auto accident and left her an orphan. She rewrites the historical record.

Most people, I dare say, would not take the noble route. They would make the best decision with the information available to them. Even so, I appreciate the counterarguments, and if I wrote The Show today, I might heed at least one of them. I can imagine a compelling ending where Grace says so long to her parents in 1919 and lets them live the life they were meant to lead. I can picture a much different story.

On the plus side, The Show was a fun novel to write. It offers a fair amount of humor and features my best marriage proposal, wedding, and honeymoon chapters. It is my ode to Valentine's Day.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 25, Joel Smith, the perpetual playboy, counts his blessings as he marries Grace Vandenberg in Hawaii.

Joel looked at the vision holding his hands and then at the ocean behind her and wondered again whether he had won a cosmic lottery. Saints didn't deserve beach weddings in Kauai, much less spoiled, cocky frat boys who cheated on their taxes, dumped pre-law students who looked like models, and gambled on horses and greyhounds.

THE FIRE (2013): Wallace, Idaho, is the Center of the Universe. I'm serious. You can find incontrovertible "proof" on a manhole cover at the confluence of Bank and Sixth streets. I have seen the intersection on many occasions, including once on June 21, 2013, when I crossed it at exactly the same time protagonist Kevin Johnson did in The Fire.

Needless to say, I did not see Kevin, my curious young time traveler, but I did see a lot of Wallace, a silver-mining community of 900 souls. For three days that June, I researched a book setting by immersing myself in it.

Wallace screams Old West. Every downtown building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Most are survivors of a massive wildfire that roared through town in 1910. For me, it was a perfect place to send a carefree college graduate who inadvertently wanders into danger, adventure, and a love triangle after discovering a time portal on his deceased grandfather's property.

I wandered into a bit of danger myself when I had Kevin, 22, divide his affections between Sadie Hawkins, an unrefined local girl, and Sarah Thompson, a polished teacher from Indiana. Though both ladies were beautiful, smart, and kind, they were one too many for some readers, who formed competing camps. In the end, I let fire and fate, not whim, determine which woman survived to join Kevin in the future.

Though I am superstitious about Friday the 13th, I threw caution to the wind on Friday, September 13, 2013, when I hosted a 50th birthday party for my wife, Cheryl. We dined with friends in Wallace, of course, at a historic saloon called the 1313 Club. Life was never so good!

Favorite Quote: Taken from Chapter 80, Kevin Johnson's final reflection as he drives his family home is still my best ending.

Kevin smiled. He knew that even if the sky were gray tomorrow, it would remain blue in his mind. His last mental snapshot of Wallace, Idaho, would not be of fire, smoke, and death but rather of sunshine, giggles, and kisses. That, he concluded, was progress.

THE MIRROR (2014): Part of the fun of writing fiction is occasionally taking a leap into the unknown. In The Mirror, I took two. I jumped into the world of 2020, assuming it would look like the world of 2014, and jumped into the heads of two teenage protagonists, assuming they would think like me. I soon learned it is never wise to assume.

As most people know, 2020 was not like previous years. COVID-19 took care of that. I did not anticipate a global pandemic when I sent Ginny and Katie Smith, the twin daughters of Joel and Grace, to a country fair near Seattle on September 11, 2020. I did not have the sisters mask up or practice social distancing. I envisioned a different future.

When an author writes about a time he has never seen, he takes a risk. When he writes about people who are much different than himself, he takes a bigger risk. One reader, a woman, let me have it: "This is exactly what you'd expect from a time-travel book about teenage girls written by a middle-aged man."

I shook off the criticism. If there is one thing I have learned as an author, it is that you cannot please everyone. All you can do is tell your story as best you can. So I did just that. In The Mirror, I told a story about 2020, 1964, and 19-year-old sisters and also tackled difficult subjects like racism, domestic violence, and terminal illness for the first time.

Oddly enough, one of the earliest fans of The Mirror was my daughter Amy, a 19-year-old college freshman in 2014. "I liked it, Dad," she said in a telephone call. "I liked it a lot." That was enough for me.

Favorite Quote: In Chapter 68, Ginny Smith describes the scene at the Beatles concert in the Seattle Center Coliseum on August 21, 1964.

Then there were the sights – the surreal, stunning, mesmerizing sights that seemed stripped from a newsreel. No matter where Ginny looked, she saw movement – random, constant, violent movement. She saw young girls bounce in their chairs, tear at their hair, and clutch their throats and older ones throw jellybeans, flashbulbs, and themselves at an open stage. She saw wild women and girls gone gaga. She saw estrogen on fire.

Fun Fact: As a University of Oregon graduate, I am a diehard Duck, but I write positively about my University of Washington protagonists in the Northwest Passage novels. That is like a Michigan author lauding Ohio State characters or an Alabama writer speaking fondly of Auburn alums. Sometimes you do what you have to do to tell a story.

With 475,000 sales and more than seventeen thousand reviews, Northwest Passage is still my most widely circulated series. Though I do not plan to write about the Northwest again, I inevitably will. Authors rarely stray far from home. Next: The American Journey series.

Charting a new course

Once upon a time, I had a plan. I would retire at 65, go through my storage chest of story ideas, and write the Great American Novel. I would check off one of the biggest items on my bucket list.

I'm so glad I did not stick to the script. Had I done so, I might now be plotting my first novel and not my twenty-seventh. I might be starting my writing journey rather than pushing it into its fifteenth year.

Even so, there comes a time when every author must slow down, assess his or her current path, and decide whether or how to continue. For me, that time is now. After six series and twenty-six novels, I have decided to make a significant change. I will take a new approach to writing and publishing books, my passion since 2011.

First, for those who care, I will continue. I love writing novels far too much to give it up for blogging, traveling, collecting, or other priorities. (Though I admit when it comes to visiting grandchildren, it is a close call.) I hope to publish my next novel before the end of 2026. What I will give up is writing series, at least for now. Producing even a trilogy of historical fiction works is a massive undertaking — one that requires gobs of time and an interest in writing backstory, something I have never enjoyed and something many readers don't like or need.

Instead of writing series, I will write stand-alone novels, stories that begin with the first page and end with the last. I will produce one-and-done books and turn what has been a small business into a more relaxing hobby. I will start with my next story, another World War II yarn I have kicked around in my head for months. I hope to begin work on the novel, my first stand-alone in years, sometime this summer.

In the meantime, I will look back at my six series. Using a treasure trove of trivia, facts, anecdotes, and stories I have compiled over the years, I will provide readers with an in-depth and sometimes deeply personal examination of my novels. For each book, I will list favorite passages, insights, regrets, quirks, and sources of inspiration. I intend to begin with a look back at the Northwest Passage series later this month.

Many thanks to the readers who have supported my journey over the years. You are the reason I keep going. Happy New Year to all!

Photo: Reading a Minnie Mouse book to granddaughter Sarah.

Review: Sons of Liberty

I couldn't help myself. Just when I thought I was done with the American Revolution, I helped myself to one more 1770s miniseries. I set aside a few hours for Sons of Liberty, a three-episode offering currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. I'm glad that I did.

Though the series, which debuted on the History Channel in 2015, takes some liberties with the historical record, it is compelling. Ben Barnes, who plays the Yankee firebrand Samuel Adams, stars in the production, which covers the turbulent years between 1765 and 1776, when America's festering dispute with Britain turned into a bloody war.

To be sure, Sons of Liberty does not rise to the level of TURN: Washington's Spies or John Adams, which I reviewed on this blog and consider television treasures, but it does entertain. It captures the uncertainty, tension, and nervous energy that ran through both Boston and Philadelphia on the eve of the lengthy rebellion.

I liked the story, the special effects, and especially the acting. Barnes is superb as the daring Sam Adams, while Henry Thomas and Rafe Spall are solid as the more cautious John Adams and John Hancock. Marton Csokas is a believably cruel British General Thomas Gage.

The series drifts at times. It suggests that the Boston Tea Party occurred in full view of the British and that Margaret Gage, the general's wife, had a fling with Dr. Joseph Warren and warned patriots of the march on Concord and Lexington. The record is much less clear.

Even so, I enjoyed the production. I would recommend it to any television viewer who loves suspense, action, and history, particularly the period leading up to the American Revolution. Rating: 4/5.

Credit: The public domain image of "The Boston Massacre," an event portrayed in Sons of Liberty, is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

In search of snow and surf

Everyone has a happy place. For some, it is a cabin in the country. For others, it is a beach or a mountain trail or a tranquil lake. For all, it is a venue that lends itself to relaxation, reflection, and enjoyment.

I have two happy places: Chico Hot Springs, Montana, and Coronado, California. By coincidence, I visited both during the holiday break.

I went to Chico first. Five months after visiting the Montana retreat on a nine-state vacation last summer, I made good on a vow to spend my 64th birthday at the alpine getaway. I got the notion after hearing "When I'm Sixty-Four" by the Beatles play on a radio. When my wife, Cheryl, agreed to the idea, we immediately booked a return trip.

For those who don't know, Chico is a full-service resort built around a historic 125-year-old lodge in the Paradise Valley, the one of Yellowstone fame. I've been smitten with the place since I attended library conferences there every October in the early 2000s.

Last week, I visited Chico for the first time in winter. And though I missed the fall foliage, the crisp autumn air, and working with peers, I didn't miss out on much else. Chico, unlike much of the rapidly changing state of Montana, has retained its Old West charm. It is as appealing as ever.

Some come for the scenic setting, 30 miles north of Yellowstone National Park. Others come for the locally sourced cuisine, the walkable grounds, or the lively saloon. Most, if not all, come for the thermal pools, which sit exactly a mile above sea level. I came for all of them.

Coronado was just as enjoyable. Though it was night-and-day different with sea breezes, palm trees, and long, sandy beaches, it was still a perfect place to relax and recharge. It was also a last chance to see my Marine officer son, daughter-in-law, and one-year-old granddaughter before they shipped out to Hawaii for a three-year assignment.

As visitors to San Diego know, Coronado is a Navy town. It is home to Naval Air Station North Island and five thousand active duty military personnel. It is also home to art galleries, quirky shops, parks, and the Hotel del Coronado, a gabled, turreted colossus built in 1888.

For those reasons and more, I used Coronado as the primary setting in Crown City and a secondary setting in The Memory Tree and Caitlin's Song. It is a venue that lends itself to endless possibilities.

Chico and Coronado gave me the opportunity to see things I rarely see anymore — snow and surf. Both places offered a pleasant change of pace for someone who lives in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

I don't know when I will return to either escape. Chico is nearly 900 miles from Las Vegas, Coronado more than 300. Other destinations are higher on my travel priority list. But I will inevitably return to both. That's the thing about happy places. They keep calling you back.