Taking on the Titanic

It is the gold standard of tragedies. For more than 110 years, the sinking of the RMS Titanic has inspired books, movies, and conspiracy theories and captured the public's imagination. Like Pearl Harbor, September 11, and the deaths of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, it is a fountain of intrigue that never runs dry.

I kept that in mind this week as I turned my attention to an event that will play a small but vital part in Annie's Apple, my current work in progress and the second book in the Second Chance triology.

As a longtime Titanic fan, I am very familiar with the big picture. I've read the books, seen the movies, and perused numerous papers and articles. I visited the traveling artifact exhibition when it made stops in Seattle (2001) and Idaho Falls (2009). I have even paid lip service to Titanic trivia, such as the mind-numbing debate over whether Jack and Rose could have both fit on the floating door. (For those who care, Time magazine covered it all in 2019.)

Even so, I'm still learning things. While researching the Titanic, I learned that a coal fire below deck burned for days while the ship was at sea. I also enhanced my knowledge of the Titanic-Olympic conspiracy, communications problems, and the collection of survivors and victims. I found that even a student of history can pick up a few things about a widely reported historical event.

Like many, perhaps, I was moved most by stories of the disaster's final victims. On May 13, 1912, crew members from the RMS Oceanic pulled three corpses from a lifeboat they found drifting in the ocean nearly a month after the sinking. A few weeks later, crewmen from the steamship Algerine collected James McGrady, an Irish saloon steward, and buried him in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The sinking, of course, was more than a disaster. It was a pivotal moment in history, a moment where the Gilded Age met the Industrial Age and pride and excess collided with science and math.

I plan to write my Titanic chapters in February. In the meantime, I will reread Walter Lord's A Night to Remember, scan more New York Times articles, and even watch Jack and Rose run around a doomed liner one more time. I figure it's the least I can do to get a better understanding of a tragic event that still shocks and inspires.

Photo: The last lifeboat of survivors reaches the rescue ship Carpathia. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Looking back and looking ahead

This year was like the proverbial month of March. It came in like a lion and is going out like a lamb. That's fine with me. After ten years of writing two novels a year, I'm all right with slowing down a bit.

That's not to say I was idle. I started a new series in 2022, marketed several older works, and found a talented voice artist to narrate Camp Lake three years after it was released as a Kindle book.

The Fountain, of course, was my biggest project of the past year. Published in August, it launched the Second Chance series and represented a significant change in direction. For the first time in years, I explored the past through the eyes of older adults. I intend to market the novel aggressively in 2023, beginning with a book group appearance in January. I am looking forward to that.

I did not finish The Fountain's sequel in 2022, but I did finish a big chunk. I am now 27 chapters into a historical epic that will have 90 to 92 overall. As I mentioned last month, I will focus on the Carpenters and Lees in New York in 1911 and 1912. I still plan to publish Annie's Apple — named after Annie Carpenter, the main protagonist, and the Big Apple, the city she calls her own — in early May.

I hope to publish the Camp Lake audiobook even sooner. Thanks to Chicago narrator Roberto Scarlato, the Audible title is now in the final stages of production. Look for a January 2023 release.

With the completion of Camp Lake, every book in my first three series will be available in audio. I hope to bring at least some of the remaining books up to speed in 2023, starting with The Fair.

Most of these milestones would not be possible without the continued support of readers. I am deeply appreciative of those who have read many of my books and truly humbled by those who have read all twenty-one. That is a statement worth observing.

Thank you again for your support and encouragement. I wish each of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Second Chance sequel

Fourteen chapters are done. Two more are planned this week. Though they make up just a fraction of the ninety I have outlined in my notes, they represent a significant start. My latest work in progress, book two of the Second Chance trilogy, is under way.

This book will be different in one respect. Unlike my first twenty-one novels, it will not include an act of time travel. It will instead follow the lives of three time travelers as they build families, careers, and relationships in Greater New York City in 1911 and 1912.

Annie Carpenter will get a star turn in this one. Now a society reporter of twenty, she will step onto a very public stage. She will find adventure, growth, and romance in unlikely places.

Brothers Bill and Paul and in-laws Cassie and Andy will also shine. As young people with big dreams, they will seize opportunities and seek answers in a thriving metropolis. The will build on the foundations they laid in The Fountain, the series' first book.

Like in the The Fountain, I will blend fiction and fact. I will bookend a long historical epic with the most notable disasters of the age: the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

I am still working on a title and a cover concept. As for the novel itself, I hope to have a completed draft by March 1 and a completed book by May 1. As always, I will post updates along the way.

Review: Around the World ...

I admit I did not read the novel, the one by Jules Verne, or see the movie, the one that won Best Picture in 1956, but I have always been intrigued by the story. For that reason alone, I rushed to see the newest rendition of Around the World in 80 Days.

The eight-episode miniseries, set in 1872, is an imaginative production that captures the essence of cultures from Britain, France, and Italy to Arabia, India, and the United States.

David Tennant stars as Phileas Fogg, an Englishman who wagers that he can travel around the world in 80 days. Ibrahim Koma and Leonie Benesch shine as Jean Passepartout and Abigail Fix Fortescue, the wealthy eccentric's travel companions.

Though I liked the settings and the plot, I most enjoyed the primary characters. All bring something to the story. Each wrestles with a personal demon. All come to appreciate the others when their lives and fortunes are on the line. I also liked that the series, which debuted on PBS in January, did not shy away from difficult topics, like racism, sexism, colonialism, and bitter family disputes.

There is also adventure. From balloon rides, train trips, and perilous voyages to encounters with bad guys, Around the World in 80 Days delivers the goods. It provides the kind of compelling old-fashioned entertainment that is often in short supply. Rating: 5/5.

Review: All Quiet on the WF

Like a lot of history buffs, I have a fascination with World War I. I have read the books, seen the movies, and featured the war as a backdrop in two — and soon to be three — of my novels.

So when I saw that Netflix was showing a new remake of perhaps the conflict's greatest story, I rushed to see it. I found All Quiet on the Western Front as riveting as anything I have seen in years.

Like Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, All Quiet examines the horrors of war from the perspective of the losing side.

Felix Kammerer stars as Paul Bäumer, a starry-eyed German boy who dreams of guts and glory in 1917. The 17-year-old finds all that and more after he is sent to the Western Front, a 400-mile-long system of trenches that stretched across northern France.

Though the 2022 German remake focuses on the big picture, it does not neglect the small. It presents the ugliness and randomness of war through a series of compelling personal narratives.

The flick also reminds viewers of World War I's most tragic footnote. Thousands of soldiers on all sides died between the signing of the armistice of November 1918 and its implementation.

Historian Joseph Persico estimated that 10,900 were killed or wounded or went missing in the war's final act. He examined that unfortunate development at length in Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour, an interesting work I read a few years back.

Though All Quiet on the Western Front is gritty and violent at times, it is nonetheless well worth the time. I recommend it both as a movie and as a tribute to the soldiers who fell on November 11, 1918, the day that inspired our Veteran's Day holiday. Rating: 5/5.

Review: The Empress

As an American, I'm not a big fan of royals or aristocrats. I tend to view blue bloods with indifference or amusement.

As a television viewer, though, I can't get enough of them. I like watching the trials and tribulations of kings and queens and dukes and duchesses as much as football. (OK, I exaggerate.)

For that reason, I've gobbled up series like Bridgerton, Downton Abbey, The White Queen, and Outlander. I like palace intrigue and power struggles, particularly those in rich historical settings.

So I didn't need much motivation to see The Empress, a new series on Netflix. Set mostly in Vienna in the 1850s, it portrays the rise of Elisabeth, the Empress of Austria. Though the series takes a few liberties with the historical record, it nonetheless presents a compelling look at the Habsburg court and the complicated political struggles that plagued mid-nineteenth-century Europe.

Elisabeth, played by Devrim Lingnau, disrupts life in the palace even before she marries Emperor Franz Joseph at age 16. Loathed by some and beloved by others, she takes her nation by storm. A free spirit with a penchant for fun, she dispenses with rigid traditions and changes the court through the sheer force of her personality.

Others, such as Philip Froissant, who plays Franz, and Melika Foroutan, who plays Princess Sophie, the young emperor's controlling mother, also turn in strong performances.

I recommend not only The Empress, the miniseries, but also The Empress, the academic subject. Elisabeth, her husband, and their family had a profound impact on everything from the governance of Mexico to the outbreak of World War I. History, even the stodgy royal kind, does not get more entertaining. Rating: 5/5.

Exploring the Big Apple

I am a relative stranger to New York. I have visited the city only once, at least at length, and know it mostly through movies and television. Even now, the metropolis is something of a mystery to me.

That is changing. Thanks to numerous books, articles, and newsreels I've perused in the past month, I’m getting to know the Big Apple, at least as it existed in 1911 and 1912, much better.

Though Arizona, Texas, and Rhode Island will make appearances in book two of the Second Chance trilogy, New York will get a star turn. All five of my protagonists, the Carpenters and Lees, will live in Brooklyn. One will work in Manhattan. A new character will come to the story from Rockaway Beach, a neighborhood in Queens.

I admit I like the learning. I love reading old issues of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle as much as I love reading books about Coney Island, John Jacob Astor IV, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, one of the defining events of the Progressive Era. I like learning about the development of New York's neighborhoods, bridges, subway system, military installations, and even its spacious public parks.

One reason I picked New York as the primary setting is because it was a big deal a hundred years ago. More so than even today, the rapidly developing city was the center of commerce, entertainment, sports, and culture. It was the beacon that lured millions of immigrants through Castle Garden and Ellis Island.

In my book, Brooklyn will take center stage. Bill, Cassie, and Annie Carpenter will occupy a brick house in Brooklyn Heights. Paul Carpenter and Andy Lee, best friends and brothers-in-law, will serve a stint as U.S. Army sergeants in nearby Fort Hamilton. All will interact with the people and places of a fascinating time.

I plan to research the setting another month and begin writing in November. I hope to publish the novel itself by May 1.

Image: New York City skyline, as seen from Jersey City, N.J., 1910-1920. Illustration courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Review: Longmire

I should have known this would happen. When I sample a riveting miniseries, I never stop at the pilot. I binge watch the whole thing -- in weeks, if not days. I keep streaming services in business.

Such is the case with Longmire, an addictive crime drama I somehow missed when it premiered on A&E in 2012. For the past several days, I have immersed myself in fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming, the primary setting of a show that ran six seasons.

In the series, Robert Taylor stars as Sheriff Walt Longmire, a prickly, old-school lawman who seems to have special insight into every crime that occurs in his surprisingly violent jurisdiction.

Others form a strong supporting cast, including rival deputy Branch Connally (Bailey Chase), loyal deputy Victoria "Vic" Moretti (Katee Sackhoff), lawyer daughter Cady Longmire (Cassidy Freeman), and longtime friend and tavern operator Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips). Along with rookie deputy Archie "The Ferg" Ferguson (Adam Bartley) and an endless stream of misbehaving locals, the regulars provide first-rate entertainment.

The backdrop is no less compelling. As a former Montana resident and occasional Wyoming visitor, I can relate to the setting. Fictional Durant, Wyoming, is like countless small towns in the northern Rockies: rough, raw, folksy, and sometimes sinister.

Even the high-plains sets and breathtaking mountain scenery, though, are no match for the sheriff. Taylor carries nearly every episode with a soft-spoken, commanding, no-nonsense manner that evokes James Arness' Marshal Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke.

I am now four episodes into the second season of Longmire, which is available in its entirely on Netflix. (My wife, who has surpassed me, is on episode seven.) I highly recommend the program to viewers looking for a captivating change of pace. Rating: 5/5.

The Second Chance Trilogy

In golf, it's called a mulligan. In life, it's called a second shot. It is another opportunity to correct a mistake, restore a relationship, or follow a new course. It is a chance to set things right.

In The Fountain, the first book in the Second Chance series, three elderly siblings have an opportunity to do that and more. Thanks to a not-so-legendary fountain of youth, they have a chance to begin life again — as young, healthy adults — in a wondrous time.

In May 2022, William Carpenter, 81, is depressed and resigned. Weeks after burying his beloved wife of 57 years, the Oregon man must look after his dying brother, Paul, 75, and their wheelchair-bound sister, Annie, 72. Bill believes his best days have come and gone.

Then the retired professor, an expert on folklore, learns of a connection between a dying "time travel" crackpot and a newborn boy in California. He investigates a succession of leads. Within weeks, Bill, Paul, and Annie find themselves in a cave in Mexico, equipped with gold and useful knowledge. They proceed to a magical spring and take the biggest leap of their unfulfilled lives.

In June 1905, Cassie Lee, 23, is a woman on the move. A literature teacher at an elite high school in Oakland, California, she dreams of a successful career in education. Even in a world run by men, she sees clear sailing ahead. She does not see meaningful encounters with a trio of time travelers. Nor does the San Francisco resident see a devastating earthquake and fire that will destoy her city on April 18, 1906.

In The Fountain, I depart a bit from my typical routine. Though I offer readers time travel, humor, history, romance, and suspense, I also offer them markedly different perspectives. Bill, Paul, and Annie view their new surroundings with experienced eyes. They take their knowledge — and numerous battle scars — with them to the early twentieth century. They live as young people with old minds.

With this novel, I also begin a trilogy. The Second Chance series will continue with stories set in New York City in 1911-1912 and the American South and France in 1917-1918. For the first time in years, I will tell a family's story in three books, instead of five.

The Fountain is my twenty-first novel. The Kindle edition goes on sale today at Amazon.com and its eighteen international marketplaces. I intend to release the paperback edition in early September.

Giving a nod to literature

If there is one thing I enjoy about writing fiction, it is pointing a spotlight at other works of fiction. In several of my twenty published novels, I refer to classic poems, short stories, and novels. I love tying the themes and lessons of other creations to my own.

In The Mine, Joel Smith, a time traveler, thinks often of the butterfly effect in Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder." In Indian Paintbrush and Sea Spray, grieving female protagonists find comfort in the "splendor in the grass" passage of Wordsworth's "Ode to Intimations of Immortality." In Caitlin's Song, four characters discuss "She Walks in Beauty," Lord Byron's ode to his cousin's wife.

In The Fountain, my current work in progress, I do more than pay lip service to highly celebrated works. I explore them at length.

In two chapters of my novel, Cassandra Lee, a teacher in 1906, leads discussions of Pride and Prejudice and The Red Badge of Courage. In another chapter, Annie Carpenter, the youngest of three siblings who discover time travel and the Fountain of Youth, waxes poetic about Jo March, a character in Little Women. Novelist Jack London dazzles Annie and other high school freshmen when he discusses The Call of the Wild, his most famous work.

I also mention Madame Bovary, a novel by Gustave Flaubert, and a smattering of other works. I do so to develop characters and themes in my own novel and to demonstrate the importance of reading, literature, and language in the early twentieth century.

During the turn of the last century, before the advent of the internet, television, and talking motion pictures, literature was one of the few affordable and meaningful entertainment options. Novels, newspapers, and magazines like The Saturday Evening Post were central to the lives of millions. So I made them a part of my story.

In The Fountain, I use the classics mostly to illustrate situations. Miss Lee struggles to motivate the boys in her classes until she switches from books like Pride and Prejudice and Little Women to The Call of the Wild. Paul Carpenter, a Vietnam deserter, suffers through a discussion on shame in The Red Badge of Courage. Annie reveals her ambitions while giving her class report on Jo March.

The Fountain, the first novel in the Second Chance trilogy, is now in the middle editing stage. I plan to release it by September 2.

A first draft for a first book

I didn't quite finish within Stephen King's recommended limit of 90 days, but I finished nonetheless. The first draft of The Fountain, the first book in the Second Chance series, is a done deal.

With 98 chapters and 122,000 words, the historical epic, set mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1905 and 1906, is the sixth longest of my 21 novels. It is also the first to feature a "fountain of youth," a literary device I have wanted to employ for several years.

In the book, Bill, Paul, and Annie Carpenter, three elderly siblings from 2022, find youth, health, and romance in the time of Teddy Roosevelt. Determined to make the most of their second chance, they start new lives in California with only a vague understanding of a horrific earthquake that awaits them on April 18, 1906.

I expect to revise the manuscript at least three times before sending it to my editor. I hope to find a suitable cover sometime in the next few weeks. The Fountain is still set for a September release.

Writing with perspective

I am sixty now. That means something. It means I now look at the world as a "senior" and not a boy, a young man, or even a man of middle age. And that's important because, for the past ten years, I have written novels from the perspective of (mostly) younger people.

Though my protagonists have ranged in age from twelve (Ashley Lane in The Lane Betrayal) to seventy-eight (Elizabeth Campbell in Mercer Street), most have fallen neatly in the eighteen-to-thirty range.

In my next series, a family saga, I will do something different. I will write a story from the viewpoint of three siblings who are old in mind, if not in body or spirit. I will incorporate the perspective of age.

Bill Carpenter, the oldest sibling, is eighty-one at the start of The Fountain, the first book in the Second Chance series. Paul, his brother, is seventy-five. Annie, their sister, is seventy-two.

The Carpenters don't stay that way, of course. After jumping into a fountain of youth, they emerge in 1905 as young adults. They begin new lives as younger, wiser versions of the people they used to be.

The siblings will retain their "old" minds even as they progress through the rest of the three-book series. They will remember the lessons of their old lives and try to apply them in their new ones.

That's where my age may come in handy. For the first time in a long time, I will be able to write from the perspective of a person who has experienced much of what my characters have experienced. I will be able to write with a little more authority and authenticity.

Throughout The Fountain, I will refer to the 1960s and 1970s, decades I remember, times when my characters came of age and faced life-changing events. I will provide a framework for a story.

I am about forty percent into the first draft of The Fountain, which is set primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1905 and 1906. I expect to publish the novel, my twenty-first overall, in September.

The echoes of 1906

I know disasters. In ten years as an author, I have written about no fewer than seven, including floods, fires, and storms.

In The Fire and The Memory Tree, I burned a few characters in the Great Fire (1910) and Cloquet Fire (1918). In September Sky and Indiana Belle, I blew them away in the Galveston Hurricane (1900) and Tri-State Tornado (1925). I doused thousands in River Rising and Hannah's Moon, which featured the Johnstown Flood (1889) and the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (1945). In The Journey, I pushed my protagonist in the path of Mount St. Helens (1980).

I hope to be kinder in the The Fountain, my current work in progress, but I'm not sure I'll be able to. I may not be able to work around one of the most destructive earthquakes in United States history.

On April 18, 1906, nature didn't just throw a fit. It shook San Francisco to its core. It reduced a city of 400,000 people to rubble and lit the match of an even more horrific fire, a fire that changed the world.

The quake itself was bad enough. Estimated at 7.9 on the Richter scale, it rocked most of California and created a rupture three hundred miles long. In some places, it displaced the earth by twenty-eight feet.

The fires did the rest. For four days, they burned mostly uncontrolled, destroying 28,000 buildings, killing up to 3,000 people, and leaving half of San Francisco homeless. They altered the face of a beauty.

Bad luck made things worse. The quake mortally wounded San Francisco's capable fire chief. Authorities who tried to create firebreaks with dynamite created tinder instead. A woman cooking breakfast for her family sparked the 'Ham and Eggs' fire, the worst of dozens that swept the city. Fractured pipes rendered water resources useless.

Hundreds recorded the disaster in words and images. The Call, the Examiner, and the Chronicle, rival newspapers, joined forces for a special edition. Photograher Arnold Genthe began snapping pictures, including the one of Sacramento Street above. Novelist Jack London, who plays a cameo role in The Fountain, rushed to San Francisco from his nearby ranch to capture the essense of the tragedy.

Many residents rushed to get out of the city. Those who remained battled water shortages, disease, violent crime, blackouts, and martial law. The Army, which patrolled the streets until civilian authorities could restore order, shot even suspected looters and conscripted the able-bodied to fight fires and dig graves. Some buried bodies where they fell, mere minutes ahead of the rats and the flames. Others flocked to tent cities and relief centers. Most did what they could do to survive.

Like the disasters in The Fire, September Sky, and River Rising, the quake will dominate the last quarter of its story. Like the other calamities, it will display good behavior and bad in sharp relief.

I have completed a third of The Fountain's first draft. I hope to publish the novel, the first in the Second Chance series, by Labor Day.

Saying goodbye to Mom

I said goodbye to my mom this month. I was not ready to. Like others who have lost a parent, I was not ready to say so long.

Most of us, I think it's safe to say, try not to think about such moments. We put off pending unpleasantries like we put off appointments or even our own mortality. We believe parents will live forever.

Mary Heldt, who died last Friday at 90, lived a good life. Though she did not live to be 100, one of her biggest goals, she did live long enough to make a lasting impression on countless others.

My niece Mary called her namesake a matriarch, a teacher, a calming presence, a saint. She was right on every count. Mom was many things to many people, but most of all, she was just a good friend.

I will remember her for many things. She was an organist, a baseball fan, and a fabulous cook. She could whip up tasty dinners from the simplest ingredients and satisfy every palate. She was an avid reader and correspondent, who, in her prime, wrote a hundred letters, by hand, each Christmas.

She was also a selfless caregiver, who in the 1970s babysat as many as seven kids, the children of working mothers, while raising six of her own. She was patient, grounded, and giving.

Though I have many memories of my mom, one will always stand out. I remember it like it was fifty minutes ago and not fifty years. I was eight at the time — and in 1970, that meant something. I was old enough to lobby for a gerbil and young enough to get my way.

Mom set just one rule: "Chopper" had to stay in his cage. She did not want a fidgety rodent with beady eyes running around the house and hiding in strange places. I observed the rule for a while. I observed it until I tired of watching Chopper run on his wheel like a fitness fanatic. I released him, on short paroles, and let him explore my room.

And so it went. For three weeks, I entertained him, and he entertained me. I bonded with a furry creature. I enjoyed him too. I did so until I saw him shake and wobble in a frightening way. I feared the worst when he barely moved one morning. I knew the worst when I came home from school and saw Mom standing at the door.

She did not say a word at first. She just guided her inconsolable son through a grieving process that lasted nearly an hour. She wrapped Chopper in a tissue, put him in a small box, and accompanied me to our landscaped backyard, where we buried him with dignity.

Some parents, of course, would not give a rodent a second thought, much less something amounting to a funeral. They would dispose of the animal and offer their child a hug or words of encouragement.

But not my mother. She went further that day. She demonstrated that all life, no matter how small, is worthy of respect. She provided me with a lesson I've never forgotten and try my best to share.

I'm grateful for that lesson, Mom. I'm grateful for sixty years. I'm grateful I got to speak with you three days before you died. For now, that will have to do. I love you, Mom. I miss you. Until we meet again.

The making of The Mine

It is not my best book — not by a long shot — but it is still the one I treasure most. It is the one that took the slings and arrows while I debated whether to continue a sometimes perilous journey as a novel writer. It was the first to stand the test of time.

For those reasons and more, The Mine, which turns ten years old this weekend, will always hold a special place in my heart and my rapidly expanding library. It is an enduring reminder of the risks and rewards that go with being a self-published author.

The book, once the top item on my bucket list, took shape, at least as an idea, in June 2011. I created a rough outline days after seeing The Time Traveler's Wife, a movie based on a novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Though I liked both the film and the book, I was moved most by the concept of time travel to the recent past. I wanted Joel Smith, my carefree protagonist, to meet people he knew as a young boy.

Once I settled on 1941 Seattle as the primary setting, I faced another decision. Should I go big or go small? Should I have Mr. Smith try to stop Pearl Harbor or do something more realistic? In the end, I decided that most people in Joel's situation would focus more on surviving than changing history. They would try to blend in and meet people. They would save killing Tojo or Hitler for another day.

With that out of the way, I went about writing a novel that had a beginning and an end but not much of a middle. I fleshed out a story about a curious college senior who enters an abandoned mine in 2000, exits in 1941, and tries to finds his way in a world of swing dancing, saddle shoes, and a peacetime draft. I introduced a 22-year-old man to his 21-year-old grandmother, her ill-fated fiancé, and their coed friend, a beautiful, engaged orphan with a tragic past and an uncertain future.

Then I made another decision. On the advice of Maureen Driscoll, a novelist friend, I injected some romance into an adventure story. I turned a tale about Joel and Ginny and Tom into a tale about Joel and Grace. In doing so, I opened doors to new readers, added depth to a two-dimensional story, and created a template for future works. I gave Joel Smith another reason to tread carefully as a time traveler.

By November, I had a finished draft but not a finished book. My daughter Amy, then a 17-year-old honors student, pointed out numerous flaws and introduced me to terms like "headhopper," "conflict," and "story arc." I realized my "novel" looked more like the nonfiction newspaper stories I had written for years. I almost gave up.

Then I went back to work. I made some changes, added fifteen chapters, and expanded several others, including Chapter 34, where Joel and Grace evolve from friends to something more. That chapter, set at a minor league baseball game, is still the longest I have ever written.

Over the next several weeks, I revised the manuscript, enlisted others to proof it, and asked a family friend to create a simple cover. On February 12, 2012, I clicked the "Publish" button on Amazon, went out to dinner, and waited for great things to happen.

News flash: They didn't. Like thousands of other indie authors, I quickly learned a brutal truth of publishing. Writing a book is one thing. Selling it in a competitive marketplace is another. For weeks, I could not give the book away, at least to strangers. Sales skidded to a stop.

Desperate for a break, I pitched The Mine to 17 agents and publishers, including several small presses. All rejected my queries. Though most were pleasant and supportive, a few were not. One agent, named Claudia, said she could not generate "sufficient enthusiasm for the project." I realized that publishing is first and foremost a business, a business whose gatekeepers save their enthusiasm for books that can sell at least 10,000 copies. I turned again to my bucket list.

Then something wonderful happened. Comments trickled in. Positive comments. Then positive reviews. Two reviewers, in particular, lifted The Mine out of obscurity. Kathy Altman praised the book in USA TODAY. Marlene Harris did the same in Library Journal. More reviews, three hundred in all, followed in the coming months.

So did more interest and opportunities. In March 2013, Podium Audio contacted me after noticing that many readers who bought Andy Weir's sci-fi thriller The Martian, then a relatively obscure indie work, also bought The Mine. The Canadian company offered me a publishing contract — my only one to date — and produced an audiobook, with an appealing new cover, before the year was out.

Though The Mine did not keep pace with The Martian, which became a New York Times bestseller and a blockbuster film, it did gain steam with many readers. Bloggers and media outlets continued to review and promote the book. Customers pushed it to the top of several Amazon bestseller lists, including historical fiction. They downloaded a novel agents and publishers would not take onto 180,000 Kindles.

I no longer market The Mine like I used to. Nineteen newer books have taken its place and the opportunities to find new readers have dwindled. The novel, which has undergone numerous revisions, is the professor emeritus of my library. Its best days have come and gone.

Still, the book is important to me. It is a reminder of where I started and where I can still go. It's a testament of what I — or anyone — can do through hard work, perseverance, and the willingness to grow.

A plan for the new year

I am not big on New Year's "resolutions." I consider them empty pledges that usually fall by the wayside in weeks, if not days. I am big on realistic plans and goals though. I consider them essential to progress. So I've sketched out at least a few things I would like to accomplish in what I hope will be a better year for everyone.

First and foremost is a new series. In a few months, I will begin writing another family saga. Like the Northwest Pasage, American Journey, Carson Chronicles, and Time Box sets, it will feature time travel. Unlike the first four series, it will offer a fountain of youth, a short time frame, and older perspectives. It will view the past through the eyes of Boomers rather than Zoomers — specifically three broken, aging siblings who get a second shot at life.

The series will also be a trilogy, my first. Book one will begin in Oregon in 2023, continue in Mexico, and conclude in San Francisco in 1906, the year of the city's most devastating earthquake and fire. Books two and three, still on the drawing board, will take the story to New York City in 1912 and France in 1918. I hope to flesh out more details for all of the books by the end of March.

Later in the year, I will try to convert more titles to audio, including the last four Time Box books. Camp Lake, the Carson finale, is currently in production. It is still slated for a 2022 release.

I will also do more to promote my existing Kindle and print titles through book fairs, interviews, and online promotions. My next BookBub promotion, for The Refuge, is set for January 4.

I hope your 2022 is pleasant and productive. Happy New Year!

Breaking down a family saga

Even now, the questions come. Readers of the Time Box series want to know why I did what I did in creating the five novels.

Some ask about characters and plot twists. Others point out peculiarities (and flaws). Most just want to know more. So I will do what I did after finishing the Northwest Passage series and address some of the matters -- and throw in a bit of trivia to boot.

The family name: Many wanted to know why the Lanes did not change their name while fleeing pursuers skilled at checking public records. I resisted making a change for two reasons. The first is that I wanted to keep things simple. When you write a family saga with multiple points of view, settings, and stories, you lose some readers. When you add aliases (and confusion) to the mix, you lose even more. Throughout the series, I tried to a make a complex story less complex. I also wanted the Lanes to retain their identity, something they cherished and ultimately defended.

The significant others: It is no accident that each of the Lane children loved and lost before finding an ideal companion. As with siblings Natalie, Caitlin, and Cody in the Carson Chronicles, I wanted them to struggle, at least a bit, to better appreciate what they found at the end. And though Ashley and Chip Brown had just started their romantic journey in Crown City, I purposely left the impression that the two had a future. (Spoiler alert: They do.)

Grace and Sarah: Kudos to perceptive readers who noticed similarities between Grace Vandenberg in The Mine and Sarah Gustafson in The Refuge. Both women were friendly, studious, blue-eyed blondes with a penchant for mischief. Both were born in rural Minnesota in the early 1920s and orphaned before they could finish college. The two could have been cousins.

Maddie and Patty: I did not even try to hide the similarities here. Ashley's best friends in Sea Spray and Crown City shared many of the same qualities, qualities that allowed a young protagonist to grow. It's not difficult to see Maddie Price, a product of the 1920s, fitting into Patty Brown's social circle in the early 1960s.

The series settings: Placing the Lanes in Virginia and Washington, D.C., in The Lane Betrayal was a no-brainer. I wanted to put the family near the center of action in 1865, the final year of the American Civil War. In later books, I simply followed the history. I thought Chicago, Long Island, Hawaii, and Southern California best reflected 1893, 1927, 1941, and 1963, respectively.

My favorite characters: Jeremy and Mary. Jeremy provided comic relief when it was needed. Mary, his stalwart mother, gave the series a strong, moral underpinning. Ashley was my next favorite. I enjoyed writing her character in each of the last three books.

Jeremy and the draft: When I finished Crown City, I left the impression Jeremy would somehow avoid Vietnam, either by leaving the country or getting a college deferment. Later, I learned he would have been fine, no matter what. As a man who tied the knot before August 25, 1965, when President Johnson signed Executive Order 11241, he could have legally put off military service.

'Mrs. Brown' song: From the start, I wanted to include "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" in Crown City's slumber party chapter. Then I learned that the most well-known version of the song, by Herman's Hermits, did not exist in 1963. Fortunately for me, another version, the first version, did. Tom Courtenay, an English actor, released a 45 of "Mrs. Brown" in 1963. Problem solved.

Craig Henderson: I expanded this bit player's role to answer the central question of the Time Box series: How far would you go for the ones you love? I wanted readers to put themselves in the shoes of time travelers who had the power to save lives, even at a cost.

Bobby Devereaux: One reader asked about the fate of the three-year-old boy after he was adopted by a family that wanted him. I did not answer the question in the book, but I did provide a clue. In the case of nature vs. nurture, I cast a vote for the latter.

Saying so long to the Lanes

I dislike goodbyes. I particularly dislike long, drawn-out literary goodbyes that bring five-book time-travel series to a conclusion.

The first two weren't so bad. When I said so long to the Northwest Passage and American Journey sets, I did so with books that served a purpose. The Mirror and Hannah's Moon tied loose ends.

Camp Lake went further. It brought a lengthy family saga to an end. It gave the Carsons the sendoff they deserved.

Crown City does all this and more. The novel, the last in the Time Box series, showcases, redefines, and even reintroduces a clan that has been my focus for nearly two years. Set mostly in the San Diego area in the summer and fall of 1963, it displays the Lanes at their very best.

No one shines more brightly than Ashley. Now fourteen, the introverted, studious youngest child enters Crown City High School with trepidation. Then a classmate nominates her for freshman homecoming princess. Within weeks, Ashley, a new student in search of friends and belonging, finds popularity, romance, and a host of new problems. She experiences the triumphs and tribulations of adolescence.

While Ashley finds her place in school, the other Lanes find it elsewhere. Parents Mark and Mary settle in the seaside town of Coronado. Siblings Jordan, Laura, and Jeremy chart new courses with spouses, children, and significant others. All hope the latest stop on their turbulent journey through time is their last.

Robert Devereaux does too. The unhinged billionaire, a software mogul in 2023, wants to eliminate the Lanes and reclaim the portable time machines they stole from him in 2021. Through traveling hit man Silas Bain, he intends to find the fugitives and settle a score.

The Lanes have plans of their own. Tired of running and hiding in the past, they take the war to their enemy. With friend Randy Taylor leading the way, they tackle a tyrant on two fronts. They hope to put Old Robert in prison while sparing Young Robert, a three-year-old in 1963, from a life-altering tragedy and years of neglect.

Filled with romance, suspense, and adventure, Crown City brings an epic family saga to a poignant end. It presents the Lanes one last time as they battle adversaries, circumstances, and even each other in the era of malt shops, deuce coupes, and John F. Kennedy.

Crown City is my twentieth novel. It goes on sale today at Amazon.com and its twelve international affiliates.

Writing a familiar finale

The chapter, the third in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, has moved writers and thinkers for centuries. Even movie makers and recording artists have drawn inspiration from its words.

Actor Kevin Bacon quoted the passage in the 1984 film Footloose. Folk singer Pete Seeger set it to music. The Byrds, an American rock group, adapted and recorded it, producing "Turn! Turn! Turn!" Their soulful interpretation, a Billboard Number 1 hit in the fall of 1965, became an enduring anthem of the 1960s.

In every version of the poem, the message is the same: "To everything there is a season." There is a season to laugh and weep, to be born and die, to love and hate, to dance and mourn. In literature, as in life, there is a time and a place for everything.

In writing Crown City, the last book in the Time Box series, I took the passage to heart and then some. I gave the Lanes, my family of time travelers, a season and a reason to fulfill their potential. I gave them a comprehensive taste of the human experience.

Readers will find the evidence in spades. There are births and deaths in Crown City – as well as weddings, funerals, dances, feasts, farewells, reunions, and coming-of-age moments. There is also laughter, tears, love, hate, healing, and sacrifice. There are the very things that have made the Lane saga such a joy to write.

I included these things on purpose, of course. Since writing The Mine, my first novel, ten years ago, I have asked myself the same questions. Why tell one story when you can tell ten? Why not give readers a seven-course meal? Why not present life as it is?

Sometimes covering all the bases in a single work is difficult. Sometimes it is easy. In Crown City, it was easy. I merely had to follow several individual stories, the stories of the Lane family, to their logical conclusions. I had to finish what I started.

As in The Mirror, Hannah's Moon, and Camp Lake, my other series finales, readers will find the answers to many lingering questions. Longtime readers will also find much that is familiar.

In writing my twentieth novel, I paid serious homage to the first nineteen. I borrowed at least one theme, name, place, or circumstance from every other book and gave it a fresh spin.

I did so because I could and because I thought the time was right. For me, the season for writing a novel that encompassed the spectrum of life had come. Crown City is currently in the final editing phase. It is now set for an early December release.

A first draft for a last book

The first draft, I wrote a year ago, is the easy one. It's the "rough, unpolished blob a writer pushes out in a manic frenzy."

My thinking has changed. In some cases, the first draft is the harder one. It's the foundation that must be properly set in order to support and accommodate all that follows. Whether done quickly or not, it's the one that requires a little extra care and attention.

This is especially true with a series finale. As I learned in writing Crown City, the fifth book in the Time Box set, the first draft can be as consuming and aggravating as the last. It can be a chore.

Fortunately for me, I managed to complete that chore successfully. I produced a draft I can easily improve. I pushed out a 107,000-word manuscript nearly four weeks ahead of schedule.

Like Camp Lake, Crown City will bring a long family saga to a close. It will tie loose ends and answer questions that have lingered since The Lane Betrayal, the first book in the series.

It will also showcase the Lane ladies. Though Ashley, a high school freshman, takes center stage in the novel, set mostly in Coronado, California, in 1963, her mother and sisters play strong supporting roles. All provide depth and meaning to the story.

I intend to revise the first draft, with the help of my editor and several beta readers, in the next ten weeks and choose a cover in the next four. Crown City is still scheduled for a Christmas release.

A salute to the couples

As characters go, they are easy to spot. Though they vary in age, vocation, temperament, and even role within a series, they all have one thing in common. They have been married for a long time.

Joel and Grace Smith started it off in The Mine. From the moment they met as college students to the moment they welcomed their first grandchild, they anchored the Northwest Passage series.

Geoffrey and Jeanette Bell did much the same in the American Journey set. They managed a series of time travelers in their Los Angeles home before taking a bow in Hannah's Moon.

Then came the patriarchs and matriarchs, the foundations of my family sagas. Tim and Caroline Carson presided over a large clan in the Carson Chronicles.

Mark and Mary Lane have done the same in the Time Box collection. Both couples were the glue that held a disparate collection of characters together.

Other couples, like the Carters in The Mine, the Greens in The Show, the Scotts in The Memory Tree, the Watanabes in Indian Paintbrush, and the Prices in Sea Spray, enhanced stories in other ways. They added color and contrast and (sometimes) comic relief.

In creating these couples, stalwarts of my series, I drew inspiration from books, movies, and real people, including two very real people who will celebrate their 70th anniversary next Thursday.

If that number looks like a typo, it's not. My parents, Jim and Mary Heldt, have been married longer than many people live. In that time, they have served as splendid role models for their six children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

They have also provided much inspiration for characters they will only know through literature. For that and a hundred other things, I will always be grateful. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Upgrading the (cover) stock

I don't upgrade covers often. In fact, since publishing my first book in 2012, I have replaced an original image with something significantly different only three times. This summer, I did so again.

Thanks to Melissa Williams Design, The Memory Tree has a new wrap. The graphics outfit produced a cover that will soon be displayed in BookLife. A few times a year, the web site, Publishers Weekly's gift to the self-published community, features cover makeovers that showcase the skills of graphic artists. Both authors and illustrators benefit from the high-profile promotion.

The Memory Tree makeover follows two earlier overhauls. Podium Publishing, now Podium Audio, produced a new cover for The Mine in 2013. Laura Wright LaRoche did the same for The Mirror in 2014. She also modified the text elements on the covers of The Journey, The Show, and The Fire. Needless to say, I am pleased with all of the updates.

I hope to decide on a Kindle cover for Crown City, my latest work in progress, by the middle of October. The fifth and final book of the Time Box series is still scheduled for a December 2021 release.

Two audiobooks and more

For the first time in more than a year, I've added an audiobook to my growing library. Thanks to talented narrator Todd Menesses, The Lane Betrayal is now available in audio on Audible, Amazon, and Apple Books. I hope to add the remaining titles in the Time Box series by the end of next year.

Camp Lake is also on its way to listeners. Lu Banks, a veteran voice actor from Indiana, has agreed to narrate the final book in the Carson Chronicles series. I look forward to working with Lu in the coming months and completing that set.

Work continues in planning the fifth novel in the Time Box series. I will begin writing the book later this month. The work, set mostly in Coronado, California, in the summer and fall of 1963, is the last in the Lane family saga. It is scheduled for a December release.

Looking ahead to Baja

As one who often writes about the things I've done and places I've visited, I rarely let an experience go to waste. Even when I can't tie an adventure to a current project, I file it away for future use.

Last week, I did just that. While visiting Cabo San Lucas, I let my mind wander not to my next book but to my next series. Set mostly in the United States, like my first four series, it will begin in earnest in the tourist towns and rugged mountains of Baja California.

I will work out the details later, of course. My efforts now are focused on planning and writing the fifth book of the Time Box series, set mostly in Coronado, California, in the summer and fall of 1963.

Even so, I found it difficult not to look to the future. When writers walk through towns like Cabo, they find inspiration galore. They find buildings, streets, natural features, and people that all but demand to be incorporated into future works. They find ideas.

I know I did. During my time in Mexico, I found one potential setting after another. My wife and I spent a week in the kind of resort that draws tourists from around the world. I did not have to try hard to imagine conversations on high-rise balconies or lush courtyards or poolside tables. I could picture characters in future books interacting.

I could also picture them striking out on their own and taking the road less traveled. As I learned this month, Baja is more than hotels, beaches, and tourist traps. It is colorful neighborhoods, hidden treasures, and natural wonders. It is a setting, indeed a theme, waiting to be explored and described and appreciated.

At the moment, I have only sketched the broad outlines of the fifth series. Though most of the particulars will not be be determined until next year, I can say the series will initially revolve around three aging siblings -- two brothers and a younger sister -- who get a second shot at life by making use of a fountain of youth. Like many of the characters in my previous works, they will find satisfaction and redemption in the not-so-distant past. Unlike most, they will begin their journey in Mexico.

In the meantime, I will strive to give the Lane family, the focus of my current five-part family saga, a proper send-off. I hope to finish the last novel in the Time Box series by December or January.

Finding a familiar Refuge

To many novelists, World War II is like catnip. With endless themes, storylines, and possibilities, it is a subject they can’t resist.

I know I can’t. Since I jumped into this business in 2012, I have written several novels set before or during the war, including The Mine, Mercer Street, Hannah's Moon, and Indian Paintbrush.

Today, I add one more. In The Refuge, time travelers, assassins, soldiers, scientists, and spies lock horns in the months preceding the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. They elevate the Time Box series to new heights.

In book four, the Lanes, a family from 2021, pursue two objectives on Oahu. While son Jordan, a former intelligence officer, hunts Silas Bain, a ruthless family foe, in the streets of Honolulu, his parents, younger siblings, and pregnant wife settle in the village of Laie, where love, friendship, and opportunity await. Most seek refuge from the perils of time travel.

Bain, a mercenary from the 2020s, has his own agenda. He intends to delay America’s entry into the war and indirectly save a brilliant German physicist, his employer's grandfather, from certain death. He has prepared for every contingency in Hawaii, except meddling by his old adversaries and the charms of a beautiful heiress.

In The Refuge, readers see the Lanes spread their wings. They see Laura and Jessie manage pregnancies, Ashley evolve as a teenager, and Jeremy fall for a beautiful coed with a common interest in a nineteenth-century socialite. They see a familiar family grow.

They also see the war. From the first chapter on, they experience history's greatest conflict from the perspective of time travelers who know that trouble -- big trouble -- is coming to paradise.

Filled with suspense, romance, history, and thrills, The Refuge follows a modern family through a perilous moment in time. The novel, my nineteenth overall, goes on sale today at Amazon.com.

Review: At Dawn We Slept

The book has aged well. Even four decades after its initial release, it remains the definitive work on a defining American moment.

That was enough for me. When I needed background on Pearl Harbor, I turned to a source I could trust. I opened Gordon Prange's At Dawn We Slept and reacquainted myself with December 7, 1941.

A comprehensive, absorbing account of the time before, during, and after the day that lived in infamy, Prange's non-fiction masterpiece reads like a suspense novel. I consulted it often when I needed the kind of detail only a dedicated scholar of a subject can provide.

Prange devotes roughly half the book to the months preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He introduces readers to the issues, the players, and events that led up to the strike. He provides a well-rounded treatment of one of history's most iconic events.

Those familiar with Prange know Pearl Harbor was his passion. As the chief historian on Gen. Douglas MacArthur's staff, he interviewed many Japanese military men and turned his research into several notable works, including Tora! Tora! Tora! Colleagues published Dawn a year after the University of Maryland professor died in 1980.

In Dawn, Prange does not refrain from asking tough questions or assigning blame for the stunning attack, which drew the United States into World War II. He addresses the matters head on from the thoughtful and even-handed perspective of a serious historian.

I found Prange's scholarship useful in preparing my current work in progress, which is set on Oahu, Hawaii, in the summer and fall of 1941. That novel, The Refuge, is still set for a June 1 release.

I would recommend Dawn to students of history and anyone fascinated with an event that changed America forever. Rating: 5/5.

When character(s) matters

The question is as old as fiction itself. In a novel and other works of literature, which is more important? Writing or story?

Depending on who you ask, the answer is clear. Some readers value writing more than the story. Others do just the opposite.

Most novelists value both. They try to write a great story in prose that shines. I know I do. Even when I fail, I attempt to do both.

Then there is the third element. Often shoved to the side, it is as vital to the success of a novel as the writing and the story.

That element is the characters. Without compelling characters, even a well-written story can founder. It can fail to hold a reader.

I did not pick this up right away. I wrote several books, in fact, before readers reminded me, sometimes not so gently, that characters matter. I learned that flawed, sympathetic protagonists and nuanced villains are as essential to a work as a solid plot.

In my next book, The Refuge, readers will see flaws and nuance galore. They will see good guys (and gals) show their harsher sides, confident souls struggle with major life decisions, and ruthless killers find love. They will see people at their best and their worst.

They will also see old friends in a new light, colorful secondary characters, and historical figures in familiar roles. They will see the human mosaic that was Oahu, Hawaii, in the months leading up to the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Refuge, the fourth book in the Time Box series, is in the second stage of the editing process. It is set for a June 1 release.

The charm of Coronado

As book venues go, Coronado, California, is one that never gets old. Brimming with beaches, boats, shops, charming houses, funky trees, and regal hotels, it is a small town worthy of a story, if not two.

For that reason and more, I visited the town again, this time with an eye on the last book of the Time Box series. Set mostly in Coronado in 1963, the book will apply the final touches to the Lane family saga.

Unlike in The Memory Tree, where it got a passing mention, and in Caitlin's Song, where it played second fiddle to Boulder, Colorado, Coronado will get star treatment. It will get the attention it deserved in the Carson Chronicles books.

So in preparation for the Time Box finale, I scoured Coronado's library, walked its streets, and visited dozens of its businesses, including a 1950s diner that will be the setting for at least one chapter.

I got reacquainted with a town I now know as well as Wallace, Idaho, and Virginia City, Nevada, small towns portrayed in The Fire and The Fair. I hope to begin writing Time Box 5 in the fall.

In the meantime, I will complete Time Box 4. I plan to finish the first draft of The Refuge, set in Hawaii in 1941, sometime in the next three weeks and publish it by July 15.

Keeping an active pace

The slogan, popular on motivational posters, tee shirts, and coffee mugs, has been at the forefront of my mind for weeks.

"Three months from now you will thank yourself."

While the saying is intended for dieters, it could easily apply to authors attempting to write a novel within Stephen King's recommended 90-day limit. I know I've taken it to heart.

Since February 1, I have written at least a chapter a day, with the goal of completing 94 chapters by May 1. As a result, I expect to finish the first draft of The Refuge on schedule.

Set mostly on Oahu, Hawaii, The Refuge will cover the Lane family's adventures in the summer and fall of 1941. The fourth book of the Time Box series is now set for a July 15 release.

This winter, I also welcomed two new book collaborators.

The first, L.J. Anderson, put together the cover for the Time Box boxed set, released February 9. The illustrator represents Mayhem Cover Creations.

The second, Todd Menesses, began work on The Lane Betrayal audiobook this week. The veteran voice artist from Louisiana has narrated more than three dozen books.

Review: Night Over Water

I rarely read books twice. There are simply too many new ones to waste time on old ones. I prefer discovery to rediscovery.

On occasion, though, I make an exception. I read a book I had long filed away in the library of my mind. I explore a novel a second time.

This past week, I did just that. I picked up Night Over Water, by Ken Follett, one of my favorite authors, and immersed myself in 1939. I did so to reacquaint myself with the Boeing 314 Clipper, a flying cruise ship I will include in The Refuge, book four in the Time Box series.

In his riveting 1991 novel, Follett tells a tale that evolves, for the most part, over the span of two days. He describes the trials of two dozen passengers and crew who take the final commercial flight from England to America following the sudden outbreak of World War II.

For much of the book, Night reads like Murder on the Orient Express, a mystery propelled by nobles, celebrities, criminals, police, business icons, and a dedicated crew. Most bring stories aboard the Pan Am flight that are as interesting as the time. A few find unexpected romance.

Though Follett, Britain's answer to John Jakes, presents history as soap opera, he nonetheless delivers the goods. He offers a glimpse of an era and an aircraft that disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.

Readers who like their history peppered with humor, sex, and intrigue will find much to like in Follett's spicy tale. Buffs of the early days of commercial aviation will find even more. Rating: 4/5.

January update and more

As an indie author, I never tire of being recognized by those who have traveled the same road. So I was delighted to learn that London-based writer Rose Auburn has included The Lane Betrayal among her Top Ten Reads by Indie Authors from 2020. Rose is the author of Cobwebs of Youth. She can be found online at roseauburn.com.

Also this month, I released the paperback edition of Sea Spray, the third installment of the Time Box series. Like my first seventeen novels, it is available exclusively through Amazon.com.

I intend to spend the rest of January finalizing the Time Box series boxed set. Then I will turn my attention to converting my most recent works to audio and producing the fourth book of the Time Box saga. Set mostly in Hawaii, it will follow the Lane family in the months leading up to the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

Here's to a happy, healthy, and productive 2021 for all!

Review: The Queen's Gambit

I don't play chess. I haven't in years. I haven't since the fifth grade, when I joined and briefly participated in a school chess club.

A lot of boys did that in 1973. Nearly all, I dare say, wanted to emulate Bobby Fischer, the 29-year-old American wunderkind who defeated the Russian Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Chess Championship.

I say boys because chess clubs and organizations in those days were mostly male domains. Even now, women make up less than fifteen percent of the members in the U.S. Chess Federation -- an all-time high.

So I was delighted to see Netflix shake things up with The Queen's Gambit, a riveting story about a female chess prodigy. Set mostly in the 1960s, the miniseries follows Kentucky orphan Beth Harmon as she rises from obscurity to international stardom.

In the series, Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, overcomes personal tragedies, crushing sexism, and drug addiction as she weaves her way through the intriguing and competitive world of professional chess.

From the first episode to the last, I found it impossible not to root for Harmon as she bounced from one trial to another. Taylor-Joy portrays a young woman who fears nothing, it seems, except Vasily Borgov, the reigning world champion, whom she plays twice in the story.

Marielle Heller, who plays Harmon's adoptive mother, also shines in the series, based on Walter Tevis's 1983 novel. So do three young men, former chess adversaries, who become the prodigy's biggest supporters as the tale races toward a satisfying conclusion. All lend weight and nuance to a "sports story" that could easily stand on its own.

I highly recommend the seven-part series. For viewers looking for a rags-to-riches story, particularly with a strong, flawed female lead, The Queen's Gambit is hard to beat. Rating: 5/5.

Roaring into the Twenties

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicted the Roaring Twenties in sharp contrasts. "The parties," he observed, "were bigger ... the pace was faster ... the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser, and the liquor was cheaper."

He also opined on the rich. He said "they are different from you and me," in case you've forgotten, and "possess and enjoy early." They are "soft where we are hard" and "cynical where we are trustful."

In Sea Spray, the third book in the Time Box series, I offer a more nuanced view of the era. Though the Lanes, my time travelers, see 1920s New York as Fitzgerald saw it, they also see its softer side. They experience the family dinners, the silent movies, the classrooms, the boat rides, and the quiet walks. Along the way, they meet Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig in person and see George Gershwin in his prime. They became an integral part of a memorable decade.

The Lanes, seven in all, predictably embrace the era. Ten months after fleeing 2021 with two time machines that a madman billionaire desperately wants back, they are eager to settle down and resume normal lives. For a while, each succeeds with typical flair.

Parents Mark and Mary find housing in affluent East Hampton, where a gracious elderly couple offers use of their mansion. Son Jordan and his new wife, Jessie, plan a family. Siblings Laura, Jeremy, and Ashley pursue fun and adventure. All form strong friendships with the Prices, a mysterious mirror-image family that lives next door.

Robert Devereaux could not care less. Still reeling from the theft of his million-dollar devices, he sends a ruthless hit man to the past to retrieve his property and rid the world of his former business partner and his troublesome clan. He wages war on a family.

Randy Taylor, who programs the machines, is determined to stop him. He tries to undermine his boss and save the Lanes, even as he tries to help his mother beat a deadly illness. He pines for the day he can join his fugitive friends and rekindle a relationship with Laura Lane.

I confess this was a difficult book to write. Not because the story didn't come together quickly, but rather because of the subject matter. Smiles and frowns get equal time in this novel. So do laughs and tears.

Like Indian Paintbrush, the third book in the Carson Chronicles series, Sea Spray is a bittersweet bridge that connects two halves of a sweeping historical saga. It is a tale that tests the courage and resolve of a strong clan and forces them to rearrange their priorities.

It is also a stage that showcases two formerly minor characters. Thirteen-year-old Ashley shines in this work. So does Randy. Laura and Jeremy develop in new ways. The Lanes grow as a family.

Filled with romance, humor, and heartbreak, Sea Spray continues a story that began with The Lane Betrayal and The Fair and will resume with at least two more books. The novel, my 18th overall, goes on sale today at Amazon.com and its twelve international sites.