(Time) Traveling on My Mind

As you might have guessed, I always weave science into my fiction.

Hearts of the Missing, genetics and genealogy (Tony Hillerman Prize)

The Third Warrior, toxic waste clean-up with infective biological organisms

Spirit Daughters, parthenogenesis (Daphne Du Maurier Award)

Sacred Ghosts (hopefully out in 2025), pre-Columbian dog genetics as a subplot

In Sting of Lies (Silver Falchion Finalist), I chose to research the Pleistocene epoch and learn as much as I could about Clovis culture and Mammoths because I wanted to. This book received a WONDERFUL Publisher’s Weekly review. The reviewer said it has a “rip-roaring” plot. I love that so much, because that is my goal in writing. Letting my imagination run wild so I can give you something that’s familiar but different and rip-roaring.

With the De-Extinct Zoo Mystery series, I pick and research a different extinct Pleistocene animal for each book that adds to the heroine’s overarching story. These books were truly sparked by George Church and his Mammoth Cloning project. I have two more books to write in this series to bring Milly’s story to its conclusion.

And I’m thinking about a spin-off series …

I LITERALLY finished the first draft of Book#2 in the Lies series today (11/26/24). It’s tentatively titled, Moonlit Skies & Hidden Lies (or Moonlit Skies & Canyon Lies. Haven’t made up my mind yet.) That doesn’t mean the book is anywhere near done, no siree. I do seven of eight “drafts”, a least a couple computer read-throughs, get my critique partners involved, then send the story to an editor and a proofreader, and then beta readers. The cover is a mock-up, but I’m getting close to submitting the artwork (based on Ranch Romance and Amazing Stories pulp magazines) to my cover artist!

Takes a while and I’ll be working on Sacred Ghosts at the same time and plotting Shattered, Book#4 of the De-Extinct Zoo Mystery series with Woolly Rhinos as the Pleistocene mammal. The image presented ia AI and I really like it. Not many woolly rhino book cover pictures out there.

So what about the Time Travel in the title? It turns out that will be the “science” in Moonlit Skies and Hidden Lies, specifically, the meta-physics of the Block Universe theory, a theory that postulates that past present and future exist simultaneously and are equally real. The quandary comes with the past because the past is set and can’t change. But the Block Universe postulates “Glimmers”. These are areas in the past that aren’t set and CAN be changed, there for allow a person to time travel to a glimmer.

How? Using evolutionary connections and DNA. Believe me, the world-building for time travel is intense. But perplexity, an AI program, was very useful to help me flesh out my Block Universe/Glimmers/genetics DNA links, with a bit of handwaving. I’m writing a Time Travel article for another one of my newsletters for December and I hope to share that with you later.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah and holiday season! 🎄