Time and the Soldier

I love science fiction because it pushes the envelope in many ways. As a genre, it tends to focus on big ideas, sometimes at the expense of characterization, but the best writers find ways to turn “what ifs” into great stories.

TIME AND THE SOLDIER, a 2011 book by veteran SF author, David Dvorkin, brings new twists to a classic time travel scenario. His tale starts in 1945 with a secret, Manhattan Project-style operation that discovers the rudiments of time travel just before the end of World War II. Dvorkin takes soldiers good at surviving and killing, mixes them with equally focused and determined women, and sends them “downstream” into the future on a complicated, 150 year journey that tests all their skills and determination. That journey also tests their humanity and severely stretches the bonds of love between them. At times, the reader may not know quite who to root for. In the end, we have to root for our own flawed humanity and what we might create in some unknowable future.

Learn more about Dvorkin at www.dvorkin.com. His science fiction titles have included three Star Trek novels. He’s also an author of mysteries, horror, and some non-fiction titles. If you happen to haunt SF Cons, he turns up regularly at MileHiCon in late October in Denver.

Art, History, and Linda Osmundson

One nice thing about author signing events is the opportunity to meet fans, friends, and fellow writers.  At my Firehouse Books talk on March 10 Linda Osmundson provided several of those connections. Linda is the author of HOW THE WEST WAS DRAWN: COWBOY CHARLIE’S ART, an interactive children’s picture book. As an artist myself, I appreciated how she deftly used Charles Russells’ art to capture the interest and attention of youngsters and focus their attention on the synergy between great art and exciting history. The book was a hit with my grandkids.

Linda also took an interest in my fossil hunting adventures and how I used art to capture a much older “Wild West.” She did some homework and looked up details of some of the places along the Front Range where the general public can visit dinosaur trackways and find the evidence for Colorado’s ancient seashores. See her write up for The Lyons Recorder at http://www.lyonsrecorder.com/index.php/lifestyle/about-town/2534-roads-traveld-with-linda-l-osmundson

Also, keep your eyes open for her next book, due out soon: HOW THE WEST WAS DRAWN: FREDERIC REMINGTON’S ART. Find her on the web at www.LindaOsmundson.com.

Self-Publishing interview

For those interested in the trials and tribulations of self-publishers, Lisa Schultz and Andrea Costantine interview authors on Friday about their experiences. Today is my turn. To see a discussion about my experiences with A SINGULAR PROPHECY follow this link: http://selfpublishingexperts.com/

Enjoy!

Confessions of a time traveler

March 10, 2012 at 1 pm I hope some of my readers and friends will visit Old Firehouse Books in Old Town Fort Collins. I will confess about my time traveling adventures over the years—especially as they relate to two recent books: The Dinosaurs’ Last Seashore and A Singular Prophecy.

The Dinosaurs’ Last Seashore, inspired by my fossil hunting excursions with W.I.P.S. and my love for the writings of Loren Eiseley, follows the journey of a time traveler in search of the “creatures that changed the Mesozoic world.” I enjoyed creating the Cretaceous seashore illustrations for this book, especially the cover art, which is a depiction of what Baculite Mesa (east of Pueblo) might have looked like 67 million years ago. Fellow W.I.P.S. member and Baculite Mesa researcher, Malcolm Bedell, now owns the original of the piece below—a gift from his wife Susan.

I will also read from, and describe the genesis of, A Singular Prophecy, a YA SF book I have mentioned before in this blog. A young paleontologist, Ryan Thompson, makes the fossil discovery of a lifetime. Just a bit of wish fulfillment there.

I dedicated this book to my mother, Hilda, because her tale of a Fortune Teller’s prophecy loomed large as a motivator for my career as a writer and illustrator. If you have time on Saturday, March 10, or at the Fort Collins Rockhound’s 51^st Annual Gem and Mineral Show on March 25, please stop by and say hello. You have nothing to loose but your preconceptions of the space/time continuum.