I'm having a sale on the e-book version of Traveler's HOT L - Volume 2.
Book #5:
There is a link to Amazon for the title book in each blog. Click the titles of the short stories making up Volume 2 book to read the original stories.
The price of the eBook Traveler'sr's HOT L Volume 2 will drop to 99¢ on November 11, 2018.
The price of the eBook Traveler'sr's HOT L Volume 2 will drop to 99¢ on November 11, 2018.
Elevator Speech
Volume 2 of Traveler’s HOT L series presents six trips through time using Traveler’s HOT L. These stories are longer than those in Volume 1. The conclusion of Volume 1’s cliff-hanger, Battle for The Far Planet closes the book.
Background
The idea of a Traveler’s HOT L series was planted while I was writing the first book. In fact, the first edition of Volume 2 included a cliff-hanger as its final story. I pulled that story, egamI esreveR, from the book while—
I need to provide some embarrassing background information before continuing.
The first edition of Volume 2 was completed in haste. The preliminary writing and editing were good enough. What I failed to do was take the time to do what is now my standard practice. I call it the final painful edit. That edit is followed by clean up and proofreading. I’ll never put out another book without sufficient editing.
As a result of my rush to press, early reviewers remarked on the number of typos, grammar errors, and other editing errors. I made nearly 100 edits early on. About a year after the release, I took the manuscript with me on a trip to present at the National Science Teachers Association’s conference in Chicago.
Bottom line. I ended up making nearly 400 additional corrections. In addition, I pulled the last story from the book and rearranged the sequence of the remaining stories.
The Cover
The similarity of Vol 2’s cover to the original Traveler’s HOT L is not a coincidence. Talented artist Reed Steiner, now a teacher at Elsinore High School in California, created both of them. I sent him a very rough idea of this cover. The result is spectacular.
Here’s the description of the place building from the original Traveler’s HOT L, page 2.
[Shaina] got out of her parked car, grabbed her small suitcase from the back seat, and studied the building in front of her. A red tile roof protected thick, textured stucco walls. She could see a patio through arched openings in the front portico. Most of the place was two stories. Only the lobby area seemed to lack the second floor. It looked like a run-down, Ma-and-Pa hotel whose lifeblood had been sucked away when the Interstate opened. It was smaller than she’d imagined—she estimated only 30 or 40 rooms.
For this cover, Reed decided to include the building that houses the overlapping time pits. While the building is hard to see in the background of the back cover, here’s what it looks like au naturale.
Thoughts on three of the stories in this book follow. Only one is linked to an original story written years ago.
That’s enough for this post. In two weeks, I’ll look at the other three stories in Volume 2;
The Knob. Sometime in the 1963-64 school year, I wrote a short story for my English class. Since I was captivated by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian books, my story had more than a passing resemblance to those tales.
The story had an O'Henry ending. The hero loses his life when the technology he invented and installed in his flyer fails. I recycled the story with some editing in 10th or 11th grade English. Both teachers liked the tale.
When looking for stories to fill this second volume of HOT L stories, this was a natural. The original is about 1380 words long. The version that is in this book is over ten times that length. In other words, the VAST majority of this story IS a time travel story. Although I don't have confirmation on this statement, I doubt that the time travel reviewer of Traveler's 1 can tell that this wasn't a time travel story in the first place.
When you read this story, there is an emergency that requires intervention by the time synchronizer, Tempus. All the original story is before the emergency.
One of the perks of being a science fiction writer is the chance to devise necessary technology without worrying about whether or not it will function as described at any time in the future. "Suspension of belief" is the term used for this type situation. Bad science fiction often contains technology or situations that are so far removed from any logical time or place. However, as long as the reader is willing to accept the technology--or any other inclusion--and suspend their belief for the sake of the story, it's all good.
In this story, Axel Wheeler is given a choice of adventures on Mars included in various Martian tours. Choices range from Ray Bradbury, C. S. Lewis, and Total Recall to a fictitious Martian artist. Burroughs' Barsoom is also an option. That Axel chooses the Burroughs tour should not require a spoiler alert.
After a suspension of belief learning experience, Axel's space flight and time on Mars are pay homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs. Geographic locations are based on Burroughs' fictional maps. Vehicles and accommodations are based on Burroughs' descriptions.
In every Martian novel, Burroughs places a female protagonist. Her beauty is unparalleled. Her attraction to the male protagonist--and vice versa--is a common theme. Their relationships are chaste and honorable. Axel meets a genuinely Burroughsesque beauty. Edgar Rice would approve of their relationship.
To get more detail, you'll have to read The Knob in this book.
A Clubhouse and A Kiss is one of eleven humorous stories of the exploits of two middle school boys, Aaron Fremont, and Henry Langdon. Henry is the local teen legend. His word is the last word even when it's the first word. Aaron is by his own admission Henry's best friend.
In this story, Henry sets out to wrong a right he was most responsible for. His hope is to help his best friend, Aaron, to live the life he missed. Henry uses the HOT L to travel back to the fateful day when he should have backed off and let Aaron shine.
The humor in the awkward relationships between middle schoolers carries the story between times of heart-warming compassion. The ending will surprise you.
Clubhouse began as another story in the Henry Langdon series. The time travel aspect in this version is skillfully intertwined into a seamless story about the power of friendship.
Battle for a Far Planet- Terminus, the conclusion to the cliff-hanger in Volume 1. In the original story, the story ends with the male protagonist leading his anonymous companions into another round of the never-ending battle for the far planet.
Volume 1 ends with the human fighters transported to a planet near coordinates 1247.9 x 34.75 x 221.773. Tempus is dispatched to find out what's happening to the group. She meets Rulora, a time synchronizer in the quadrant the humans have transported into.
In the first iteration of the long version of this story, the humans devise a means of camouflage that confounds the evil Volonian Empire. They become more trouble than the value they supply in training Volonian pilots. The camouflage allows the humans to manage a surprise attack on the Volonian capital. They are released.
Time travel allows this story to end up without the ultimate confrontation in the first expanded version. Rose, the best fighter pilot, agreed to play the video game that eventually traps her in her fighter. Her cancer is no longer in remission, and she visits the HOT L to plan a trip back to her youth and defeat the game.
Disobedience by some of the human pilots puts the group in a precarious position. Rose returns to Earth to find that no one cares much about the lost pilots. When she gets back to the Volonian planet given to them as their base, she works with all who are trying to find vulnerable spots in the Volonian military's planning.
Tempus and Rulora arrive at the Volonian base.
Rose makes a decision, one that could cost her her life from cancer.
The final section reveals a side of Chronos and Eternity, the alien proprietors of that she finds hard to believe.
The tear-jerker ending ends with a message of hope.
The Knob. Sometime in the 1963-64 school year, I wrote a short story for my English class. Since I was captivated by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian books, my story had more than a passing resemblance to those tales.
The story had an O'Henry ending. The hero loses his life when the technology he invented and installed in his flyer fails. I recycled the story with some editing in 10th or 11th grade English. Both teachers liked the tale.
When looking for stories to fill this second volume of HOT L stories, this was a natural. The original is about 1380 words long. The version that is in this book is over ten times that length. In other words, the VAST majority of this story IS a time travel story. Although I don't have confirmation on this statement, I doubt that the time travel reviewer of Traveler's 1 can tell that this wasn't a time travel story in the first place.
When you read this story, there is an emergency that requires intervention by the time synchronizer, Tempus. All the original story is before the emergency.
One of the perks of being a science fiction writer is the chance to devise necessary technology without worrying about whether or not it will function as described at any time in the future. "Suspension of belief" is the term used for this type situation. Bad science fiction often contains technology or situations that are so far removed from any logical time or place. However, as long as the reader is willing to accept the technology--or any other inclusion--and suspend their belief for the sake of the story, it's all good.
In this story, Axel Wheeler is given a choice of adventures on Mars included in various Martian tours. Choices range from Ray Bradbury, C. S. Lewis, and Total Recall to a fictitious Martian artist. Burroughs' Barsoom is also an option. That Axel chooses the Burroughs tour should not require a spoiler alert.
After a suspension of belief learning experience, Axel's space flight and time on Mars are pay homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs. Geographic locations are based on Burroughs' fictional maps. Vehicles and accommodations are based on Burroughs' descriptions.
In every Martian novel, Burroughs places a female protagonist. Her beauty is unparalleled. Her attraction to the male protagonist--and vice versa--is a common theme. Their relationships are chaste and honorable. Axel meets a genuinely Burroughsesque beauty. Edgar Rice would approve of their relationship.
To get more detail, you'll have to read The Knob in this book.
A Clubhouse and A Kiss is one of eleven humorous stories of the exploits of two middle school boys, Aaron Fremont, and Henry Langdon. Henry is the local teen legend. His word is the last word even when it's the first word. Aaron is by his own admission Henry's best friend.
In this story, Henry sets out to wrong a right he was most responsible for. His hope is to help his best friend, Aaron, to live the life he missed. Henry uses the HOT L to travel back to the fateful day when he should have backed off and let Aaron shine.
The humor in the awkward relationships between middle schoolers carries the story between times of heart-warming compassion. The ending will surprise you.
Clubhouse began as another story in the Henry Langdon series. The time travel aspect in this version is skillfully intertwined into a seamless story about the power of friendship.
Battle for a Far Planet- Terminus, the conclusion to the cliff-hanger in Volume 1. In the original story, the story ends with the male protagonist leading his anonymous companions into another round of the never-ending battle for the far planet.
Volume 1 ends with the human fighters transported to a planet near coordinates 1247.9 x 34.75 x 221.773. Tempus is dispatched to find out what's happening to the group. She meets Rulora, a time synchronizer in the quadrant the humans have transported into.
In the first iteration of the long version of this story, the humans devise a means of camouflage that confounds the evil Volonian Empire. They become more trouble than the value they supply in training Volonian pilots. The camouflage allows the humans to manage a surprise attack on the Volonian capital. They are released.
Time travel allows this story to end up without the ultimate confrontation in the first expanded version. Rose, the best fighter pilot, agreed to play the video game that eventually traps her in her fighter. Her cancer is no longer in remission, and she visits the HOT L to plan a trip back to her youth and defeat the game.
Disobedience by some of the human pilots puts the group in a precarious position. Rose returns to Earth to find that no one cares much about the lost pilots. When she gets back to the Volonian planet given to them as their base, she works with all who are trying to find vulnerable spots in the Volonian military's planning.
Tempus and Rulora arrive at the Volonian base.
Rose makes a decision, one that could cost her her life from cancer.
The final section reveals a side of Chronos and Eternity, the alien proprietors of that she finds hard to believe.
The tear-jerker ending ends with a message of hope.
You've reached the end of the this Book Tour 2018 blog post. Tune in next time for the inside scoop on .
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