There is a link to Amazon for the title book in each blog.
October 13, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
As I read this, natural catastrophes abound, seemed a little prophetic...timing is everything! That said, unlike it's predecessors this volume of The Hot L is a single story built off the previous storyline. I really enjoyed the characters! You'll follow them through travels in history and into a future that you can't help but see in your mind's eye. No spoilers. The story can stand on its own but I recommend the series~ he needs to keep writing. Well paced and thought-provoking read.
The price of this eBook is $4.99; Paperback is $9.99.
This story is new. There is no old version to which you can compare it. I offer the following document as a significant factor in the production of this novella.
Elevator Speech
The Day the Earth Shattered, the catastrophic seismic event is worse than anyone predicted. Eighty percent of humans die from destruction, disease, starvation, and suicide. Civilization is erased.
Live the struggle as five alien Time Synchronizers for Earth recruit illiterate two humans from the far future and return them to “this time” where two teachers begin a long overdue lesson.
Can the recruits return and decipher the patterns on pages of books in the NoCal’s only Li’bry and save humanity?
The Story
The book begins with a series of vignettes chronicling disasters "The Day the Earth Shattered" caused. Here's the one that was edited out of the book... but onto the back cover.
It was “the season” and cruise ships were scattered throughout the coastal waters of northern Europe and Scandinavia. Thelma and Florence were strolling the Lido deck as they waited for their seating time in the Royal Hall for dinner.“Isn’t this pleasant,” Thelma said.
“Quite. Oh, wait. Do you see that?” Florence pointed to a swell off the port side.
“My, but that’s a bit of a large one, isn’t it?”
Before Florence could respond, the massive Jewel of the Fjords slid down into the trough that preceded the arrival of a tsunami. All three thousand seven hundred and nineteen souls aboard reached for something to hold onto.
Within a minute, the cruise ship rose, flipped, and landed upside down in the icy waters of the North Sea. Fifty-foot-high walls of water washed away coastal cities in northern Europe, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia. Portions of reinforced military structures were all that remained after the floodwaters receded.
As I considered other consequences, I suspected that public education would be a low priority in a world where survival itself is questionable. Since that was a valid concern, how would luxuries like reading be sustained? I decided learning to read would become so uncommon that the value of books would be far as sources of energy for cooking and heating.
In my apocalypse, there are pockets of humans where time synchronizers Tempus and Epoch hope to find individuals to return to what is our present. Once in the 21st century, they learn to read and gain perspective on the world as a whole.
NorCal is the first population selected for this training. One factor influencing the choice is the presence of a Lib'ry full of books of all kinds.
Tempus and Epoch break Traveler's HOT L rules to convince Marin and Lincoln to return to the past. They have less trouble convincing Dawn, a second-grade teacher, and Courtney, a high school history teacher, to help the time travelers.
Learning to read, trying to navigate sinks and toilets, flying from the west coast to Washington, DC, visiting Monticello in the 1800s, along with cramming a lifetime of ideas into less than one month of real-time sets the stage for the future-dwellers return to their home time.
Here's an example of something you might not have thought about.
Courtney and Dawn sat in armchairs in their room at the HOT L. Lincoln and Marin sat on the edge of the bed facing
them.
“Can-I-ask-one-last-question?” Marin asked, her words running together in her haste to be heard before she was separated from her teachers for the last time.
“Is something wrong?” Dawn asked.
“I . . . I don’t know.”
“Ask your question,” Lincoln said.
Marin turned toward him. He nodded.
“Why do so many stars hide from the people in your cities?”
“Oh, Marin, the stars aren’t—”
“It’s the lights,” Courtney interrupted. “You can’t see the stars because of what’s called ‘light pollution.’ Some stars are
brighter than other stars. Most cities have many, many lights on all night. So many lights are on that it brightens part of the sky and you can’t see the less bright stars.”
The looks on the faces of Marin and Lincoln were visual testimony of their lack of understanding.
“Help me here, please,” Courtney said to Dawn.
I invite you to live the experience of four lifetimes. Take a trip from the future to your present and your past and back again. After all, you need to find out how well Marin and Lincoln fulfill their assignments!
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