The stories and how they started

I was bored...

I was in my flat, (that's what an appartment is called in the UK.) It was a perfectly foul night outside and my future wife was not yet online. It was the late 1990s. I was standing at the window watching some brave soul struggle with his umbrella in the street outside.

That's when it happened, but that's the first story and I'm going to let you read that to find out more. It won't take you long - about 12 minutes if you read at a normal speed. Get it at a variety of e-retailers here.

Anyway these are the stories about how I got involved with time travel. Because I was bored the first one is written in, shall we say an unusual style. In fact I set out to make as many author mistakes as I could. That includes the dreadful story title, "It was a dark and stormy night." That line comes from a much-mocked and parodied phrase which opened a book called 'Paul Clifford' by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1830.) It's considered to be "the archetypal example of a florid, melodramatic style of fiction writing", also known as purple prose. If you are a Snoopy cartoon fan you might recognise it.

Somehow the stories evolved into a Sherlockian style with Alex, my time traveller being Sherlock and myself reporting the stories as Dr Watson. Don't ask me why - I just let them write themselves.

It was a dark and stormy night - Ripping Time

Introducing TACO - the Time Anti-Chronoclasm Organisation

How I first met Alex Pearin, the time traveller; also known as 'Jack the Ripper'.

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It was another dark and stormy night - Witch Time

Introducing BELL - whatever that stands for

How I made my first time travel trip to rescue the Blair witch.

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It wasn't a dark and stormy night - Titanic Time

Paradoxically - a tiny change can both kill and save lives

My second time travel trip; to make sure the Titanic sank!

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It wasn't a dark and stormy night - Time Flies

Leonardo da Vinci invented a flying machine but the world wasn't ready for those.

My third time travel trip; to make sure he didn't become the world's first aeronaut

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What Next?

I'm working on a new short story - Play Time.
Alex and I travel back to 1593 to persuade Shakespear that it would be a very bad idea for Sir Walter Raleigh to evade Queen Elizabeth I's wrath by shipping out to Virginia.

'Shakespear'? Shouldn't that be 'Shakespeare'?
Believe it or not there are seven known signatures of Shakespeare but none of them have that spelling.