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.

You can get all the stories individually for 82p ($0.99) or buy all four in a collection 'Time After Time' from 25th October 2023 for £2.44 ($2.99) It should also be available as a paperback on the 25th and as a hardback eventually.

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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What Next?

There's a fourth story. It deals with a trip to talk to Leonardo da Vinci. It also explains the mystery of the Mary Celeste and just who Mona Lisa really was. 'Time Flies' tells how we failed to stop Leonardo da Vinci producing the world's first flying machine but we did manage to help him build, fly it and then keep it secret.