Archives for category: Time Travel Blogs with Laura Vosika

The Lisamason.com Website Has Been Updated For 2019! (The First Half Of It, Anyway) Come Visit and Browse! Links are below:
AETHER, a unique painted drawing by Tom Robinson, the San Francisco Bay Area artist and jeweler. Inquiries and bids to acquire this remarkable artwork are accepted on this page. http://www.lisamason.com/aether.html

Alana, the beloved Turkish Angora cat of Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author, and Tom Robinson, the San Francisco Bay Area artist http://www.lisamason.com/alanacat.html
One Day in the Life of Alexa, a 2017 novella by Lisa Mason. In Print and an ebook on all retailers worldwide. How long do you want to live? Alexa, an experimental Tester of a longevity drug confronts environmental, political, and personal perils as she grapples with tough questions of life, love, and death in the future. “An appealing narrator and subtly powerful emotional rhythms.” –Goodreads http://www.lisamason.com/alexa.html
ARACHNE, back in Print and an ebook worldwide of the first novel by Lisa Mason published in hardcover by William Morrow, trade paper by Eos Books, and mass market paperback by AvoNova. Deemed “a cyberpunk classic” by The Boston Globe, ARACHNE debuted in the top ten on the Locus Hardcover Bestseller List. The sequel is CYBERWEB
http://www.lisamason.com/arachne.html
ANYTHING FOR YOU, a Lisa Mason story published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Here’s my interview with F&SF http://lisamason.com/anythinginterview.html
The Artificial Intelligence Storybundle curated by Lisa Mason goes live from March 29 to April 20, 2017. Kathleen Ann Goonan, Lisa Mason, Laura J. Mixon, Linda Nagata, Samuel Peralta, Ryan Schneider, Walter Jon Williams (Plus stories by William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, Jonathan Lethem, and more). Lisa Mason’s two AI novels, ARACHNE and CYBERWEB are included http://lisamason.com/aibundle.html
ATHENA, the new beloved Lilac-point Siamese, Turkish Angora mix cat adopted in 2015 by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author, and Tom Robinson, the San Francisco Bay area artist and jeweler. ADORABLE CAT PIX! http://www.lisamason.com/athena.html

Interview with Lisa Mason regarding her well-received dark fantasy, “Aurelia,” published in the January-February 2018 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction http://www.lisamason.com/aureliainterview.html
Bast Books publishes print books and ebooks of Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author, including Mason’s backlist books and stories, and new books and stories. NEW PRINT EDITIONS of ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF ALEXA, SUMMER OF LOVE, THE GILDED AGE, THE GARDEN OF ABRACADABRA, ARACHNE, CYBERWEB, and STRANGE LADIES: 7 STORIES are now available!
http://www.lisamason.com/bastbooks.html
Bast Collectible Books offers signed first editions and other rare books, including The Essential Ellison SIGNED by Harlan Ellison, Beat poetry, science fiction and fantasy, a gorgeous 1890s cookbook, and art and literary books. William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski, John Steinbeck, David Brin, and more The signed Andy Warhol sold http://www.lisamason.com/bastcollectiblebooks.html
“The Bicycle Whisperer,” a near-future story by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, about runaways, homeless teenagers, and bicycles, published in the May-June 2018 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The page includes the cover, contents, and reviews http://www.lisamason.com/bicycle.html
Interview with Lisa Mason for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction regarding her controversial story, “The Bicycle Whisperer” in the May-June 2018 Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction http://www.lisamason.com/bicycleinterview.html
My Author’s Bio at http://www.lisamason.com/lisabio.html
My Books page (the titles published by Bantam and HarperCollins) at http://www.lisamason.com/lisabooks.html
My interview with the book blog, Write Castles in the Sky http://www.lisamason.com/castlesinthesky.html
A five-star passionate historical romantic suspense, Celestial Girl, The Omnibus Edition (A Lily Modjeska Mystery) by Lisa Mason, includes the four books in the miniseries. Lily is a feisty suffragist in 1895 compelled into a web of murder and corruption resulting from controversial 1890s US immigration policy. During her journey, she falls in love with Dr. Jackson Tremaine and together they solve the mystery of the Celestial http://www.lisamason.com/celestialgirlomnibus.html
NEW!
CHROME, my new speculative fiction. The novel is now an ebook at all retailers worldwide, the print edition is forthcoming in August, 2019. http://www.lisamason.com/chrome.html
CYBERWEB, Back in Print and an ebook worldwide of the second novel by Lisa Mason published in hardcover by William Morrow, trade paper by Eos Books, and mass market paperback by AvoNova. Cyberweb was deemed “a cyberpunk classic” by The Boston Globe and is the sequel to ARACHNE, which debuted in the top ten on the Locus Hardcover Bestseller List
http://www.lisamason.com/cyberweb.html
DAUGHTER TAO by Lisa Mason, the science fiction and fantasy author. A 5-star magical historical fantasy about Chinese alchemy and Chinese unicorns first published in Peter S. Beagle’s anthology, Immortal Unicorn (HarperPrism). “The characters come alive and you really care about them.” Reader Review
http://www.lisamason.com/daughteroftao.html
Keep Fit, Keep Writing: A Roundtable about physical fitness with Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Kevin J. Anderson, Lisa Mason, and Linda Nagata (Part 1: Move It!). Mountain-climbing for Kevin, lake-walking for Lisa, a gym treadmill for Linda
http://www.lisamason.com/fitnessblog1.html
Keep Fit, Keep Writing: A Roundtable about diet with Authors Kevin J. Anderson, Lisa Mason, and Linda Nagata (Part 2: Chow Down!). The Paleo Diet for Kevin, a mostly vegetarian, low fat diet for Lisa, general healthy eating for Linda
http://www.lisamason.com/fitnessblog2.html
EVERY MYSTERY UNEXPLAINED, an historical fantasy about stage magic and real magic, love and loss by Lisa Mason, the science fiction and fantasy author. The novelette was first published in David Copperfield’s anthology, Tales of the Impossible (HarperPrism). “The story I was hoping for….” The Writerly Reader Blog
http://www.lisamason.com/everymystery.html
An Interview with Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author, with Festivale, the book-showcasing website, discussing with whom Mason would like to head out into the universe on a space ship and what she would take with her
http://www.lisamason.com/festivaleinterview.html
The Garden of Abracadabra is the bestselling urban fantasy by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author. After her mother on her death-bed urges her to study Real Magic, Abby Teller becomes the superintendent of a magical apartment building to finance her studies at the Berkeley College of Magical Arts and Crafts. She discovers all her tenants are some stripe of supernatural entity and is compelled into a supernatural murder investigation. “Very entertaining urban fantasy.” In Print and an ebook on all retailers worldwide http://www.lisamason.com/gardenabracadabra.html
Lisa Mason’s classic time travel to 1895, The Gilded Age, was published previously in print as The Golden Nineties by Bantam Books. A New York Times Notable Book and a New York Public Library Recommended Book. NOW BACK IN PRINT from Bast Books and as an ebook on all retailers worldwide. Zhu Wong is a time-traveler from a far-future China. She is compelled into a dangerous time travel to 1895 San Francisco to rescue a slave girl whose fate holds the key to the future. The sequel to Summer of Love. Brand-new reviews!
http://www.lisamason.com/gildedage.html
A contemporary fantasy story about cancer, AIDS, death, and Egyptian magic. Hummers by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, was published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 5th Annual Collection (St. Martin’s Press), and nominated for the Nebula Award. A woman comes to grips with her own impending death with the magic of hummingbirds
http://www.lisamason.com/hummersstory.html
ILLYRIA, MY LOVE, a controversial speculative story by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author, is published exclusively by Bast Books. Channeling Fritz Leiber’s classic story, “The Man Who Never Grew Young,” and Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow, Illyria, My Love takes us on one woman’s journey through wartime and the shocking secret of her obsessive love for a man http://lisamason.com/illyria.html
The official website of Lisa Mason, the author of science fiction, fantasy, modern fantasy, romantic suspense, time travel, cyberpunk, humor, short stories, and screenplays. Adorable cat pictures, blogs and interviews, forthcoming works, and art and bespoke jewelry by Mason’s husband, Tom Robinson, the San Francisco Bay Area artist, jeweler, and sculptor. All links, all readers worldwide. NEW PRINT BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE for SUMMER OF LOVE, THE GILDED AGE, THE GARDEN OF ABRACADABRA, ARACHNE, CYBERWEB, ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF ALEXA, and STRANGE LADIES: 7 STORIES! FORTHCOMING IN 2019: CHROME http://www.lisamason.com/index.html
The Story of Luna, the beloved blue mink Tonkinese cat adopted years ago by Lisa Mason the fantasy and science fiction writer and Tom Robinson the artist, jeweler, and sculptor http://www.lisamason.com/lunacat.html
Forthcoming books, screenplays, and stories by Lisa Mason in science fiction, fantasy, modern fantasy, and cyberpunk, including The Labyrinth of Illusions, Book 2 of the Abracadabra Series, and Oddities, a second collection of previously published and new stories, Pangaea I and Pangaea II as print and ebooks, and, in 2019, CHROME, a new high-concept science fiction novel
http://www.lisamason.com/nextthing.html
NEW!

Lisa Mason’s interview with NFReads.com, a fascinating mainstream website featuring interviews with authors and other notable people in public eye. Mason talks about her current and forthcoming works http://www.lisamason.com/nfreadsinterview.html
Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author, chats about writing with author Ryan Schneider in a discussion about inspiration, the writing process, print books and ebooks, and the state of the publishing http://www.lisamason.com/chatwithryan1.html

Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author, chats about writing in a follow-up interview with author Ryan Schneider in a discussion about writing influences, movies, print books and ebooks, and the state of the publishing business http://www.lisamason.com/chatwithryan2.html
The PHILIP K. DICK AWARD STORYBUNDLE, curated by Lisa Mason, included eleven PKD finalists and winners, including Lisa Mason’s SUMMER OF LOVE
http://www.lisamason.com/philipkdickawardbundle.html
“Riddle”, a dark erotic fantasy by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, was published in the September-October 2017 68th Anniversary issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This is Mason’s interview with F&SF, plus several reviews of the story. “Riddle” received an Honorable Mention in The Year’s Best Horror 2017 anthology edited by Ellen Datlow http://www.lisamason.com/riddlepage.html
Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, chats with author Ryan Schneider about THE GARDEN OF ABRACADABRA, Mason’s urban fantasy novel about Abby Teller, who takes the job of superintendent of a magical apartment building to finance her studies in Real Magic at the Berkeley College of Magical Arts and Crafts http://www.lisamason.com/ryanchatswithlisaaboutabracadabra.html
SHAKEN, a short sexy science fiction thriller by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, was published first as “Deus Ex Machina” in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, in Transcendental Tales from Asimov’s (Donning Press), and translated and published worldwide. The retitled and expanded novella, SHAKEN, is an ebook on all retailers worldwide http://www.lisamason.com/shaken.html

“The Sixty-third Anniversary of Hysteria” by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, is a literary historical fantasy story about Surrealist women artists during World War II exiled from Europe to Mexico City. The story was first published in the Full Spectrum 5 anthology (Bantam) and inspired by the lives of Mason’s favorite Surrealist artists, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington http://www.lisamason.com/sixtythirdanniversary.html
STORIES by LISA MASON Fantasy, modern fantasy, horror, and science fiction short stories by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, published in magazines and anthologies worldwide http://www.lisamason.com/stories.html
Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, curated The STORY COLLECTION STORYBUNDLE, which included eight award-winning story collections by Karen Joy Fowler, Lewis Shiner, Lisa Mason, Pat Murphy, Elizabeth Hand, Walter Jon Williams, Kathe Koja, and C.C. Finlay http://lisamason.com/storycollectionbundle.html
Strange Ladies: 7 Stories by Lisa Mason, a five-star collection, presents science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction previously published in magazines and anthologies worldwide. “A must-read collection.” “Lisa Mason may just be the female Philip K. Dick.” IN PRINT and an ebook on all retailers worldwide http://www.lisamason.com/strangeladies.html
SUMMER OF LOVE, the bestselling five-star classic time travel to 1967, by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, was originally published by Bantam. Now SUMMER OF LOVE is Back in Print from Bast Books on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble and an ebook on all retailers worldwide. A Philip K. Dick Award Finalist, San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book, and James Tiptree, Jr Award Nominee. New 2018 Review!
http://www.lisamason.com/summeroflove.html
Charles De Lint’s review of Summer of Love by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. http://lisamason.com/solfsfreview.html
Reviews of Summer of Love by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, published by Faren Miller, the eminent book reviewer for Locus Magazine, the Trade Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field, and the award-winning science fiction author Lewis Shiner. http://lisamason.com/sollocusshinerreviews.html
My Charlotte: Patty’s Story by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, is a short, sweet memoir about a brief life in a garden and Mason’s first inspiration to write at the age of eight, leading to her first story, Arachne, published in Omni, then to her first two early cyberpunk novels, Arachne and Cyberweb. Yes, there was an orb weaver named Patty! The ebook includes Mason’s first Omni story, Arachne http://www.lisamason.com/mycharlotte.html
Eon’s Kiss, Book 1 of the Eon Trilogy, is a passionate paranormal New Adult romance by modern fantasy author, Suzanna Moore. Two more books in the trilogy are planned but have not been announced
http://www.lisamason.com/suzannamoore.html
Tesla, A Screenplay, is a feature-length biopic about the eccentric genius inventor of AC electricity and radio, Nikola Tesla, by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author. Read by Hollywood producers. Out for auction http://www.lisamason.com/tesla.html

“Taiga” by Lisa Mason, is an SF story by the fantasy and science fiction author published in Not One of Us, Digest # 61, a poetry and fiction digest edited by John Benson in April 2019. Includes Mason’s interview about “Taiga.” http://www.lisamason.com/taiga.html
Lisa Mason, the bestselling author of Summer of Love and The Gilded Age, talks time travel with Laura Vosika, author of Blue Bells of Scotland, discussing methods of time travel, historical research, time machines, social commentary, and classic time travel books, Blogs 1 through 3 http://www.lisamason.com/timetravelblogs1to3.html
Lisa Mason, the bestselling author of Summer of Love and The Gilded Age talks time travel with Laura Vosika, author of Blue Bells of Scotland, discussing methods of time travel, historical research, time machines, social commentary, and classic time travel books, Blogs 4 and 5
http://www.lisamason.com/timetravelblogs4to5.html
Tomorrow’s Child, a high-concept science fiction story by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction writer, was published in Omni Magazine. A high-powered executive, who is about to lose his only daughter to critical burn wounds, will try anything to save her life. The story is in development as a feature-length movie at Universal Pictures. The ebook includes Lisa Mason’s 30-day blog, The Story Behind The Story That Sold To The Movies
http://www.lisamason.com/tomorrowschild.html
Unique, handmade abstract symbolist art of Tom Robinson, the San Francisco Bay Area artist, jeweler, and sculptor. Tom Robinson is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, the Academy of Art College, and the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts. Drawings and paintings on paper and on wood panel. New! A desktop stabile is now available! Purchase Tom Robinson artwork directly on this page.
http://www.lisamason.com/tomrobinsonart.html
Handmade unique necklaces, earrings, and rings by Tom Robinson, the San Francisco Bay area artist, jeweler, and sculptor, including Sculpture Necklace # 8, the Europa pendant, the Modern Tiki Pendant, and the hand-finished solid sterling silver Ankh. Tom Robinson is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, the Academy of Art College, and the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts. Purchase Tom Robinson jewelry directly on this page
http://www.lisamason.com/tomrobinsonjewelry.html
The artist’s bio and statement by TOM ROBINSON, the San Francisco Bay Area artist, jeweler, and sculptor. Tom Robinson is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, the Academy of Art College, and the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts
http://www.lisamason.com/tomrobinsonbio.html
U F uh-O is a five-star adaptation of a screenplay in the vein of Men In Black and Galaxy Quest, a science fiction comedy about families and children, aliens and UFOs. Novella and screenplay by Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author http://www.lisamason.com/ufo.html
Ronovan’s Lit World Interview with Lisa Mason, the fantasy and science fiction author
http://www.lisamason.com/worldlitinterview.html

Come visit me and browse!
COMING IN AUGUST, MY PATREON PAGE!
From the author of Summer of Love (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle worldwide in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands. BACK IN PRINT! Find the beautiful trade paperback at https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Love-Travel-Lisa-Mason/dp/1548106119/ or IN PRINT at Barnes and Noble at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/summer-of-love-a-time-travel-lisa-mason/1104160569.
The Gilded Age (a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. On Kindle worldwide in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands. BACK IN PRINT! Find the beautiful trade paperback at https://www.amazon.com/Gilded-Age-Time-Travel/dp/1975853172/ or IN PRINT at Barnes and Noble at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-gilded-age-a-time-travel-lisa-mason/1106038566.
The Garden of Abracadabra (“Fun and enjoyable urban fantasy . . . I want to read more!) On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. On Kindle worldwide in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands. NOW IN PRINT! Find the beautiful trade paperback at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1978148291/ or IN PRINT at Barnes and Noble at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-garden-of-abracadabra-lisa-mason/1108093507
Arachne (a Locus Hardover Bestseller) is an ebook on US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Australia Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. On Kindle worldwide in France Kindle, Germany Kindle, Italy Kindle, Netherlands Kindle, Spain Kindle, Mexico Kindle, Brazil Kindle, India Kindle, and Japan Kindle. Back in Print! Find the beautiful trade paperback at https://www.amazon.com/dp/198435602X or IN PRINT at Barnes and Noble at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/arachne-lisa-mason/1000035633.
Cyberweb (sequel to Arachne) is on US Kindle, BarnesandNoble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also Kindle worldwide on UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Australia Kindle, Brazil Kindle, France Kindle, Germany Kindle, India Kindle, Italy Kindle, Japan Kindle, Mexico Kindle, Netherlands Kindle, and Spain Kindle. Back in Print at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1984356941 or IN PRINT at Barnes and Noble at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cyberweb-lisa-mason/1001932064
Strange Ladies: 7 Stories (“A must-read collection—The San Francisco Review of Books). On Nook, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle world wide in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands. NOW IN PRINT at https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Ladies-Stories-Lisa-Mason/dp/1981104380/ or IN PRINT at Barnes and Noble at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/strange-ladies-lisa-mason/1115861322.
One Day in the Life of Alexa (“Five stars! An appealing narrator and subtly powerful emotional rhythms”). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle worldwide in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands. Order the beautiful trade paperback NOW IN PRINT at https://www.amazon.com/One-Life-Alexa-Lisa-Mason/dp/1546783091 or IN PRINT at Barnes and Noble at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/one-day-in-the-life-of-alexa-lisa-mason/1126431598.
Celestial Girl, The Omnibus Edition, A Lily Modjeska Mystery (Five stars) On Nook, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle worldwide in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands. SOON IN PRINT!
Shaken (in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine) on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
Hummers (in Fifth Annual Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror) On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
Daughter of the Tao (in Peter S. Beagle’s Immortal Unicorn) on US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, BarnesandNoble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in AustraliaFrance, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
Every Mystery Unexplained (in David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible) on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
Tomorrow’s Child (In Active Development at Universal Pictures) on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
The Sixty-third Anniversary of Hysteria (in Full Spectrum 5) on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
U F uh-O (Five Stars!) on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
Tesla, A Screenplay on US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, BarnesandNoble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
My Charlotte: Patty’s Story on Barnes and Noble, US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Australia Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Netherlands, and Mexico.
“Illyria, My Love” is on US Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Australia Kindle, Germany Kindle, France Kindle, Spain Kindle, Italy Kindle, Netherlands Kindle, Japan Kindle, Brazil Kindle, Mexico Kindle, and India Kindle.
Please visit me at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for all my books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, reviews, interviews, and blogs, adorable cat pictures, forthcoming works, fine art and bespoke jewelry by my husband Tom Robinson, worldwide links, and more!
And on Lisa Mason’s Blog, on my Facebook Author Page, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Amazon, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, at Smashwords, at Apple, at Kobo, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
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Summer of Love Cover Final

Welcome to the final round! We’ve asked authors Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika to talk with us about their time travel books. This wraps up the Time Travel Blogs, Parts 1 through 5.

Lisa Mason is the author of Summer of Love, A Time Travel, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel. Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book. Locus Magazine said, “Remarkable. . .the intellect on display within these psychedelically packaged pages is clear-sighted, witty, and wise.” The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book. The New York Times Book Review called The Gilded Age, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Laura Vosika is the author of Blue Bells of Scotland, lauded as a book in the vein of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and earning many five-star reviews. Nan Hawthorne, author of historical fiction, called Blue Bells of Scotland one of her favorite books of the year. The praise was echoed by Robert Mattos of Book and Movie Reviews, adding that it is a must-have for the book shelves of any serious reader. The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is also out.

What research did you do for the era your time traveler returns to?

Laura: Every possible sort. I researched medieval times, Scotland, names, food, castles, weapon(r)y; weather, temperature, and sunrise and sunset on given days of the year in Scotland; whether the clothing in 1314 had buttons (no), time travel theories in science and fiction. I brushed up on my classical music and learned about the vampire of Melrose Abbey. I routinely post a ‘Researching Today’ status on my facebook author page (www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author) telling about the interesting things I come across. I flew to Scotland for a two week research trip to visit all the locations in Blue Bells of Scotland.

I read a number of fiction books set in the era, particularly The Path of the Hero King, the thoroughly-researched novelization of the events leading up to Bannockburn by the great Scottish writer, Nigel Tranter. My collection of books on Scotland and medieval time–castles, towns, history, music, and food to name but a few specialties–spans several shelves. A few that stand out are Robert the Bruce: King of Scots by Ronald McNair Scott, Bannockburn 1314: Robert Bruce’s Great Victory by Pete Armstrong; James the Good: The Black Douglas by David R. Ross; and Robert Bruce and The Community of the Realm of Scotland by W.S. Barrow.

I also used a number of internet resources, including digging up English records from the time online. I kept detailed charts compiling differences of opinions among scholars.

Lisa: How did people fasten their clothes before buttons, let alone zippers? You’ll have to read Laura’s book to find out, among many other things!

For Summer of Love, I set out to capture the sights, sounds, attitudes, and culture from the inside out. I started out with The Haight-Ashbury, A History by Charles Perry, a book he worked on for eight years. From there, I read the daily San Francisco Chronicle from June 21, 1967 to September 4, 1967 on microfiche at the Santa Rosa Public Library (the only place in the Bay area where I could find such an archive). I acquired the gorgeous facsimile edition of The Oracle published by Regent Press and found a complete archive of The Berkeley Barb at the Berkeley Public Library. At Walden Pond Books, Bibliomania, and the now-vanished Holmes Book Company (all in Oakland) and Shakespeare & Company and Moe’s (both in Berkeley), I found rare books such as Lenore Kandel’s infamous Beat poem, Love Needs Care by Dr. David E. Smith who founded the Free Clinic, and Notes From Underground. I borrowed people’s home movies, studied Making Sense of the Sixties, which featured the famous Harry Reasoner clip, and watched Star Trek episodes (no, I’m not a Trekkie, but that research was fun). I acquired Life and Time magazines for June through September, 1967 from online bookstores, as well as a privately published corporate history of Marinship for details on Ruby Maverick’s mother’s experience as a war worker (found that gem at a military books specialist in St. Louis). I spoke with, met, or corresponded with Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Katharine Kerr, Allen Ginsberg, and Allan Cohen, and even spoke by phone with the late Lenore Kandel. She told me that the bus fare in 1967 was fifteen cents (not a quarter, as I’d thought) and that there was no Sausalito ferry operating in 1967. We shared a laugh over the fact that her brother wrote scripts for Star Trek (she proofed the manuscript for me and loved the Star Trek riffs). And, of course, like Laura, I visited locations. Alas, I didn’t get a two-week research trip to Scotland. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and visited the ‘hood, which remains remarkably unchanged, and walked through the Portals of the Past in Golden Gate Park.

As for The Gilded Age, I found an entire library of books about the world during the 1890s, the United States, and San Francisco in particular. Several journalists in the 1930s and 1940s published detailed and lively accounts of the City before the 1906 Great Earthquake and Fire all but demolished San Francisco. These accounts included such classics as The Barbary Coast, The Madams of San Francisco, and The Tongs of Chinatown. Accounts abound of the amazing Donaldina Cameron, who rescued slave girls from the tongs and who plays a pivotal role in my book. Fin de siècle San Francisco was already a tourist attraction in the 1890s, and I found an actual guidebook published in 1899.

But what about those telling details?

Novels of the period (by authors such as Frank Norris and Jack London) reveal much about personal attitudes. At the late, great The Holmes Book Company in Oakland I discovered recipe books by the famous chefs of 1890s San Francisco with delicious details about food and drink. I think my favorite resources are the facsimile editions of the Montgomery Ward and Sears & Roebuck catalogs. There I discovered a wealth of detail about clothing, popular books, harnesses and carriages, guns, sewing implements, patent medicines, wigs, smoking accoutrements, makeup, children’s toys, and more. Pure heaven for the historical researcher!

Laura: It really is those minute details that bring a story to life, that give it the strong touch of reality and create the suspension of disbelief. I have been looking forward to preparing some of the food in my Medieval Feasts book. I probably won’t go so far as to build a five-man-sized brazier–I have a bad feeling there are city ordinances against them–but maybe I’ll time the cooking by saying Hail Marys, as is suggested in one resource, and see how that goes! I’m currently sampling a few of the Twin Cities’ offerings in mead. All in the name of research of course!

Lisa: Research, always! The biggest, juiciest treasure trove for The Gilded Age came in a bound volume of a newspaper, The Argonaut, for the entire years of 1896 and 1897. There I discovered such eye-openers as lady bicyclists and the scandals surrounding their attire (bloomers!) and how much the Spreckels sugar baron spent a year on cut flowers ($50,000). It’s hard to find that kind of delightful everyday detail in history books.

Thanks to Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. If you, the reader, wish to join the discussion or have any questions or comments for our authors, feel free to contact them at their websites.

And please buy their books! Like them, review them, add stars, blog them, post them, Tweet them, and tell your friends. Your participation really matters.

We thank you for your readership!

Summer Of Love (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.

And back in Print! From the printer: https://www.createspace.com/7257603

From Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Love-Travel-Lisa-Mason/dp/1548106119/

The Gilded Age (a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands. Back in Print in July!

Visit Lisa Mason at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more. And on my Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

For urban fantasy, science fiction, fantasy, romantic suspense, humor, and a screenplay, visit the Virtual Bookstore! All Lisa Mason Titles, All Links, All Readers, Worldwide. NYT Notable Book Author https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2013/08/31/virtual-bookstore-fantasy-science-fiction-urban-fantasy-romantic-suspense-literary-screenplay-sfwapro/

Blue Bells of Scotland is on Kindle, Nook, itunes, and at Smashwords, and The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is on Kindle.

Visit Laura Vosika on the web at www.bluebellstrilogy.com or www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author.

If you missed the earlier Time Travel Blogs with Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika, here are the links:
Blog 1 (Influences and Inspirations) https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2017/07/15/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-1-sfwapro-timetravel-novel-1960s-1890s/

Blog 2 (Social Commentary) https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2017/07/16/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-2-social-commentary-sfwapro-timetravel-sciencefiction-womenssciencefiction-socialcommentary/

Blog 3 (Time Machines) https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2017/07/17/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-3-time-machines-and-thin-spots-sfwapro-timetravel-womenssciencefiction-timemachines/

Blog 4 (The Rules of Time Travel) https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2017/07/19/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-4-rules-of-time-travel-sfwapro-sfwapro-timetravel-womenssciencefiction-timemachines/

Summer of Love Cover Final

Welcome! We’ve asked authors Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika to talk with us about their time travel books.

Lisa Mason is the author of Summer of Love, and The Gilded Age. Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book. Locus Magazine said, “Remarkable. . .the intellect on display within these psychedelically packaged pages is clear-sighted, witty, and wise.” The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book. The New York Times Book Review called The Gilded Age, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Laura Vosika is the author of Blue Bells of Scotland, lauded as a book in the vein of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and earning many five-star reviews. Nan Hawthorne, author of historical fiction, called Blue Bells of Scotland one of her favorite books of the year. The praise was echoed by Robert Mattos of Book and Movie Reviews, adding that it is a must-have for the book shelves of any serious reader. The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is also out.

Q: How do your characters time travel?

Laura: Like the four siblings in In the Keep of Time, Shawn and Niall originally switch times in a Scottish tower. As the series progresses, some other elements and conditions are discovered, as to what opens that gap in time. I leave it to the characters and reader, however, to decide if they believe this, or if there are simply ‘thin places’ where such things can happen.

After spending the day at a re-enactment event at the castle, Shawn and his girlfriend Amy go up into the tower. He gets her angry enough to walk away, leaving him stranded in the castle, fifteen miles from his hotel.

An hour later, he finished his third beer and looked out over the walls again. Mist boiled on the loch’s surface and filled the courtyard, like a fog machine at an abandoned rave. The castle walls and buildings floated, ghostly, above the bubbling stew. Tendrils of mist shaped themselves, into a man, into a horse, and melted away again. He blinked. Maybe he’d read too many ghost stories himself.

In the morning, he’s quite drunk.

He leaned against the parapet, but the floral scent wrapped around him. Voices reached out again, from far away. His head spun. He risked opening his eyes. There were no cars in the lot. Funny. Whose voices had he heard? He crossed to the east side of the tower, reeling as the rising sun speared his eyes. He raised a hand against the glare, and squinted down at the pebbly beach below. Two women, in full skirts, ambled along the shore with a man in a gray tunic. The water glittered under the rich greens of the mountains behind it. He swore. What was with these damn reenactors? Didn’t they have a life, that they were out this early in the morning playing dress up?

Of the various time travel methods used in fiction, I decided against science and machinery and went with the idea of the miraculous and mysterious, things outside man’s control, things that Shawn and Niall and Amy must seek to understand throughout the series, so they don’t have a time travel method on their hands so much as a mystery.

Lisa: I wanted to present time travel as a technology that could actually happen in the far future. I’ve always been partial to H.G. Wells’s machine, probably because of that very cool sleigh-like contraption in the 1960 movie. My time machine is a “tachyonic shuttle.”

I researched how, specifically, my travelers could make their journeys over the centuries with the help of three books: Time Travel by John W. Macvey, Time Machines (Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction) by Paul J. Nahin, and Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments by Martin Gardner. After some thought, I decided you would require two technologies working in concert—the first would translate matter (including a human being) into pure energy for an instant and the second would transmit that bundle of energy through the timeline to a targeted destination via faster-than-light technology. Hence, “translation-transmission” in a tachyonic shuttle is how Chiron travels from 2467 to 1967 and how Zhu travels from 2495 to 1895. Piece of cake!

From The Gilded Age:

Out of a tense and arid darkness she steps, her skirts sweeping across the macadam. Her button boot wobbles on the bridge over the brook in the Japanese Tea Garden. “Steady,” the technician whispers. The shuttle embraces the ancient bridge in a half-moon of silver lattices. The air is susurrous, tinged with menthol, cold. The shuttle hums. High overhead, the dome ripples in a fitful gust. Zhu Wong listens for final instructions. None come. Dread quickens her pulse. She closes her eyes and waits for the moment it takes to cross over.

And then it’s happening–the Event sweeps her across six centuries.

Odd staccato sounds pop in her ears. The Event transforms her into pure energy, suspends her in nothingness, then flings her back into her own flesh and blood. And she stands, unsteadily, her button boot poised on the bridge over the brook in the Japanese Tea Garden. A brand-new bridge. The scent of fresh-cut wood fills her senses.

Q: Can your time travelers return to their own era?

Lisa: Oh, yes! But only if they survive. Both Chiron in Summer of Love and Zhu in The Gilded Age each must return to a designated location where the Luxon Institute has in the far future set up a tachyonic shuttle and return at a specifically designated time or they’ll remain trapped in the past.

Laura: Shawn and Niall do have the ability to return to their own time, but in Blue Bells of Scotland, they don’t know that. It’s all guesswork. Even when they have a better idea, in The Minstrel Boy, they’re not at all sure how to control it. Being from different eras, they have very different means of seeking that answer, and throughout the series, they’re never sure when or if it will really work.

Thanks to Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. If you, the reader, wish to join the discussion or have any questions or comments for our authors, feel free to contact them at their websites.

And please buy their books! Like them, review them, add stars, blog them, post them, Tweet them, and tell your friends. Your participation really matters.

We thank you for your readership!

Summer Of Love (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.

And back in Print! From the printer: https://www.createspace.com/7257603

From Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Love-Travel-Lisa-Mason/dp/1548106119/

The Gilded Age (a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands. Back in Print in July!

Visit Lisa Mason at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more. And on my Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Blue Bells of Scotland is on Kindle, Nook, itunes, and at Smashwords, and The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is on Kindle.

Visit Laura Vosika on the web at www.bluebellstrilogy.com or www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author.

If you missed the first two Time Travel Blogs, please find Blog 1 (Introduction) at https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2017/07/15/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-1-sfwapro-timetravel-novel-1960s-1890s/ and Blog 2 (Social Commentary) at https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2017/07/16/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-2-social-commentary-sfwapro-timetravel-sciencefiction-womenssciencefiction-socialcommentary/

10.29.15.GILDEDAGEBIG

Welcome! We’ve asked authors Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika to talk with us about their time travel books.

Lisa Mason is the author of Summer of Love, A Time Travel, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel. Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book. Locus Magazine said, “Remarkable. . .the intellect on display within these psychedelically packaged pages is clear-sighted, witty, and wise.” The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book. The New York Times Book Review called The Gilded Age, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Laura Vosika is the author of Blue Bells of Scotland, lauded as a book in the vein of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and earning many five-star reviews. Nan Hawthorne, author of historical fiction, called Blue Bells of Scotland one of her favorite books of the year. The praise was echoed by Robert Mattos of Book and Movie Reviews, adding that it is a must-have for the book shelves of any serious reader. The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is also out.

Q: Do you employ time travel as social commentary or as a way to point out how daily life has changed?

Lisa: Not all time travel authors write about social commentary, but a lot have and I’m one of them. What struck me about 1895 and 1967 were the pervasive sexist and racist attitudes, which Chiron and Zhu each rail against. My time travelers also take aim at the huge effects of the consumption of resources, pollution, and overpopulation.

Each year in the past I chose was a true time marker. 1895 was a pivotal year for the woman suffrage movement, movements to recognize racial minorities and to protest cruelty to animals, advances in medicine, like the germ theory and antiseptics, and technology, like the telephone, telegraph, horseless carriages, and moving pictures. 1967 was the birthplace of the women’s rights movement as we know it today, the equality of racial minorities, the gay movement, the space race, and the first computers. Both my time travelers stand as witnesses to those historic moments and add their encouragement.

It is one of the delights of time travel fiction to point out how daily life has changed. Yet in both Summer of Love and The Gilded Age, my time travelers eventually have to admit that those retrograde attitudes resurface even in their enlightened future and those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Both come to realize that, despite the wonders of far-future technology, in many ways the quality of their lives is poorer than in simpler, more natural times.

I should add there’s also plenty of fun and romance in both books.

Laura: I definitely focus on social commentary and daily life. In Blue Bells of Scotland, Shawn starts out as real womanizing, self-centered player. In medieval Scotland, where he is mistaken for Niall, he finds that what he considers having a little fun, what he considers fairly normal, is heavily frowned on by fathers and sometimes by the women themselves. Coming from an age where we express our displeasure with words and lawsuits, he is shocked to find that people have no hesitation about physically harming him. And they don’t ask questions afterward, either.

One idea The Blue Bells Chronicles touches on is that of respect for women and women’s strength, as Shawn sees the contrasts between the lives of medieval women who appear very sheltered and protected in many ways, but must be very strong to get through a hard life full of work, famine, war, and disease; and the modern women he knows who are in many ways more independent, but suffer from their own problems and societal pressures.

Thanks to Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. If you, the reader, wish to join the discussion or have any questions or comments for our authors, feel free to contact them at their websites.

And please buy their books! Like them, review them, add stars, blog them, post them, Tweet them, and tell your friends. Your participation really matters.

We thank you for your readership!

Summer Of Love (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.

And back in Print! From the printer: https://www.createspace.com/7257603

From Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Love-Travel-Lisa-Mason/dp/1548106119/

The Gilded Age (a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.

Back in Print in July!

Visit Lisa Mason at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for her books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more. And on her Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on her Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Blue Bells of Scotland is on Kindle, Nook, itunes, and at Smashwords, and The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is on Kindle.

Visit Laura Vosika on the web at www.bluebellstrilogy.com or www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author.

If you missed the first Time Travel Blog (Introduction), please find it here at https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2017/07/15/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-1-sfwapro-timetravel-novel-1960s-1890s/

 

We’ve asked authors Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika to talk with us about their time travel books.

Lisa Mason is the author of Summer of Love, A Time Travel, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel. Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book. Locus Magazine said, “Remarkable. . .the intellect on display within these psychedelically packaged pages is clear-sighted, witty, and wise.” The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book. The New York Times Book Review called The Gilded Age, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Laura Vosika is the author of Blue Bells of Scotland, lauded as a book in the vein of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and earning many five-star reviews. Nan Hawthorne, author of historical fiction, called Blue Bells of Scotland one of her favorite books of the year. The praise was echoed by Robert Mattos of Book and Movie Reviews, adding that it is a must-have for the book shelves of any serious reader. The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is also out.

Q: What drew you as an author to time travel?

Laura: I’ve long been drawn to time travel, most likely as a result of a very active childhood imagination and a few really good children’s novels that involved time travel. In the Keep of Time was one, by Margaret J. Anderson, and Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn was another. In the first, four children go into a deserted Scottish keep and come out into the dead of night in medieval Scotland. In the second, two boys who look alike, but have very different personalities, switch places in time, Andrew Tyler coming to1990 and Drew, his great nephew, going back to live Andrew’s life in 1910. I consciously drew from In the Keep of Time in my own novel, but it also has some strong elements of Time for Andrew, in the concept of two very different men trading places and lives.

Lisa: Like Laura, I’ve always been fascinated with time travel. From H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895), Jack Finney’s Time and Again (1970), Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series (begun in 1991), Connie Willis’s multiple award-winning The Domesday Book (1992), and on to Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife (2004), the concept of time travel has offered authors a rich and complex source of inspiration and readers with a century’s worth of reading pleasure.

Laura: I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife, too. What I liked about it in particular is the way it focused on character and personality, on facing life’s problems, with time travel being central, and yet incidental, to the deeper story. This is something I try to do in my own writing. And of course, I also enjoyed Diana Gabaldon’s books and the look at historical Scotland.

Lisa: I enjoy historical fiction but the problem is, as an author, you have to stay within the mindset of the period. It’s vital you do that to maintain veracity. With time travel, though, you get to have it both ways, immersing the story in the era as well as providing a modern perspective, often a critical one.

Laura: These differing mind sets are one of the things that I think make time travel so fascinating–the exploration of how the time we live in impacts our thinking, more so than I think most of us in the modern time would like to admit.

Lisa: Absolutely. A reflection on how our own time shapes us and our thoughts in profound ways is so important in keeping an open mind and exercising your own judgment about the issues of the day. With Summer of Love, I wanted to carve out my own territory in time travel by positing that my time traveler, Chiron Cat’s Eye in Draco, comes from the far future on a mission to save Susan Bell, a teenage runaway in 1967 San Francisco. In The Gilded Age, Zhu Wong comes from a far future two decades later than Chiron’s and returns to a more distant past, 1895, to save a Chinese slave girl. Against all her better judgment, she falls in love with a scoundrel, Daniel J. Watkins. Need I add that neither time traveler is very happy about the era he or she has been compelled to travel to and none of the locals think much of the time traveler. Trouble!

Laura: That’s half the fun, isn’t it! Get your characters up a tree…in the wrong century…and then throw rocks at them. Neither Shawn, the modern-day musician who ends up in medieval Scotland, nor Niall, the medieval warrior who spends a couple of weeks in the present day, is very impressed with the others’ era.

Thanks to Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. If you, the reader, wish to join the discussion or have any questions or comments for our authors, feel free to contact them at their websites.

And please buy their books! Like them, review them, add stars, blog them, post them, Tweet them, and share the word with your family and friends. Your participation really matters.

We thank you for your readership!

Summer Of Love (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book) is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo.
Summer of Love is also on Amazon.com in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and India.

Now in Print! From the Printer: https://www.createspace.com/7257603

From Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Love-Travel-Lisa-Mason/dp/1548106119/

The Gilded Age is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords.
The Gilded Age, A Time Travel is also on Amazon.com in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and India.

Soon in Print!

Visit Lisa Mason at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more. And on my Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Blue Bells of Scotland is on Kindle, Nook, itunes, and at Smashwords, and The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is on Kindle.

Visit Laura Vosika on the web at www.bluebellstrilogy.com or www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author.

Welcome to the final round! We’ve asked authors Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika to talk with us about their time travel books. This wraps up the Time Travel Blogs, Parts 1 through 5.

Lisa Mason is the author of Summer of Love, A Time Travel, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel. Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book. Locus Magazine said, “Remarkable. . .the intellect on display within these psychedelically packaged pages is clear-sighted, witty, and wise.” The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book. The New York Times Book Review called The Gilded Age, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Laura Vosika is the author of Blue Bells of Scotland,lauded as a book in the vein of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and earning many five-star reviews. Nan Hawthorne, author of historical fiction, called Blue Bells of Scotland one of her favorite books of the year. The praise was echoed by Robert Mattos of Book and Movie Reviews, adding that it is a must-have for the book shelves of any serious reader. The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is also out.

What research did you do for the era your time traveler returns to?

Laura: Every possible sort. I researched medieval times, Scotland, names, food, castles, weapon(r)y; weather, temperature, and sunrise and sunset on given days of the year in Scotland; whether the clothing in 1314 had buttons (no), time travel theories in science and fiction. I brushed up on my classical music and learned about the vampire of Melrose Abbey. I routinely post a ‘Researching Today’ status on my facebook author page (www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author) telling about the interesting things I come across. I flew to Scotland for a two week research trip to visit all the locations in Blue Bells of Scotland.

I read a number of fiction books set in the era, particularly The Path of the Hero King, the thoroughly-researched novelization of the events leading up to Bannockburn by the great Scottish writer, Nigel Tranter. My collection of books on Scotland and medieval time–castles, towns, history, music, and food to name but a few specialties–spans several shelves. A few that stand out are Robert the Bruce: King of Scots by Ronald McNair Scott, Bannockburn 1314: Robert Bruce’s Great Victory by Pete Armstrong; James the Good: The Black Douglas by David R. Ross; and Robert Bruce and The Community of the Realm of Scotlandby W.S. Barrow.

I also used a number of internet resources, including digging up English records from the time online. I kept detailed charts compiling differences of opinions among scholars.

Lisa: How did people fasten their clothes before buttons, let alone zippers? You’ll have to read Laura’s book to find out, among many other things!

For Summer of Love, I set out to capture the sights, sounds, attitudes, and culture from the inside out. I started out with The Haight-Ashbury, A History by Charles Perry, a book he worked on for eight years. From there, I read the daily San Francisco Chronicle from June 21, 1967 to September 4, 1967 on microfiche at the Santa Rosa Public Library (the only place in the Bay area where I could find such an archive). I acquired the gorgeous facsimile edition of The Oracle published by Regent Press and found a complete archive of The Berkeley Barb at the Berkeley Public Library. At Walden Pond Books, Bibliomania, and the now-vanished Holmes Book Company (all in Oakland) and Shakespeare & Company and Moe’s (both in Berkeley), I found rare books such as Lenore Kandel’s infamous Beat poem, Love Needs Care by Dr. David E. Smith who founded the Free Clinic, and Notes From Underground. I borrowed people’s home movies, studied Making Sense of the Sixties, which featured the famous Harry Reasoner clip, and watched Star Trek episodes (no, I’m not a Trekkie, but that research was fun). I acquired Life and Time magazines for June through September, 1967 from online bookstores, as well as a privately published corporate history of Marinship for details on Ruby Maverick’s mother’s experience as a war worker (found that gem at a military books specialist in St. Louis). I spoke with, met, or corresponded with Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Katharine Kerr, Allen Ginsberg, and Allan Cohen, and even spoke by phone with the late Lenore Kandel. She told me that the bus fare in 1967 was fifteen cents (not a quarter, as I’d thought) and that there was no Sausalito ferry operating in 1967. We shared a laugh over the fact that her brother wrote scripts for Star Trek (she proofed the manuscript for me and loved the Star Trek riffs). And, of course, like Laura, I visited locations. Alas, I didn’t get a two-week research trip to Scotland. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and visited the ‘hood, which remains remarkably unchanged, and walked through the Portals of the Past in Golden Gate Park.

As for The Gilded Age, I found an entire library of books about the world during the 1890s, the United States, and San Francisco in particular. Several journalists in the 1930s and 1940s published detailed and lively accounts of the City before the 1906 Great Earthquake and Fire all but demolished San Francisco. These accounts included such classics as The Barbary Coast, The Madams of San Francisco, and The Tongs of Chinatown. Accounts abound of the amazing Donaldina Cameron, who rescued slave girls from the tongs and who plays a pivotal role in my book. Fin de siècle San Francisco was already a tourist attraction in the 1890s, and I found an actual guidebook published in 1899.

But what about those telling details?

Novels of the period (by authors such as Frank Norris and Jack London) reveal much about personal attitudes. At the late, great The Holmes Book Company in Oakland I discovered recipe books by the famous chefs of 1890s San Francisco with delicious details about food and drink. I think my favorite resources are the facsimile editions of the Montgomery Ward and Sears & Roebuck catalogs. There I discovered a wealth of detail about clothing, popular books, harnesses and carriages, guns, sewing implements, patent medicines, wigs, smoking accoutrements, makeup, children’s toys, and more. Pure heaven for the historical researcher!

Laura: It really is those minute details that bring a story to life, that give it the strong touch of reality and create the suspension of disbelief. I have been looking forward to preparing some of the food in my Medieval Feasts book. I probably won’t go so far as to build a five-man-sized brazier–I have a bad feeling there are city ordinances against them–but maybe I’ll time the cooking by saying Hail Marys, as is suggested in one resource, and see how that goes! I’m currently sampling a few of the Twin Cities’ offerings in mead. All in the name of research of course!

Lisa: Research, always!The biggest, juiciest treasure trove for The Gilded Age came in a bound volume of a newspaper, The Argonaut, for the entire years of 1896 and 1897. There I discovered such eye-openers as lady bicyclists and the scandals surrounding their attire (bloomers!) and how much the Spreckels sugar baron spent a year on cut flowers ($50,000). It’s hard to find that kind of delightful everyday detail in history books.

Thanks to Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. If you, the reader, wish to join the discussion or have any questions or comments for our authors, feel free to contact them at their websites.

And please buy their books! Like them, review them, add stars, blog them, post them, Tweet them, and tell your friends. Your participation really matters.

We thank you for your readership!

Summer Of Love, A Time Travel is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, and Sony.

The Gilded Age, A Time Travel is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, Sony, and Smashwords.

Visit Lisa Mason at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more. And on my Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

For urban fantasy, science fiction, fantasy, romantic suspense, humor, and a screenplay, visit the Virtual Bookstore! All Lisa Mason Titles, All Links, All Readers, Worldwide. NYT Notable Book Author https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2013/08/31/virtual-bookstore-fantasy-science-fiction-urban-fantasy-romantic-suspense-literary-screenplay-sfwapro/

Blue Bells of Scotland is on Kindle, Nook, itunes, and at Smashwords, and The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is on Kindle.

Visit Laura Vosika on the web at www.bluebellstrilogy.comor www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author.

If you missed the earlier Time Travel Blogs with Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika, here are the links: Blog 4, The Rules of Time Travel https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2014/06/28/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-4-rules-of-time-travel-sfwapro-2/

Blog 3, Time Machines and Thin Spots https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2014/06/24/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-3-time-machines-and-thin-spots-sfwapro-2/

Blog 2, Social Commentary https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2014/06/23/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-2-social-commentary-sfwapro-2/

Blog 1, Influences and Inspirations https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2014/06/22/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-1-sfwapro-4/

Welcome! We’ve asked authors Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika to talk with us about their time travel books.

Lisa Mason is the author of Summer of Love, A Time Travel, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel. Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book. Locus Magazine said, “Remarkable. . .the intellect on display within these psychedelically packaged pages is clear-sighted, witty, and wise.”The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book. The New York Times Book Review called The Gilded Age, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Laura Vosika is the author of Blue Bells of Scotland, lauded as a book in the vein of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and earning many five-star reviews. Nan Hawthorne, author of historical fiction, called Blue Bells of Scotland one of her favorite books of the year. The praise was echoed by Robert Mattos of Book and Movie Reviews, adding that it is a must-have for the book shelves of any serious reader. The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is also out.

Q: Do you employ time travel as social commentary or as a way to point out how daily life has changed?

Lisa: Not all time travel authors write about social commentary, but a lot have and I’m one of them. What struck me about 1895 and 1967 were the pervasive sexist and racist attitudes, which Chiron and Zhu each rail against. My time travelers also take aim at the huge effects of the consumption of resources, pollution, and overpopulation.

Each year in the past I chose was a true time marker. 1895 was a pivotal year for the woman suffrage movement, movements to recognize racial minorities and to protest cruelty to animals, advances in medicine, like the germ theory and antiseptics, and technology, like the telephone, telegraph, horseless carriages, and moving pictures. 1967 was the birthplace of the women’s rights movement as we know it today, the equality of racial minorities, the gay movement, the space race, and the first computers. Both my time travelers stand as witnesses to those historic moments and add their encouragement.

It is one of the delights of time travel fiction to point out how daily life has changed. Yet in both Summer of Love and The Gilded Age, my time travelers eventually have to admit that those retrograde attitudes resurface even in their enlightened future and those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Both come to realize that, despite the wonders of far-future technology, in many ways the quality of their lives is poorer than in simpler, more natural times.

I should add there’s also plenty of fun and romance in both books.

Laura: I definitely focus on social commentary and daily life. In Blue Bells of Scotland, Shawn starts out as real womanizing, self-centered player. In medieval Scotland, where he is mistaken for Niall, he finds that what he considers having a little fun, what he considers fairly normal, is heavily frowned on by fathers and sometimes by the women themselves. Coming from an age where we express our displeasure with words and lawsuits, he is shocked to find that people have no hesitation about physically harming him. And they don’t ask questions afterward, either.

One idea The Blue Bells Chronicles touches on is that of respect for women and women’s strength, as Shawn sees the contrasts between the lives of medieval women who appear very sheltered and protected in many ways, but must be very strong to get through a hard life full of work, famine, war, and disease; and the modern women he knows who are in many ways more independent, but suffer from their own problems and societal pressures.

Thanks to Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. If you, the reader, wish to join the discussion or have any questions or comments for our authors, feel free to contact them at their websites.

And please buy their books! Like them, review them, add stars, blog them, post them, Tweet them, and tell your friends. Your participation really matters.

We thank you for your readership!

Summer Of Love, A Time Travel (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book) is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, and Sony. Summer of Love, A Time Travel is also on Amazon.com in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and India.

The Gilded Age, A Time Travel is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, Sony, and Smashwords. The Gilded Age, A Time Travel is also on Amazon.com in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and India.

Visit Lisa Mason at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more. And on my Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

For urban fantasy, science fiction, fantasy, romantic suspense, humor, and a screenplay, visit the Virtual Bookstore! All Lisa Mason Titles, All Links, All Readers, Worldwide. NYT Notable Book Author https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2013/08/31/virtual-bookstore-fantasy-science-fiction-urban-fantasy-romantic-suspense-literary-screenplay-sfwapro/

Blue Bells of Scotland is on Kindle, Nook, itunes, and at Smashwords, and The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is on Kindle.

Visit Laura Vosika on the web at www.bluebellstrilogy.comor www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author.

If you missed the first Time Travel Blog, here’s the link: https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2014/06/22/lisa-mason-talks-time-travel-with-laura-vosika-part-1-sfwapro-4/

We’ve asked authors Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika to talk with us about their time travel books.

Lisa Mason is the author of Summer of Love, A Time Travel, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel. Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book. Locus Magazine said, “Remarkable. . .the intellect on display within these psychedelically packaged pages is clear-sighted, witty, and wise.”The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book. The New York Times Book Review called The Gilded Age, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Laura Vosika is the author of Blue Bells of Scotland, lauded as a book in the vein of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and earning many five-star reviews. Nan Hawthorne, author of historical fiction, called Blue Bells of Scotland one of her favorite books of the year. The praise was echoed by Robert Mattos of Book and Movie Reviews, adding that it is a must-have for the book shelves of any serious reader. The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is also out.

Q: What drew you as an author to time travel?

Laura: I’ve long been drawn to time travel, most likely as a result of a very active childhood imagination and a few really good children’s novels that involved time travel. In the Keep of Time was one, by Margaret J. Anderson, and Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahnwas another. In the first, four children go into a deserted Scottish keep and come out into the dead of night in medieval Scotland. In the second, two boys who look alike, but have very different personalities, switch places in time, Andrew Tyler coming to1990 and Drew, his great nephew, going back to live Andrew’s life in 1910. I consciously drew from In the Keep of Time in my own novel, but it also has some strong elements of Time for Andrew, in the concept of two very different men trading places and lives.

Lisa: Like Laura, I’ve always been fascinated with time travel. From H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895), Jack Finney’s Time and Again (1970), Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series (begun in 1991), Connie Willis’s multiple award-winning The Domesday Book (1992), and on to Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife (2004), the concept of time travel has offered authors a rich and complex source of inspiration and readers with a century’s worth of reading pleasure.

Laura: I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife, too. What I liked about it in particular is the way it focused on character and personality, on facing life’s problems, with time travel being central, and yet incidental, to the deeper story. This is something I try to do in my own writing. And of course, I also enjoyed Diana Gabaldon’s books and the look at historical Scotland.

Lisa: I enjoy historical fiction but the problem is, as an author, you have to stay within the mindset of the period. It’s vital you do that to maintain veracity. With time travel, though, you get to have it both ways, immersing the story in the era as well as providing a modern perspective, often a critical one.

Laura: These differing mind sets are one of the things that I think make time travel so fascinating–the exploration of how the time we live in impacts our thinking, more so than I think most of us in the modern time would like to admit.

Lisa: Absolutely. A reflection on how our own time shapes us and our thoughts in profound ways is so important in keeping an open mind and exercising your own judgment about the issues of the day.With Summer of Love, I wanted to carve out my own territory in time travel by positing that my time traveler, Chiron Cat’s Eye in Draco, comes from the far future on a mission to save Susan Bell, a teenage runaway in 1967 San Francisco. In The Gilded Age, Zhu Wong comes from a far future two decades later than Chiron’s and returns to a more distant past, 1895, to save a Chinese slave girl. Against all her better judgment, she falls in love with a scoundrel, Daniel J. Watkins. Need I add that neither time traveler is very happy about the era he or she has been compelled to travel to and none of the locals think much of the time traveler. Trouble!

Laura: That’s half the fun, isn’t it! Get your characters up a tree…in the wrong century…and then throw rocks at them. Neither Shawn, the modern-day musician who ends up in medieval Scotland, nor Niall, the medieval warrior who spends a couple of weeks in the present day, is very impressed with the others’ era.

Thanks to Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. If you, the reader, wish to join the discussion or have any questions or comments for our authors, feel free to contact them at their websites.

And please buy their books! Like them, review them, add stars, blog them, post them, Tweet them, and share the word with your family and friends. Your participation really matters.

We thank you for your readership!

From the author of Summer Of Love, A Time Travel (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book) on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, and Sony. Summer of Love, A Time Travel is also on Amazon.com in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and India.

The Gilded Age, A Time Travel on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, Sony, and Smashwords. The Gilded Age, A Time Travel is also on Amazon.com in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and India.

Visit Lisa Mason at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more. And on my Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Blue Bells of Scotland is on Kindle, Nook, itunes, and at Smashwords, and The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is on Kindle.

Visit Laura Vosika on the web at www.bluebellstrilogy.comor www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author.

Welcome! We’ve asked authors Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika to talk with us about their time travel books.

Lisa Mason is the author of Summer of Love, A Time Travel, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel. Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book. Locus Magazine said, “Remarkable. . .the intellect on display within these psychedelically packaged pages is clear-sighted, witty, and wise.” The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book. The New York Times Book Review called The Gilded Age, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Laura Vosika is the author of Blue Bells of Scotland, lauded as a book in the vein of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and earning many five-star reviews. Nan Hawthorne, author of historical fiction, called Blue Bells of Scotland one of her favorite books of the year. The praise was echoed by Robert Mattos of Book and Movie Reviews, adding that it is a must-have for the book shelves of any serious reader. The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is also out.

Q: Do your time travelers have to observe certain rules of time travel or do they get into trouble?

Lisa: Of course they get into trouble! And there are sanctions and restrictions my time travelers must observe, starting with the classic “grandfather paradox;” if you traveled back in time and killed your own grandfather, you wouldn’t exist in the first place to go do the deed. Then there’s the “butterfly principle,” in which a time traveler goes back to a primordial jungle and accidentally kills a butterfly, changing all of reality.

Both Summer of Love and The Gilded Age begin with stringent “Tenets of the Grandmother Principle,” supervised by the Luxon Institute for Superluminal Applications, a far-future bureaucracy. Please go to the books to see what they are.

Like many authors before me, I played with these concepts and their ramifications, adding quantum physics into the mix. Under the Uncertainty Principle, the observer changes the observed, proven in the famous experiment in which a photon appears as a wave or a particle depending on how the experimenter sets up her observational apparatus.

I wanted to add another favorite trope of science fiction authors—that a sweeping and seemingly beneficial technology can go terribly wrong. Consider the automobile, a technology which has given us freedom and mobility unprecedented in pre-car history, reliable distribution and delivery of goods, and a lot of enjoyment. Cars have also blighted the landscape, caused us to be dependent on foreign oil, caused pollution, injury, and death, and alienated people. I explored the notion that the far-future technology of “tachyportation,” which could be employed to colonize planets and right historical wrongs, had sweeping unintended consequences.

Laura: Throughout Blue Bells of Scotland, Shawn and Niall have no idea what they’re dealing with. Niall, being from 1314, has no concept of Grandfather Concepts or of changing history. He gets Amy to help him research what happened to his people at Bannockburn–in her world, the history says they all died–and he doesn’t care much about changing her present or anyone’s future. He cares only about saving the people he loves.

Shawn, for his part, spends his first few days in medieval Scotland in a wilderness that looks much like parts of present-day Scotland. He is not aware of just how badly off track his life has gone, and even if he had been, he cares only about his own pleasure. Once he does understand that he’s not in his own time, his only motivation is survival and getting back where–make that when–he belongs, to safety.

In The Minstrel Boy, these ideas are delved into a little more, but my characters are dealing with something unheard of, something nobody else knows about, and something of which they have very little understanding. There’s no machine, no control, no bureaucracy, no answers to any of their questions. Their motivation continues to be mainly survival and setting their own lives right.

Thanks to Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. If you, the reader, wish to join the discussion or have any questions or comments for our authors, feel free to contact them at their websites.

And please buy their books! Like them, review them, add stars, blog them, post them, Tweet them, and share the word with your friends. Your participation really matters.

We thank you for your readership!

Summer Of Love, A Time Travel is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, and Sony.

The Gilded Age, A Time Travel is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, Sony, and Smashwords.

Visit Lisa Mason at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more. And on my Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

For urban fantasy, science fiction, fantasy, romantic suspense, humor, and a screenplay, visit the Virtual Bookstore! All Lisa Mason Titles, All Links, All Readers, Worldwide. NYT Notable Book Author https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2013/08/31/virtual-bookstore-fantasy-science-fiction-urban-fantasy-romantic-suspense-literary-screenplay-sfwapro/

Blue Bells of Scotland is on Kindle, Nook, itunes, and at Smashwords, and The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is on Kindle.

Visit Laura Vosika on the web at www.bluebellstrilogy.com or www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author.

Welcome! We’ve asked authors Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika to talk with us about their time travel books.

Lisa Mason is the author of Summer of Love, A Time Travel, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel. Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book. Locus Magazine said, “Remarkable. . .the intellect on display within these psychedelically packaged pages is clear-sighted, witty, and wise.” The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book. The New York Times Book Review called The Gilded Age, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Laura Vosika is the author of Blue Bells of Scotland, lauded as a book in the vein of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and earning many five-star reviews. Nan Hawthorne, author of historical fiction, called Blue Bells of Scotland one of her favorite books of the year. The praise was echoed by Robert Mattos of Book and Movie Reviews, adding that it is a must-have for the book shelves of any serious reader. The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is also out.

Q: How do your characters time travel?

Laura: Like the four siblings in In the Keep of Time, Shawn and Niall originally switch times in a Scottish tower. As the series progresses, some other elements and conditions are discovered, as to what opens that gap in time. I leave it to the characters and reader, however, to decide if they believe this, or if there are simply ‘thin places’ where such things can happen.

After spending the day at a re-enactment event at the castle, Shawn and his girlfriend Amy go up into the tower. He gets her angry enough to walk away, leaving him stranded in the castle, fifteen miles from his hotel.

An hour later, he finished his third beer and looked out over the walls again. Mist boiled on the loch’s surface and filled the courtyard, like a fog machine at an abandoned rave. The castle walls and buildings floated, ghostly, above the bubbling stew. Tendrils of mist shaped themselves, into a man, into a horse, and melted away again. He blinked. Maybe he’d read too many ghost stories himself.

In the morning, he’s quite drunk.

He leaned against the parapet, but the floral scent wrapped around him. Voices reached out again, from far away. His head spun. He risked opening his eyes. There were no cars in the lot. Funny. Whose voices had he heard? He crossed to the east side of the tower, reeling as the rising sun speared his eyes. He raised a hand against the glare, and squinted down at the pebbly beach below. Two women, in full skirts, ambled along the shore with a man in a gray tunic. The water glittered under the rich greens of the mountains behind it. He swore. What was with these damn reenactors? Didn’t they have a life, that they were out this early in the morning playing dress up?

Of the various time travel methods used in fiction, I decided against science and machinery and went with the idea of the miraculous and mysterious, things outside man’s control, things that Shawn and Niall and Amy must seek to understand throughout the series, so they don’t have a time travel method on their hands so much as a mystery.

Lisa: I wanted to present time travel as a technology that could actually happen in the far future. I’ve always been partial to H.G. Wells’s machine, probably because of that very cool sleigh-like contraption in the 1960 movie. My time machine is a “tachyonic shuttle.”

I researched how, specifically, my travelers could make their journeys over the centuries with the help of three books: Time Travel by John W. Macvey, Time Machines (Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction) by Paul J. Nahin, and Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments by Martin Gardner. After some thought, I decided you would require two technologies working in concert—the first would translate matter (including a human being) into pure energy for an instant and the second would transmit that bundle of energy through the timeline to a targeted destination via faster-than-light technology. Hence, “translation-transmission” in a tachyonic shuttle is how Chiron travels from 2467 to 1967 and how Zhu travels from 2495 to 1895. Piece of cake!

From The Gilded Age:

Out of a tense and arid darkness she steps, her skirts sweeping across the macadam. Her button boot wobbles on the bridge over the brook in the Japanese Tea Garden. “Steady,” the technician whispers. The shuttle embraces the ancient bridge in a half-moon of silver lattices. The air is susurrous, tinged with menthol, cold. The shuttle hums. High overhead, the dome ripples in a fitful gust. Zhu Wong listens for final instructions. None come. Dread quickens her pulse. She closes her eyes and waits for the moment it takes to cross over.

And then it’s happening–the Event sweeps her across six centuries.

Odd staccato sounds pop in her ears. The Event transforms her into pure energy, suspends her in nothingness, then flings her back into her own flesh and blood. And she stands, unsteadily, her button boot poised on the bridge over the brook in the Japanese Tea Garden. A brand-new bridge. The scent of fresh-cut wood fills her senses.

Q: Can your time travelers return to their own era?

Lisa: Oh, yes! But only if they survive. Both Chiron in Summer of Love and Zhu in The Gilded Age each must return to a designated location where the Luxon Institute has in the far future set up a tachyonic shuttle and return at a specifically designated time or they’ll remain trapped in the past.

Laura: Shawn and Niall do have the ability to return to their own time, but in Blue Bells of Scotland, they don’t know that. It’s all guesswork. Even when they have a better idea, in The Minstrel Boy, they’re not at all sure how to control it. Being from different eras, they have very different means of seeking that answer, and throughout the series, they’re never sure when or if it will really work.

Thanks to Lisa Mason and Laura Vosika for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. If you, the reader, wish to join the discussion or have any questions or comments for our authors, feel free to contact them at their websites.

And please buy their books! Like them, review them, add stars, blog them, post them, Tweet them, and tell your friends. Your participation really matters.

We thank you for your readership!

Summer Of Love, A Time Travel is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, and Sony.

The Gilded Age, A Time Travel is on BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, Sony, and Smashwords.

Visit Lisa Mason at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more. And on my Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

For urban fantasy, science fiction, fantasy, romantic suspense, humor, and a screenplay, visit the Virtual Bookstore! All Lisa Mason Titles, All Links, All Readers, Worldwide. NYT Notable Book Author https://lisamasontheauthor.com/2013/08/31/virtual-bookstore-fantasy-science-fiction-urban-fantasy-romantic-suspense-literary-screenplay-sfwapro/

Blue Bells of Scotland is on Kindle, Nook, itunes, and at Smashwords, and The Minstrel Boy, Book Two in The Blue Bells Chronicles, is on Kindle.

Visit Laura Vosika on the web at www.bluebellstrilogy.com or www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author.