It has been a roller coaster of a summer! I finished Fourth Dimensional, the final book in the Earth Bound series, (for now) I finished the first book in the Time Pirates series, attended two conferences on math/science, one in Arizona and the other in New Jersey, went to Lagoon, (local amusement park) on a season pass several times, spent a week in California on the beach and at Sea World, went camping, and somehow found time to do two farmer's markets selling books and other wares. I met a lot of great people this summer, many who returned to the markets to buy books 2, 3, or 4 because they liked the first one so much. I am so grateful for loyal fans who give me such encouragement! It has been busy around the Lott family this year, but as I always say, better busy than bored. I like how things are progressing with my next project. I am attempting to tackle both, a new teen adventure, and a new Time Pirates adventure at the same time. If I survive, I'll let you know how it goes!

It looks like a charter school in Syracuse, Utah will be having me attend their Literacy Night next month. I'll be selling copies of my books, and talking with the kids about reading and writing stories of their own. In the mean time, I'm teaching math and science to my fourth grade students and trying my best to be a good dad, and husband. Don't forget to like and share the Facebook page for The Quickstep Universe, and give me a review on my books on Good Reads or Amazon.

Things are progressing in the Universe. Book 4, currently titled Earth Bound: Fourth Dimensional, is nearing the halfway point on draft number one. The plot is a lot of fun and I really hope everyone likes it. I am torn between spending time completing it, reviewing the first three books, and looking into future projects. As it sits right now, it looks like the series will end, or at the very least, take a break after this book. I have so many other ideas that beg for my attention. However, I live in the real world, and distractions, work, and parenting responsibilities often take up most of my days. 

I wouldn't trade that time with my wife or children for anything, so my writing takes a back seat. I would love to write full time, but it's not in the cards right now. I am a husband first, a dad second, and I wouldn't change that ever! So I write at night, and I try to keep the creative juices flowing even when real-life slows me down. 

I will try to keep more current on this blog. I have had technical difficulties with my computer, but now we have a new one that isn't yet corrupted by the anti-technology virus which I emit, cursing all forms of technology and condemning them to purgatory. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it remains free from my poisonous touch, even as I write on its keyboard at this very moment. 

As for my aspirations this year, I hope to have Book 4 out by summer, as well as a first book in a new children's series I have mentioned in the past on Facebook. Time Pirates will hopefully debut this summer as well. My own children are particularly excited about this book as I named characters after each of them. I have a very talented former student working on illustrations for each of the chapter headings and the cover. As soon as he is finished, I will be making the final push for publishing on it.

As always, thank you to all of my fans and readers for your support, and keep spreading the word so the Universe can expand! 

News from the Universe

A new adventure is taking shape for younger readers. My "Time Pirates" adventure series is nearing its debut. A trio of siblings stumbles upon a group of criminals who have somehow discovered a way to travel back in time to steal treasures from the past. Only the Biggs Bunch can save the day.

In other news, Triple Threat, the third installment of the EarthBound series is off and running.  Get your copies on amazon or from me personally if you live close enough. I plan on having a release party for Time Pirates later this summer. I will keep you posted on updates.

At this special time of year, I am so grateful for all I have been blessed with. Children who inspire me, a loving wife who takes such good care of me, and so many other things that I really don't deserve. Make sure you take time during all of the hullaballoo, to spend a few quiet moments with your family and friends. Everything can change in an instant. Hold tight and cherish the precious moments.

As for book three, I have had some trouble getting things to fall into place for release. I'm tied up with work, (those children aren't going to teach themselves) and everyone's schedules this time of year are just plain crazy! Most of the issues should be sorted out, and I'm hoping to finalize things for the book next week. If all goes well, EarthBound: Triple Threat will hit Amazon before next weekend!

It is such a thrill to release a book! I just need to remember that November and December are much too busy to keep planning for a release during either off those months. I had a great time doing a presentation on creating the universe for a story, for Wilson Elementary in Logan, Utah. The students were great, and the teachers were top notch! I look forward to working with Syracuse Arts Academy in February, and I have a few limited slots available at specific times for the rest of the school year. Contact me on Quickstep Universe's Facebook page if you are interested in hosting an event.

Busy is better than bored

I have been swamped with work and writing this year. I haven't been accomplishing my goals as fast as I'd like, but I am making progress. I still hope to have book three in the Earth Bound series out in time for Christmas, and I am setting a lofty goal for the month of November of selling 100 books.

I'm trying to get in touch with elementary, middle and jr. High schools who would be interested in having me come and do a presentation on writing. I would like to advertise my books at the school and allow students to purchase them from me on the day of the assembly/presentation. I am very open on times for the presentations. I am off track for the entire month of November and the. Again for two weeks in February. Let me know if you have a school in your area that might be interested.

Book three is turning out even better than I expected. New ideas and twists are making me certain that I will be doing a fourth and possibly a fifth. I am working with a couple of people on the manuscript and a few others on the cover. I think it will be amazing! I will post pictures here when things get more finalized.

Finally as if my mind wasn't cluttered enough, I have recently begun kicking around a new idea for a series. It will stay within the scifi realm, but have no connection to Quentin, I think. (With my brain, you never know.) it will not deal with time travel, but I already have the basic plot line for the first book. Now all I need is about two thousand hours to hammer out the details. Piece of cake right?

I have started another blog, in order to share short stories, and blurbs, really whatever comes to mind.  I will be posting a new story there soon. Check it out at randomtalesfromateacher.blogspot.com.

I"m a little late, but as promised, below you will find the prologue of book three in the Earth Bound series. I'm having fun writing it, but time constraints and the fact that my kids are just so dang fun to hang out, and play with, are leaving me with less finished of the book than I had planned at this point.

SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you have not yet read Double Danger, (book two) the prologue WILL spoil a few surprises. Even in time travel adventures, you have to go in order to avoid messing with the plot line.
If you have finished book two, enjoy the prologue, and don't forget to review both books on amazon and good reads, and any other site you know of!

Earth Bound: Triple Threat

Prologue:

The stillness of the bitter winter evening was due in part to the fresh layer of newly fallen snow. The silence cut through what was left of the hospital to the ears of the only one around to hear it. Quentin Robinson opened his eyes. He was alive! It came as a shock to him given the circumstances. He could just make out the light as his vision, blurry at first, came back to him. He was partially entombed in concrete.

At first he couldn’t recall where he was, but then the images of what had taken place only hours before came screaming back to him. He remembered lying in his hospital bed, still groggy from the pain medication he’d tried to refuse. He felt something. No, he knew something was about to happen.

There were messages, from auras that were lethally angry, bombarding the telepathic passageways in his brain. As he struggled to make sense of the disturbing images and phrases, one thought came to the forefront of his mind. RUN!

Following instinct, which is the exact message his trainer Edgar had pummeled him with so many times over the months of training in Quickstep time, Quentin slipped out of bed, and weakly made his way over to the closet. Inside, was a thin bathrobe, which he put on slowly, and carefully as every move brought on intense pain in his thigh where that madman, Hone had stabbed him to get his DNA.

He almost fainted from the pain, but remembering Hone, made him remember that he’d kidnapped and taken Brinley with him. Anger arose in him as he pictured the smirk on Hone’s face as the Light Energy took him and his new prisoner to places and times unknown.

The hallway had been dark. There wasn’t even anyone at the Nurse’s station, although Quentin could tell telepathically that the guy on duty that night was checking on another patient three doors down. Quentin heard something going on outside the hospital. He made his way over to a window and gasped. The sky was full of spherical spaceships rapidly descending on Orem.

The Hwanai attack, which Edgar had warned them about, was beginning.

An image burst into his mind. It was from a research paper he had written last fall on the attacks of September 11, 2001. He seemed to remember that a few survivors had been found inside what was left of an elevator shaft.

Go! A voice shouted in his mind. Get to the elevator!

One glance out the window he was at, told him he was on the second floor. He stumbled into the hallway. He felt the cold hospital floor beneath his feet as he scrambled as fast as the screaming pain in his body would allow. When he got to the elevator, he pushed the button to call it to his floor. Then, he found the nearest stairway and practically fell down two flights of stairs to the ground floor. Fighting the urge to slow down to ease the pain, he grabbed a crutch that was leaning on a wheel chair by the elevator door. Using what strength he could muster, he removed the rubber pad from the bottom of the crutch, and began beating the metal edge repeatedly on the ground.

A security guard stepped around the corner from his station down the hall to investigate the noise. That was when it happened. The walls around the guard disappeared along with the man himself. At the same time, an awful sucking sound, accompanied by a loud bang like a huge paper bag had just been popped, caused Quentin to fall to his knees.

Pain ripped through his legs and up into his torso. It was serious, no nonsense pain. The kind that he’d think up a funny description for later, but couldn’t think to do anything but cry when it actually happened. From that position he thrust the semi flattened crutch into the space between the elevator doors. He could only hope that it worked. By some miracle, the doors opened just enough for his fingers to gain purchase on one edge. He forced the door open enough to crawl into the darkness. He fell several feet to the floor of the elevator shaft, crying out when he hit. His arm was underneath him, he wasn’t completely sure he hadn’t broken it.

The terrible sounds were increasing in volume. The sucking sound and the loud banging was near deafening levels. It was as though the entire building was being torn to shreds! The elevator shaft was torn away twenty feet above his head. Pieces of broken concrete showered down on top of him. He was being buried alive! It was terrifying.

Why am I in an elevator shaft? Quentin thought.

At that very instant, he heard a loud crack and the whole wall opposite him fell down toward his crippled body. The terrified teen raised his good arm in a feeble defense and closed his eyes. The impact never came, however. Quentin opened his eyes to see that the falling wall had wedged itself against the wall he was lying next to.

Oh, that’s why.

And the teen finally passed out from the shock and the pain.

-------

Submerged deep in the reservoir, the Suntek avoided the attacking Hwanai warships. Apparently they wanted to keep certain parts of human infrastructure intact. The crew had been restless. No one had eaten or slept, with the exception of Edgar, who had to be tranquilized due to the intense pain he was in. Quentin had messed him up pretty good during their last training exercise. Edgar had pretended to turn violent in hopes of showing Quentin what he could do when he no longer had Edgar to rely on.

What Edgar hadn’t counted on was a crippling blow to his entire midsection delivered telekinetically by Quentin. He was luck he hadn’t been killed.

Alexander was beside himself with grief. He blamed himself for getting Quentin involved. Jacob reminded the nine hundred-year-old that Quentin was the vital key to their success. It would have been impossible to stop the virus the Hwanai had sent if it weren’t for Quentin and Quickstep.

“And what good did that do!” Alexander had thundered. “They’re all still just as dead!”

Adam, the pilot, had busied himself altering the frequency of the sensors on his beloved Suntek. He hoped to be able to get an idea of what was going on outside their watery hiding place. It took several hours, but he was finally able to briefly hack into the Hwanai communications.

The team waited impatiently for Skyler to translate. The ship’s automated translation capabilities had been damaged by water getting into the circuits when they sprung a leak after the first hour. Adam felt it was caused by debris hitting the Suntek as it flew through the canyon toward the dam.

“They are coordinating attacks simultaneously on all of the continents,” Skyler reported. “They aren’t meeting much resistance. The most time anyone had was fifteen minutes. Communications were blanked out and all nuclear weapons facilities worldwide were neutralized within the first ten minutes. They never even stood a chance. I’m not sure Boke would have fared much better if they had attacked there. They’re unstoppable.”

The last sentence hung in the air and seemed to take the energy out of the crew. They sat in silence for a very long time. Each one was in his or her own thoughts. Finally, O, the newest member of the team suggested that they survey the damage. Skyler checked the communications. There were none. He rewound the recordings to the last communication from the Hwanai. It was a call for retreat back to Hwanan.

Alexander broke his silence. He hadn’t spoken since shouting at Jacob. “Let’s go have a look.”

Adam guided the ship on its ascent. At the surface of the reservoir, the ship paused, gaining energy for a leap to levitated travel. The pilot was in no hurry as he flew down the canyon. No one knew what they were going to find. When at last, the valley came into view, the scene was chillingly peaceful.

“It’s like the dawn of creation!” O whispered.

“Everything has been completely obliterated,” Sarah gasped.

“What kind of weapon can do this sort of thing?” Peter asked.

“None that I’m aware of,” Adam said flatly.

“Nor I,” Jacob agreed.

“Head for the hospital,” Alexander commanded, strain stifled his normally strong voice.

“Already headed in that direction,” Adam assured him.

-------

Quentin winced at the numbing pain in his toes. He was freezing. The concrete was wet with slushy snow. Fortunately, he was protected from the elements by the partially collapsed shaft. He could see that the darkening sky was above him, and not the hospital, or any part of it.

Whatever those weapons were, they sure made a mess of things.

Painfully, he rolled onto his side. Favoring his left arm. He sat up and looked down at it. He was able to wiggle the fingers, but not without blinding pain shooting up and down his arm. It was definitely larger than its partner.

Using his good arm, he grabbed some rebar sticking out of the concrete and pulled himself to his cold, bare, feet. He carefully climbed the triangular shelter he’d survived the attack beneath and looked out over what used to be his hometown.

A sick feeling developed in his stomach. He began dry heaving over the side of the rubble. It was gone. The hospital, the junior high across the street, the trees, the houses, everything was gone! A blanket of snow covered flat ground. There was nothing to say there had ever been a city or any kind of civilization in this area ever in the history of the Earth.

They’ve wiped it clean. It’s just what they wanted—a clean slate.

Then he saw it, approaching from the east like a glimmer of hope after the worst possible day. The Suntek, searchlights blazing, made a beeline for him.

As it touched down, Alexander was already descending the still lowering gangplank. The look on his face showed anguish, and relief at the same time.

“You’re alive!” he gushed. “My boy, you’re alive! There’s hope.”

Quentin nodded vacantly. There was a cold, dark, fury in his eyes. It caused the old man to falter before stepping forward to embrace his fifteenth great grandson.

“Hope,” Quentin mumbled, eventually focusing in on Alexander’s face. “They’ll pay for this; the Hwanai. I will make them pay.”

I would love to hear what you think of the prologue. You can comment here, or on the Quickstep Universe's homepage on Facebook. Positive, negative, neutral, whatever your feelings. I'd love to read them. In the future, I might also be posting about my first attempt at a younger audience. A new adventure in the Quickstep Universe for younger fans is in the works. 

Deal on Kindle

I am offering my first book, Earth Bound Not Alone for $.99 on Kindle, from June 19 until June 26. Please help me expand my readership by suggesting it to friends or relatives, and then tell others what you think of it on good reads, or amazon, or on Facebook. Thanks, and don't forget, there's another signing at the Layton Barnes and Noble on Saturday, June 21 from 1-4pm.