Yes! I want your time travel story. But before you dig out the manuscript you wrote in 1826, let me explain what's going on and how you can participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity. Twice if you're really a time traveler.
Page 1: Like everything I write, there's a story to this request and possibly a story at the end of it. It starts with a peek into the writing process.
I was happily minding my own business and writing 30-40,000 words a week on my multiple works in progress. Doug and I were sitting around the campfire early this spring talking about my Devon Layne erotic do-over story Double Take. Then out of the blue, he tosses out, "You know what would be neat? A time travel story. Suppose there was some kind of vortex floating around that seemed to follow this one guy. When it catches him, he's randomly caught up in a time distortion and plopped down at some other time in history. Past, present, future."
"That could be interesting," I mused. I'm not sold on it yet.
"Well, in each time he's plopped down, he makes friends, enemies, lovers… maybe has a harem. Then he gets caught again and they all disappear and he has to start over sometime new. Maybe he's able to take one person with him but he's left everyone else behind. Eventually, he starts piecing together the stories of the people he left behind and what happened to them."
Doug gets enthusiastic about ideas like this and soon had me caught up in it as well. He had snippets of what could happen.
He's being shot at on the Gettysburg battlefield and all of a sudden a guy next to him whispers, "You're supposed to fall down." He realizes he's no longer in 1863 but in a 2018 reenactment.
I started thinking about what could hold it all together. Then he hit me with one more thing.
"You can't start writing it yet. You have to finish Double Team (Book 5 in that series) and Stocks & Bondage (New Deb Riley mystery) first. When you are off traveling around the world this winter, pick out some interesting locations where he could end up. Think about what he's encountering. And we'll talk it over and you can start writing sometime this winter."
You see, the last time Doug made a suggestion for a story I was working on Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and was going to wait a few months before I started the new thing, but it was shiny and characters started talking to me and I sat down and wrote Living Next Door to Heaven: What Were They Thinking? immediately. He doesn't want to risk having me get sidetracked when I have other projects to finish. So, I agreed that until I take off in October, all I can do is brainstorm and make notes.
Page 2. We were sitting by the campfire enjoying some particularly good scotch a few nights ago when Doug said, "You've got a pretty big network of fans and patrons. Why don't you ask them for ideas of times and places they'd like to time travel to and why? Just a short snippet. No do-over stuff. Can't go back to when you were eighteen and got drunk, tattooed, and enlisted. This is all about going someplace sometime that you think would be interesting to visit and having an adventure there."
I have two different blogs, two Facebook accounts, two Twitter accounts, two Patreon accounts, and several hundred fans. So that's why I'm setting about calling for your ideas about time travel. Here are the rules:
Let's keep it simple. Message me with the subject line: "Time Travel." State when you would like to time travel to (past present future), where you would like to be when you arrive, and in 100 words or less, why you would like to travel there/then. Include your email address.
I'll collect these and start making sense out of them while I'm jetting around the world this winter. Everyone who responds with an idea, whether I use it or not, will receive a copy of the eBook that results-probably late next summer-so be sure to include a usable email address. I won't use it for anything else.
Right now, I don't know how long each adventure will be. I don't know the exact nature of the book, but I expect it will have humor, tears, and triumphs. I also expect that it will fall under the authorship of Devon Layne erotica, but it is also possible that I'll produce two different versions, one with and one from from Wayzgoose without sex. That would be a good trick!
Page 3: Keep those cards and letters coming, fans. And join my Patreon page to help me travel this winter and collect all those good locations and story ideas!