Originally posted by Renee Scattergood:
Welcome to another Friday Author Spotlight! This week Chris Barnham is visiting with his upcoming science fiction novel, Fifty-One, to share his new cover for the first time! He'll also be sharing an excerpt from the book.
Chris Barnham is a writer of science fiction and fantasy, and other stuff.
New novel, 'Fifty-One' is published in February 2018 by Filles Vertes Publishing. It is a science fiction romance, in which a time-traveling cop is marooned in 1940s London. When he falls in love with a young woman who is due to be killed by a German bomb, he has to choose between saving her, and risking the future. The story was inspired by a real event, a German V1 rocket that fell on a busy shopping street in south London in July 1944, killing fifty-one people.
Chris's first novel is still available in ebook and paperback. 'Among the Living' is a hybrid of fantasy (with a modern twist on an old vampire legend) and kidnap thriller. It grew from a popular story published in the Pan Book of Horror series years ago.
Chris lives in south London (where many of his stories are set). He has three children and a scary wife - a constant inspiration at all times!
Jacob Wesson is a timecop from 2040, sent back to WWII London to stop the assassination of Britain’s war leader. The assignment plays out with apparent ease, but the jump home goes wrong, stranding Jake in war-ravaged 1944. Jake’s team, including his long-time girlfriend, is desperate to trace him before something else goes wrong.
Stuck in the past, Jake must pull from his training and blend in. He clings to the one familiar face he can find, Amy Jenkins, a war widow whose life he saved during the assignment. Drawn to each other by their loneliness and thrown together amid the terror of war, Jake and Amy look to a future together.
But Jake’s future cannot let him go. And when his bosses finally find him in 1944, Jake faces a terrible choice: risk unraveling the modern world, or let Amy die.
Robinson tapped the file on the table. “Read this, but it can’t leave the room. I’ve downloaded the orders on your palmers so you can brief yourselves later. But here are the basics.” Robinson opened the folder and glanced at the first page. “The backroom boys picked up unauthorized temporal Jumps into late April and early May 1941.”
“London?” Lew leaned forward.
“Yes. A history scholar like yourself, Agent Brockley, won’t need me to tell you how crucial a time this was in the war with Nazi Germany, with Britain fighting alone and in danger of invasion.”
“So what’re they trying to do?”
“They’ve already done it, of course,” Robinson said. “We’ve checked it out, and the system says it’s at least 90 percent likely they’re behind the assassination of a politician, a guy called Winston Churchill.”
“Should I know him?” Jake didn’t share Lew’s interest in obscure periods of the past, but the thoughtful expression on Brockley’s face said he’d heard of Churchill.
“He was prime minister for a year, as I’m sure Agent Brockley could’ve told you,” Robinson said. “I’ve had it checked out: if Churchill isn’t shot after a year in the job, he turns out to be an inspirational war leader.”
“How can anyone know that?”
“I can’t talk about that, Jake. But you can trust me on it. Churchill shouldn’t die, and your job is to save him.”
Lew frowned. “What’re these guys trying to achieve by killing Churchill?”
“I assume they want Britain to lose the war.”
“But the Allies won without Churchill,” Lew said.
“Maybe their computers aren’t as good as ours. We still need to undo the damage,” Robinson said. “Look, the details are on file but a couple of things I need to say now. First, it’s very important you follow the schedule in your orders. Precisely—time, place, everything. You need to be where the orders tell you when they tell you. At all times.”
Jake nodded. Lew remained still. Neither spoke, and Robinson peered once more at the cigar in his fingers before putting it away in a desk drawer.
“I’m sending four of you,” Robinson went on. “There’s you two, with Jake as mission leader. You’ll be joined by Hannah Benedict and Nancy Ahmed.”
“Hannah?” Jake asked. “Is that really necessary?”
“Nancy’s a good pick,” Lew said. Jake found that predictable; Lew had a reputation with the female OffTime agents, and he wasn’t the only one in the Office who thought Nancy was a striking recent recruit.
“But Hannah,” Jake said again. “She’s got the experience, but shouldn’t I get a say, as mission leader? And she’s my partner.”
“You are having a say,” Robinson said. “And I’ve listened. But it’s my call, and I’ve made it. We wouldn’t be much of an organization if the boys on a mission got to choose the girls, would we? Now,” he stood up to leave, “get yourselves briefed. I want you ready to go uptime by this time tomorrow.”
New novel, 'Fifty-One' is published in February 2018 by Filles Vertes Publishing. It is a science fiction romance, in which a time-traveling cop is marooned in 1940s London. When he falls in love with a young woman who is due to be killed by a German bomb, he has to choose between saving her, and risking the future. The story was inspired by a real event, a German V1 rocket that fell on a busy shopping street in south London in July 1944, killing fifty-one people.
Chris's first novel is still available in ebook and paperback. 'Among the Living' is a hybrid of fantasy (with a modern twist on an old vampire legend) and kidnap thriller. It grew from a popular story published in the Pan Book of Horror series years ago.
Chris lives in south London (where many of his stories are set). He has three children and a scary wife - a constant inspiration at all times!
Connect with the Author
About the Book
Stuck in the past, Jake must pull from his training and blend in. He clings to the one familiar face he can find, Amy Jenkins, a war widow whose life he saved during the assignment. Drawn to each other by their loneliness and thrown together amid the terror of war, Jake and Amy look to a future together.
But Jake’s future cannot let him go. And when his bosses finally find him in 1944, Jake faces a terrible choice: risk unraveling the modern world, or let Amy die.
Coming 12 February 2018 from Filles Vertes Publishing, LLC!
Keep reading for an excerpt:
“London?” Lew leaned forward.
“Yes. A history scholar like yourself, Agent Brockley, won’t need me to tell you how crucial a time this was in the war with Nazi Germany, with Britain fighting alone and in danger of invasion.”
“So what’re they trying to do?”
“They’ve already done it, of course,” Robinson said. “We’ve checked it out, and the system says it’s at least 90 percent likely they’re behind the assassination of a politician, a guy called Winston Churchill.”
“Should I know him?” Jake didn’t share Lew’s interest in obscure periods of the past, but the thoughtful expression on Brockley’s face said he’d heard of Churchill.
“He was prime minister for a year, as I’m sure Agent Brockley could’ve told you,” Robinson said. “I’ve had it checked out: if Churchill isn’t shot after a year in the job, he turns out to be an inspirational war leader.”
“How can anyone know that?”
“I can’t talk about that, Jake. But you can trust me on it. Churchill shouldn’t die, and your job is to save him.”
Lew frowned. “What’re these guys trying to achieve by killing Churchill?”
“I assume they want Britain to lose the war.”
“But the Allies won without Churchill,” Lew said.
“Maybe their computers aren’t as good as ours. We still need to undo the damage,” Robinson said. “Look, the details are on file but a couple of things I need to say now. First, it’s very important you follow the schedule in your orders. Precisely—time, place, everything. You need to be where the orders tell you when they tell you. At all times.”
Jake nodded. Lew remained still. Neither spoke, and Robinson peered once more at the cigar in his fingers before putting it away in a desk drawer.
“I’m sending four of you,” Robinson went on. “There’s you two, with Jake as mission leader. You’ll be joined by Hannah Benedict and Nancy Ahmed.”
“Hannah?” Jake asked. “Is that really necessary?”
“Nancy’s a good pick,” Lew said. Jake found that predictable; Lew had a reputation with the female OffTime agents, and he wasn’t the only one in the Office who thought Nancy was a striking recent recruit.
“But Hannah,” Jake said again. “She’s got the experience, but shouldn’t I get a say, as mission leader? And she’s my partner.”
“You are having a say,” Robinson said. “And I’ve listened. But it’s my call, and I’ve made it. We wouldn’t be much of an organization if the boys on a mission got to choose the girls, would we? Now,” he stood up to leave, “get yourselves briefed. I want you ready to go uptime by this time tomorrow.”
No comments:
Post a Comment