“Most writers don’t make a living at writing.” I’ve heard that many times. It’s meant to be discouraging and, yes, it is. As a young writer, one sees the writers who are obviously making a living at it and it’s natural to think to oneself, “I want to do that.”

The reality is that the old cliche is true and most of us who aspire to be writers won’t be living in Breckenridge anytime soon. Colorado, anyway. I might could live in Breckenridge, TX … no, I’m not making enough money off writing to live there, either.

According to my calendar, this past Monday we celebrated “Presidents’ Day”. I’m pretty sure the calendar was right because I didn’t get any mail that day and the bank was closed. Still, “Presidents’” day?

As the author of several phenomenally unsuccessful novels which sell almost 20 copies a month on Amazon, I feel qualified to write on the following subject if for no other reason than that I have a computer with an operating keyboard (unless you count the F5 key, but what’s that for, anyway?):

I still don't know who's reading about Garison Fitch. I can check my account at Amazon and see that—this month—I have sold several copies of my books about Garison (and even a couple copies of the books about his grandson ["All the Time in Our World"]) but other than the one friend on Facebook who told me she bought a copy, I have no idea who these people are.

Yes, I realize that's SOP for most authors. John Grisham probably gets a lot of fan mail, but I doubt that he gets a letter from every one of the millions of readers each of his books have.

Most modern time travel fiction that I've read or seen is based on the idea of multiple realities. From a fictional standpoint, this resolves the old time travel connundrum of "Could I go back in time and kill my grandfather because wouldn't that cause me to cease to exist?" If we say there are multiple realities, then the person who travels has not so much traveled in time as to another reality, one in which they are free to kill their grandfather, shoot their dog or whatever, but the outcome in that reality won't in any way effect the outcome in their "starting" reality.

The second installment (of four) of "All the Time in Our World" is now available on Amazon's Kindle platform. It picks up exactly where Part 1 left off (no re-cap), so go get part one, if you haven't already!

I wonder if any publisher would touch "The Lord of the Rings" today? Those of us who are die-hard fans of the original books (I've read them through 6-8 times now and have friends who have read them once a year for three-plus decades) have probably all tried to talk a friend--even a "reading" friend--into reading them and been rebuffed. The usual reason I get is, "They're so slow!"

"The Hobbit" starts with a knock on the door. Then a whole lot more knocks on the door. Then some dwarves. This is going to be GOOD! But then, they spend several pages eating.

inFrequently Asked Questions

Who is Garison Fitch?

Garison Fitch is a scientist who lives in the Soviet Americas. His attempts at interdimentional travel have previously been successful, but short. An attempt at a longer trip takes him through time. When he returns to the present, he finds the world changed (to the world we know) and must decide whether to return to the past and try to return the world to normal or live in this strange world he has created.

Why does “Lost Time” spend so much time away from the story of Garison Fitch?

My novel ("All the Time in Our World”) is now available (and selling) on Kindle! OK, as of this writing I have sold a grand total of 4 copies. That may not sound like much—especially in a world where politicians and athletes sell a billion copies of their ghost-written autobiographies—but considering I don’t know anyone who has a Kindle and I have no skills at marketing, 4 books impresses me.

If you have a Kindle, you can read the first quarter of my latest novel, “All the Time in Our World”.

This is the story of Edward Garrett (Garison Fitch’s grandson), who travels through time to the end of the world with Marianne Overstreet to fight the battle that will be the beginning of the end of time itself.

If you don’t have a Kindle … you can still read the Garison Fitch novels in paperback editions available from Amazon.