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Summary
The Time Anomaly
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For all intents and purposes, mild-mannered introvert and engineer Johnathan Davidson of Toledo, Ohio may be one the most influential persons who ever lived.
Mostly by accident, and without leaving a clear indication of how on earth he accomplished it, Johnathan invented the only time machine that, thus far in the history of humanity, has been proven to actually work. The trouble with his success is that when he made his fateful journey forward, he didn’t go alone. Johnathan’s machine somehow caused a snag, or ripple, in the fabric of time that dragged every person in an approximately 25-mile radius around him out of the present, each to reappear at a seemingly random point in time between his own exit and reentry exactly 100 years later. In short, Johnathan unintentionally vanished the population of an entire mid-sized American city and scattered its residents forward into a future without any of the connections that anchored them to their past or present lives.
The social, economic, scientific, and psychological impacts of Johnathan’s little experiment threw the entire country, in fact the world, into disarray for the next 100 years and beyond.
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THE STORY ABOUT My Story
This book was a long time coming. It began almost ten years ago from a random idea about time travel, and what would happen if everyone came back at different times instead of together. I promptly churned out 50 pages and wrote myself into a corner I couldn't get out of. I saved it on a flash drive and told myself I'd return to it later.
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Time passed, other miscellaneous life happened, and I told myself someday, someday. Fast forward to many years later as I was watching a favorite comedian talk about his mid-life career switch, and decided it was finally time to do something fun with my life. I tore my desk, then my office, then my house apart in the middle of the night. No flash drive to be found. Feeling crushed, I told myself I didn't want that first draft anyway and I should just start over.
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The result was an outpouring of 120,000 words between 10 PM and 2 AM in a nightly four-week span. I'm not sure anything survived from the first draft at all, other than the basic idea, but it sure came easier the second time around.
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So yes, this book took me ten years to write. Sort of. Thanks for joining me on my mid-life crisis, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
REVIEWS & COMMENTS
listen to my 07.24.24 interview with AUTHOR AND podcast host J.V. hilliard on "the realm"
Frequently asked
Q: Why did you choose the self-publishing route?
A: After researching the options, traditional routes are clogged with submissions, and take 1-2 years just to get an answer. Self-publishing has become a legit avenue over the years, and gives authors more control over their plans. Plus, I'm impatient!
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Q: Do you plan to write a sequel?
A: I do have a work in progress - stay tuned!
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Book club questions
I've had several book clubs reach out to me to let me know The Time Anomaly is on their schedule. Here are a few suggestions to get conversations started.
1. After seeing the impact on the characters of The Time Anomaly, in your opinion, what would be the best or worst time to re-emerge and why? Did those who emerged earlier have things easier or harder?
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2. Society's sympathies for the time travelers fluctuate over time; do you think that's realistic compared to real life tragedies like 9/11? Do you think people would be more or less empathetic to a time event than as portrayed in the book?
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3. How much do the first few weeks of Trevor's experience after he returns truly affect his life and the impact he left? Do you agree with the way he handled DJ's return, hiding his identity at first?
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4. Do you think that the positive advancements in science and technology were worth the costs of building Lake City? What good things stemmed from the impact of the time anomaly (if any)?
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5. What repercussions do you think there should be for Johnathan? Do his intentions matter in light of the results of his experiment?
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6. How different do you think Rachael's feelings and reactions to the time anomaly would be if she had known about Anna Marie before the event? What about Tom, if he had known?
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7. Name something you think the government or Sadler should have handled differently (regarding accessibility, transparency of information, organization of resources, etc.).
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8. Which family situations in the book did you find the most tragic, funny, or unusual? Were there others you thought of that resonated with you?
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9. Do you think the world as portrayed 100 years in the future was more or less different than you expected? Were you satisfied with the mix of science and character stories?
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10. How different do you think the aftermath of the time anomaly would have been if it had occurred in a different part of the country or the world? What if it had been in a more or less populated place?