Have you ever fantasized about going back in time? I do, like, maybe, too often. There are several reasons I do this. One is pure curiosity, for example; What would it be like to live in ancient Rome? What would it be like to be a pilot during World War One? The other reasons are…well, more selfish, and most likely come from regret, such as; Wouldn’t it be great if I could go back in time and invest a bunch of money in Apple when it first started? I’d be a gazillionaire! Dang it! Then there is the ‘life reboot’ category when I wish I could go back and make better decisions, or go back and prevent something awful from happening.
Reading is probably as close as we can get to ‘curiosity’ time travel. A good story, fiction, or nonfiction, can catapult our minds into a different reality. Writing can serve the same purpose. It allows me to go wherever I want, whenever I want, and be whoever I want to be. The downside is the occasional painful introspection that occurs when too much of ‘me’ leaks into the story. On the other hand, pain can lead to some good writing.
So, what does time travel have to do with my medical thriller, Broken Cure? Well…nothing, nothing and everything. The main characters are painfully aware of how their choices have changed their lives irrevocably. If only they could have gone back and changed one little thing, their journeys would have taken a different course. In many cases, just one seemingly harmless decision leads to a cascade of events they never could have envisioned. For better, or for worse, isn’t it like that for all of us?
In the sequel, God Dust, Alex and Olivia are researchers in the throes of a horrendous pandemic. A time when saving mankind by any means available would be acceptable, right? We know that changing the past affects the present just like changing the present affects the future. The problem is that we never know the outcome---until we live it. This is their delemma. Will the future for mankind be worse than the pandemic if they pursue the only known option to stop it?
