About
MARS BAR
MARS BAR
Dr. Graham James is ready to begin testing his revolutionary Alzheimer’s drug. He partners with an organization offering a free test program, but the arrangement quickly turns sour. A hit placed on him results in his brutal execution and leaves his only son brain damaged and comatose.
Upon awakening, the son discovers he has acquired the ability to project his consciousness into the past. But in using this ability to find and bring to justice his father’s killers, he soon realizes his past is not quite as he remembered. There’s another apparition there as well, an unknown woman seeking salvation and her own justice in the ethereal world between life and death.
But neither salvation nor justice is guaranteed. Can the two find either when dealing with a corrupt organization willing to do whatever necessary to stop them? Perhaps more important, are they destined to be together?
The answers can be found in the pages of this, the author’s fifth book, Mars Bar.
Upon awakening, the son discovers he has acquired the ability to project his consciousness into the past. But in using this ability to find and bring to justice his father’s killers, he soon realizes his past is not quite as he remembered. There’s another apparition there as well, an unknown woman seeking salvation and her own justice in the ethereal world between life and death.
But neither salvation nor justice is guaranteed. Can the two find either when dealing with a corrupt organization willing to do whatever necessary to stop them? Perhaps more important, are they destined to be together?
The answers can be found in the pages of this, the author’s fifth book, Mars Bar.
About the Writing of MARS BAR
Both the notion of time travel and the mystery of paranormal activity ignited my imagination at an early age and, in fact, still fascinate me. I have also long been interested in human psychology and, in particular, curious about the limits of human intelligence.
Considering the number of science fiction stories that have been written around each of those topics, it occurred to me at one point that – as far as I knew – no author had written a story linking the three. More specifically, I knew of no science fiction author who had written a story from the standpoint of time travel being a strictly cerebral endeavor and, by extension, what the consequences of such an experience might be.
Writing a book requires a tremendous investment in time, talent and resources. I decided early on that, if I were to proceed, I would need to first decide on the structure of the story. That the human brain might be capable of providing the vehicle for a time travel experience seemed plausible, particularly considering that we humans recall and often dream of past events. As far as paranormal activities are concerned, there is still much mystery surrounding hauntings, synchronicity and other such phenomena. Enough, I reasoned, to at least merit a fanciful story about paranormal activity as a side-effect of “mental” time travel.
I typically start composing on the germ of an idea, a thought that sets in motion the machinations of the imagination. After deciding I had that, I began writing the opening chapters of the book, which initially had the working title, The Ghosts Among Us. In the early draft, the protagonist was a U.S. Marine incurring brain damage due to a roadside bomb detonating under his armored vehicle in Iraq. I was several chapters into the story before I decided I needed to change that, and did so twice again before settling on the version in the book.
As I continued down the writing path, dozens of “story enhancement” ideas and plot possibilities occurred to me, all of which I wrote down and regularly reviewed lest they be forgotten. My intention was to include them wherever possible, but only if doing so added to the story. Some made it into the book, many didn’t.
Several ideas about how the story should end also occurred to me, but all were unsatisfactory or, more accurately, “less than ideal.” Those I also documented, set aside and regularly reviewed, but not without the grim realization that the book should not – and would not – be published unless the ending was satisfactory.
But as is often the case in this craft of writing, stories – and the characters therein – take on a life of their own. And so it was in this case. As I transitioned into the final chapters of the tale, the characters did what I had hoped and trusted they would do – told me how the story of Mars Bar had to end.
It will be your judgement as to whether the characters were right.
Considering the number of science fiction stories that have been written around each of those topics, it occurred to me at one point that – as far as I knew – no author had written a story linking the three. More specifically, I knew of no science fiction author who had written a story from the standpoint of time travel being a strictly cerebral endeavor and, by extension, what the consequences of such an experience might be.
Writing a book requires a tremendous investment in time, talent and resources. I decided early on that, if I were to proceed, I would need to first decide on the structure of the story. That the human brain might be capable of providing the vehicle for a time travel experience seemed plausible, particularly considering that we humans recall and often dream of past events. As far as paranormal activities are concerned, there is still much mystery surrounding hauntings, synchronicity and other such phenomena. Enough, I reasoned, to at least merit a fanciful story about paranormal activity as a side-effect of “mental” time travel.
I typically start composing on the germ of an idea, a thought that sets in motion the machinations of the imagination. After deciding I had that, I began writing the opening chapters of the book, which initially had the working title, The Ghosts Among Us. In the early draft, the protagonist was a U.S. Marine incurring brain damage due to a roadside bomb detonating under his armored vehicle in Iraq. I was several chapters into the story before I decided I needed to change that, and did so twice again before settling on the version in the book.
As I continued down the writing path, dozens of “story enhancement” ideas and plot possibilities occurred to me, all of which I wrote down and regularly reviewed lest they be forgotten. My intention was to include them wherever possible, but only if doing so added to the story. Some made it into the book, many didn’t.
Several ideas about how the story should end also occurred to me, but all were unsatisfactory or, more accurately, “less than ideal.” Those I also documented, set aside and regularly reviewed, but not without the grim realization that the book should not – and would not – be published unless the ending was satisfactory.
But as is often the case in this craft of writing, stories – and the characters therein – take on a life of their own. And so it was in this case. As I transitioned into the final chapters of the tale, the characters did what I had hoped and trusted they would do – told me how the story of Mars Bar had to end.
It will be your judgement as to whether the characters were right.